Maybe next time, guys. The San Jose Sharks are now in danger of spending the entirety of October without a win. The Sharks lost 7-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights last night, and it wasn’t even close.
Vegas jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period, offering some shades of the showdown with the Los Angeles Kings a few nights prior. But, unlike the Kings, the Golden Knights have a lot more skill. Vegas was consistent throughout the game, scoring two more goals in the second and two more in the third.
Perhaps a testament to just how poorly the Sharks played was that goaltender Vitek Vanecek held the net for the entirety of the game, and the numbers didn’t decimate his stats. Despite letting in seven goals, Vanecek still finished with a .833 save percentage. The first period was especially tough for the netminder. The Golden Knights outshot the Sharks 22-4 in the first period, and all of those shots came at even strength.
As has been the case with previous games, the Sharks managed to swing the momentum closer to the team’s favor as the game wore on. You can see that Natural Stat Trick’s Corsi differential at even strength shows the Sharks gaining a bit of the possession back in the latter portion of the game.
This, of course, is an empty victory in that a few factors could come into play. For one thing, it’s natural for a team to let its foot off the gas when it’s up 3-0 after the first period. When scoring is easy, you tend to think you can turn it on and off at will.
What’s more, the Sharks were not facing the toughest competition for the entirety of the night. Looking at the line distribution, the top lines — the Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl lines — were on the ice for 10:55 and 10:52, respectively, of 5-on-5 time. The bottom two lines — the Nicholas Roy and William Karlsson lines — had 9:33 and 8:46, respectively, of 5-on-5 time. Vegas wasn’t rolling the big guns all night to run up the score.
“Truly embarrassing.”
Sharks fans knew this season was going to be tough. They knew we weren’t win a lot of games. But did they know that it would be another set a record in NHL history kind of season? Probably not.
With this loss, the Sharks have now started two seasons in a row with back-to-back nine straight losses. It’s something that’s never been done before in the history of the league. We’re talking more than a century. Honestly, this wasn’t a game that we would have circled on the calendar as one the Sharks could win, with or without Macklin Celebrini, so I’m not sure it’s surprising that the team lost.
Still, Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky called the loss, “Embarrassing. Truly embarrassing,” after the game. Back-to-back seasons with nine losses in a row pretty much justifies your team being the joke of the league.
That said, the Sharks have the opportunity to stem the bleeding. Game ten feels like one of those games in which you can will your team to win. If the Sharks come out swinging, the team can beat the Utah Hockey Club. Utah is a borderline playoff team at best. It’s also missing some top players due to injury. It is a winnable game and the first step to turning this into a semi-respectable season.
Highlights
Since lamenting the crappy play and poor record just makes us sad, let’s leave things off with a couple of the goals. Something to get excited about if you boil the game down to about 30 seconds.
Who else but Mikael Granlund kicked off the scoring?
Mikael Granlund's strong road trip continues with another goal 💪 pic.twitter.com/frRnOKomQt
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 27, 2024
If someone is going to will the Sharks to a win tomorrow, it will be Granlund.
And, thanks to Nico Sturm for making at least some of the Vegas players feel bad about their game.
Nico Sturm gets one back 🙌 pic.twitter.com/PgqIT4nEvX
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 27, 2024
Scoring summary Sharks at Golden Knights Oct. 26, 2024
First Period
1:57 VGK Tanner Pearson from William Karlsson and Alexander Holtz
3:47 VGK Jack Eichel from Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo
16:46 VGK Brett Howden from Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev
Second Period
10:13 SJS Mikael Granlund from William Eklund and Mario Ferraro
11:10 VGK William Karlsson from Alex Pietrangelo shorthanded
19:26 VGK Pavel Dorofeyev from Shea Theodore and Mark Stone on the power play
19:41 SJS Nico Sturm unassisted
Third Period
11:10 VGK Mark Stone from Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev
13:29 SJS Luke Kunin from Fabian Zetterlund
17:07 VGK Brett Howden from Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomas Hertl
