The San Jose Sharks learned what it takes to be a top team in the NHL by one of the top teams in the NHL. The Tampa Bay Lightning made short work of the Sharks, jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game and then coasting to an easy 7-3 win over the Sharks.
“Sluggish start against a little bit of, obviously, a pretty good team. You’re down early and you’re kind of chasing the game,” said Ryan Reaves after the game. “Yeah, it’s tough to battle back against teams like that. Gotta fix our start for sure.”
“Starts are important. You don’t want to be chasing the game for essentially 55 minutes. It’s not winning hockey,” Reaves continued. “We’ve been doing a good job of that as of late. This one got away from us. But I think the important thing is going to be their response in a couple days.”
Here’s a look at HockeyStatCards GameScore ImpactCard if only so you can see which Sharks’ players to be most frustrated with.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2026-01-03: pic.twitter.com/oNEHW89Bw1
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 3, 2026
It would be an understatement to say that the line defensive pairing of Mario Ferraro and Shakir Mukhamadullin did not go well. Both players were a minus-3 today and considering that the Lightning scored three of the team’s seven goals on the power play, that’s not great.
Let’s also pause for a moment to talk about the little-known Shark killer Darren Raddysh, who scored his very first NHL hat trick in this game. (Pavol Regenda scored his first NHL hat trick as well, we’ll explore that in a moment.)
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-01-03 pic.twitter.com/JWi2PCsPvq
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 4, 2026
The Raddysh brothers seem to have the Sharks’ number this season. Darren Raddysh’s brother, Taylor, also scored a hat trick against the Sharks this season. It happened on Oct. 23, 2025.
Props to Pavol Regenda
It’s hard to say that Pavol Regenda has found a place on this team, but the forward is certainly making a case that he belongs in the NHL. The 26-year-old scored his first career NHL hat trick today, scoring the Sharks’ only three goals of the game. All of Regenda’s goals weren’t the prettiest of the game, but the third one, especially, was the kind that a team needs in the postseason.
Pavol Regenda gets the hat trick! #TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/BB1o1IdPxD
— JD Young (@MyFryHole) January 3, 2026
It’s those goals in front of the net that help teams in the postseason.
Regenda has been a force in every single game he’s played in this season for the Sharks. He has five goals in four games for San Jose. For now, he’s doing what he can to make sure he gets to stay up with the Sharks for as long as possible.
“I gotta be really much better in the D zone,” said Regenda after the game. “I want to play up and down both sides of the ice. I’m confident with the goals. But, unfortunately, we lost the game. [I’m] just trying to enjoy every day I’m here and work around the net and do what I can.”
Highlight – Sticking up for Celebrini
Finally, let’s talk about what the Sharks gained from this game: a sense of cohesion and a message to the rest of the league. In the second period, J.J. Moser hit Macklin Celebrini with a clean hit, but it was the second time in the game Moser had popped Celebrini and William Eklund had had enough.
Eklund defends Celebrini and gets penalized for it 🤨 pic.twitter.com/zmENZUtRqh
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) January 3, 2026
Eklund went straight for Moser and got an extra two for his troubles. Honestly, the penalty kill was trash this game and it really should have bailed Eklund out of the mess. That’s what the team should have done to show its support for the forward after he stuck up for Celebrini. Since it was not able to, the fourth-liners did the next best thing and the moment Moser was out of the box, they initiated a line scuffle.
Mess with one of us, mess with ALL of us 👊 pic.twitter.com/DUoUOUNa1G
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) January 3, 2026
It wasn’t useful for anything other than sending a message, but truthfully, this game was out of hand by this point in time, so sending a message was likely the only thing the Sharks could do with this game.
Scoring summary Tampa Bay Lightning at San Jose Sharks Jan. 3, 2026
First period
2:37 TBL Brayden Point from Maxwel Crozier and Nikita Kucherov
4:08 TBL Darren Raddysh from Nikita Kucherov and Gage Goncalves
6:46 TBL Brandon Hagel from Jake Guentzel and Charle-Edouard D’Astous
10:50 SJS Pavol Regenda from Timothy Liljegren and Macklin Celebrini on the power play
Second period
2:49 TBL Darren Raddysh from Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel on the power play
3:55 TBL Dominic James from Oliver Bjorkstrand
9:50 SJS Pavol Regenda from Timothy Liljegren and Jeff Skinner
14:08 TBL Nikita Kucherov from Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brayden Point on the power play
16:53 TBL Darren Raddysh from Nikita Kucherov and Nick Paul on the power play
Third period
16:11 SJS Pavol Regenda from Jeff Skinner
