A showdown between the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators on Saturday night showed the Sharks just how far the team will have to go to make it back to the playoffs. Nashville is by no means an elite NHL team; it’s middle of the pack and a borderline playoff team. Yet still, the Sharks could not match the play of Nashville through a full 60 minutes.
Looking at the game flow chart from Natural Stat Trick and you can see that the Sharks hung with the Predators in the first period. Both teams had eight shots on goal. However, a poor choice defensively by Calen Addison led to the Predators’ first goal of the game.
As the game wore on, San Jose could not keep up with the increased pace of the play. Nashville ran away with things in the second period, preventing the Sharks from even a shot on goal for nearly half of the period. Even though San Jose recovered somewhat in the second, it was like digging out of a hole; you start from so far down that all the digging in the world just gets you back to ground level. The mistakes hurt the team again when San Jose handed the Predators a late power play in the second period. Nashville capitalized to make it 2-0.
Credit to the Sharks who kept coming at the Predators, but it was a bit of too little, too late. While San Jose was better in the second period, it did not dominate the period and ended up losing by a final score of 4-2.
San Jose’s well-earned goals
The two players who scored goals for the Sharks earned those goals. Mikael Granlund and Filip Zadina were all over the ice last night and were the team’s top players in the game.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2024-02-24:#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/8Y0dkENZca
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) February 25, 2024
Granlund and Zadina both looked like guys who were trying to pick up the team and carry it themselves. The best part was that they were on different lines, which means that Head Coach David Quinn had two lines he could put on the ice and know that he could at least potentially generate a scoring chance.
Granlund lined up with Fabian Zetterlund and Anthony Duclair for most of the night, while Zadina lined up with Nico Sturm and Alexander Barabanov. Their play, along with the goaltending by Kaapo Kahkonen, was the only reason the Sharks were in this game.
What about William Eklund?
Watching these two lines succeed as the others faltered miserably gives me a little concern about William Eklund’s development. With Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl out with injuries, Eklund has been asked to move into the role of center. But the Sharks have no depth and the depth that the team does have isn’t of the highest skill.
Eklund was paired with Luke Kunin and Mike Hoffman for most of the night. Hoffman might be the nicest guy in the world off the ice, but it’s clear that he is not consistent enough on defense, cheats to make plays in the offensive zone and isn’t always willing to make the hard play to help his team. In short, on a bad team Hoffman is checked out. There’s a reason why the former 30 goal scorer is garnering little to no interest on the trade market.
Conversely, while Kunin is a good role model, he doesn’t have nearly the skill that Hoffman has.
Head Coach David Quinn’s options are limited, but it’s time to stop trying to win games and start trying to develop players. The Sharks are not making the playoffs. The Sharks are not looking to salvage a season anymore. By giving Granlund the team’s remaining top players in Zetterlund and Duclair and then handing Sturm players that have the best skill, though not the best season, in Zadina and Barabanov, Quinn has handcuffed Eklund.
His remaining options are Kunin, Hoffman, Givani Smith and Justin Bailey. Remember that Kevin Labanc didn’t play either, so he’s another option. Those aren’t great choices for a young player trying to develop at center.
Eklund needs to be protected and nurtured and this current system is not doing that for him.
Sherwood likes scoring against the Sharks
In recent years, San Jose has typically allowed opposing players who don’t light the lamp often to thrive. That’s the case of Kiefer Sherwood, who had 11:15 of ice time last night and scored two goals. The last time he played the Sharks, he had a Gordie Howe hat trick. He has just seven goals this season and three of them are against the Sharks.
Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. Congrats Sherwood.
Highlight of the night Predators vs. Sharks Feb. 24, 2024
Our highlight of the night has to be Granlund’s goal. Granlund, who did it all himself and picked a great spot to beat Juuse Saros, who was excellent last night.
đ¨ GRANLUND GETS THE SHARKS ON THE BOARD pic.twitter.com/TOStSkDOdw
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) February 25, 2024
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