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Quick bites: Sharks can’t get out of own way to secure a win

And then there was one. On Frozen Frenzy night, the San Jose Sharks obtained the inauspicious title of being the lone team remaining in the entire league without a notch in the win column. Despite plenty of opportunities, the Sharks failed to score more than a single goal, losing to the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 last night.

Make no mistake, this was a game that the Sharks should have and could have won. When you look at the even-strength Corsi differential courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, you can see that the Sharks had control of the puck more often than not through the first half of the game. Yet, the team failed to score.


Some of that had to do with the exceptional play of Ducks’ goaltender Lukas Dostal, which we’ll talk about in a minute. However, a lot more of that boils down to the fact that the problems for the Sharks are very much self-inflicted.

Penalty problems continue

The Sharks took seven penalties last night. While the penalty kill initially gave the team momentum, allowing it to build on a strong shutdown effort, as expected, it eventually bit the Sharks in the butt.

Until last night’s game, the Ducks had yet to score a power play goal for the season. Now, the team has scored two. Two of the three goals the Ducks scored last night came on the power play, with the third goal an empty netter.

The most jarring of the goals was arguably the second one by the Ducks, which came less than a minute after the Sharks finally managed to score the game-tying goal in the third period.

The success on the power play gave the Ducks confidence and allowed the team to close out the game against San Jose fairly easily. That final goal, the 175-footer into the empty net from Alex Killorn, really summed up how at ease Anaheim was at the end of the game.

In a bigger picture look, there’s been a disturbing trend in the Sharks’ play of late. The seven penalties against the Ducks were just the latest data point. The Sharks took six penalties against the Avalanche, seven against the Jets and seven against the Blackhawks. That’s 27 penalties in the past four games. No wonder the team is having trouble winning.

Lukas Dostal loves playing the Sharks

If I’m Head Coach Greg Cronin, I’m setting up the schedule so that Dostal gets the start in net when the two teams meet for the final time on April 1. I don’t care if John Gibson is on a tear; Dostal has the Sharks’ number, and he has luck on his side.

Dostal stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced last night, including all of the high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. In 120 minutes of play against the Sharks this season, Dostal has allowed just one goal, stopping 57 of 58 shots.

Not all of the saves were easy either, like this one on Will Smith’s bid for his first NHL goal.

Dostal also had a little luck on his side. The Sharks hit several posts in the game, none more painful to watch than this one by Danil Gushchin.

Dostal was on his game, as he has been against the Sharks all season.

It wasn’t Blackwood’s fault

I guess we’re back to the common refrain of it wasn’t Mackenzie Blackwood’s fault. The goaltender stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced and kept the game close.

This stop in the second period gave San Jose more of an opportunity to tie the game.

Blackwood also helped the team kill three penalties before allowing that first goal of the game.

Other Sharks players of note

Let’s start out with the elephant in the room, the play of Will Smith. It feels as though the young forward is going through a lot of growing pains as he integrates himself into the NHL. Smith took two penalties last night, both of them tripping calls. The second penalty was the one that sapped the Sharks’ momentum just moments after Mikael Granlund scored the game-tying goal.

The play was especially disheartening as the forward is still looking for his first career NHL goal. While I’m still confident he’s going to be a very good NHL player, it’s clear that it’s going to take longer for his game to develop than some might like.

The positive of his game last night was that the team is still getting scoring opportunities when he’s on the ice. His line with Barclay Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea had the highest Corsi for % at 5-on-5 play last night, better than the more dynamic line of Granlund, William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli.

Will Smith played 12:55 minutes last night with 51 seconds on the power play.

Jack Thompson is making a good case for staying in the lineup. The defenseman logged 17:16 of ice time last night and played the point on the first power play unit. Thompson earned his first NHL point, assisting on Granlund’s power play goal in the third period. He also led the team in Corsi for % with 76.09%. The Sharks took 13 shots when Thompson was on the ice and only allowed 4.

Scoring summary Sharks at Ducks Oct. 22, 2024

First Period
None

Second Period
6:56 ANA Troy Terry from Jackson LaCombe and Cutter Gauthier on the power play

Third Period
4:55 SJS Mikael Granlund from William Eklund and Jack Thompson on the power play
5:36 ANA Leo Carlsson from Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish on the power play
18:09 ANA Alex Killorn from Isac Lundestrom into the empty net

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