A quick Quick Bites because it’s a quick turnaround. The San Jose Sharks continue to go winless on the team’s latest road trip. The Sharks followed up Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday. Fabian Zetterlund and Henry Thrun scored for the Sharks. Magnus Chrona wasn’t as busy as he was in Pittsburgh. He stopped 16 of the 19 shots he faced.
Sloppy play continues
Perhaps the most worrisome thing about this loss is that the Sharks did it to themselves. Facing an adversary that is almost as bad as the Sharks are, the players had every opportunity to win the game. In fact, when you look at Natural Stat Trick’s game flow chart in all situations, you can see that the Sharks were very much in this game.
That said, stupid mistakes, hapless giveaways and poor positioning doomed the Sharks to another loss. The goal at the beginning of the second period that made the game 2-0 in favor of Columbus was because of a lousy turnover followed by a bad change. While you wish that Chrona would make the save on the ensuing 2-on-1, the young netminder is still learning and so he’s allowed a little more slack. The players in front of him need to be more responsible with the puck and when they do give it away, they need to hustle back to rectify the mistake.
Outskilled does not equal outplayed
Which leads to the second point. While, as Sharks fans, it’s easy to look at the roster and say that we don’t stack up against most teams in the league, some recent losses show that it’s much more than a lack of skill. The giveaways, the poor choices in key situations and the lack of effort show that this team may have a larger overreaching issue than the simple issue of a lack of talent.
Throughout Sharks history, we have seen players play above their skill level because of their “hockey smarts” or “positioning.” At this point, we’re seeing them also fail because they lack those things.
This is not a lost season from a development standpoint. The Sharks cannot squander this opportunity for players to learn the game the “right way” in low pressure situations where the points don’t matter.
Younger players took strides
Finally, let’s not end on doom and gloom but on a positive note. There were some significant strides in yesterday’s game taken by key future Sharks.
Take Zetterlund, for example, who had one of his worst periods in a long time to start the game. At two instances in the audio broadcast, Bret Hedican called out the Zetterlund, Mikael Granlund and Alexander Barabanov line for its poor performance. There were at least two shifts in the first 20 minutes where Hedican did not like the decision-making. One of those poor decisions helped lead to the first goal of the game by Boone Jenner.
After such a poor performance, Head Coach David Quinn decided not to drop Zetterlund down in the lineup. Instead, he chose to allow the young forward to work through the problems himself.
It worked. Zetterlund went on to score the Sharks’ first goal of the game.
Thomas Bordeleau and Thrun should also be singled out as young players performing well in the game. Looking at Hockey Stat Cards GameScore Impact Card you can see that Thrun was an asset in both the offensive and defensive end of the ice and the Sharks’ player with the biggest positive impact.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2024-03-16:#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/qDDqgWkxeA
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 17, 2024
Bordeleau was also an impact player. He was consistently creating plays, driving the net and causing offensive chaos.
Highlight of the game Shatks at Blue Jackets March 16, 2024
Our highlight of the game goes to Thrun, who scored his second NHL goal after a bit of a drought.
HENRY THRUN WITHIN ONE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YITuGWOrGo
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) March 17, 2024
