The San Jose Sharks losing streak has run up to seven games, the team’s second seven game losing streak this season. On Saturday night, the Sharks lost to the Calgary Flames 3-1, in an effort that clearly showed the Sharks were not up to the task on the second night of back-to-back games.
Unlike the showdown with Vegas on Friday night, the Sharks were unable to swing the momentum back in the team’s favor for sustained periods of time. Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s Corsi Differential at 5v5 play, you can see that the Flames maintained a majority of the possession for a majority of the game.
In fact, after a first period that saw the Flames put up 17 shots to the Sharks’s 7, San Jose was lucky to go into the lockerroom down by just one goal.
The only reason the Sharks were in the game was because of rookie goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who was tested more than the rookie on the other side of the ice, Dustin Wolf.
Askarov stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced for a .938 save percentage. While Wolf stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced for a .955 save percentage. Both goaltenders were much better than expected, according to Natural Stat Trick. While Askarov allowed two goals (the Flames’ third was into an empty net), his expected goals against was 4.11. Meantime, Wolf allowed one goal, while his expected goals against was 2.03.
As you can see from Natural Stat Trick’s heat map, Askarov faced several high-danger chances, ten in total. The Flames managed to protect Wolf a bit better. The Gilroy native only faced five high-danger shots last night.
Macklin Celebrini leads NHL rookie scoring
While the Sharks lost 3-1 last night, Macklin Celebrini jumped to the top of the rookie scoring list. Celebrini scored the Sharks’ lone goal of the night and is now tied with the Philadelphia Flyers’ Matvei Michkov with 27 points.
MACKLIN CELEBRINI š¤©
— NHL (@NHL) December 29, 2024
He now leads all rookies in goals!
šŗ: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ā”ļø https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/Y3MbVw5gHh
While the two players are even in points, Celebrini leads in many other categories. He’s one goal ahead of Michkov. Celebrini has 12 and Michkov has 11. What’s more, Celebrini’s point per game average of 1.00 is much better than Michkov’s 0.79 points per game.
Celebrini has 19 even strength points to Michkov’s 17, and 8 even strength goals to Michkov’s 6.
Klim Kostin looking for a fight
Forward Klim Kostin didn’t like players taking advantage of his teammates and he tried to send that message on Saturday night. Kostin didn’t like a hit by Calgary’s Martin Pospisil late in the game. Sharks fans will say that Pospisil hit Mikael Granlund from behind, the refs and Flames fans think it was a clean hit.
After the hit, Kostin tried to have a conversation with Pospisil about the incident. Pospisil wasn’t interested in talking.
Kostin says Pospisil wouldn't fight, after the Flame hit Granlund in the numbers late in the game:
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 29, 2024
"I just asked him, how are you?
"When you hit our best player, you got to be ready to answer the bell.
"Like Tom Wilson saidā¦that's really rare right now in the league.ā¦
The Flames forward has a history of hits that walk the line. His play against the Chicago Blackhawks a little over a week ago led to former Sharks forward Ryan Donato jumping him and feeding him rights in frustration.
The Blackhawks had enough of Pospisil pic.twitter.com/k4mpDPuzBx
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) December 21, 2024
This was the first of four meetings between the two teams, so it will be interesting to see how the Sharks handle Pospisil in the upcoming three games, especially since game conditions may be different.
Scoring summary for Calgary Flames at San Jose Sharks Dec. 28, 2024
First Period
4:40 CAL Jonathan Huberdeau from MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri
Second Period
3:04 SJS Macklin Celebrini from Alex Weennberg and Tyler Toffoli on the power play
6:50 CAL Mikael Backlund from Nazem Kadri and Rasmus Andersson on the power play
Third Period
19:59 CAL Jonathan Huberdeau from Nazem Kadri and Dustin Wolf into the empty net
