SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks have made progress within the 2024 calendar yr. They have been more competitive this season, have continued to expand their prospect pool and now have what appears to be a future franchise centerman in Macklin Celebrini.
But that doesn't change the undeniable fact that the Sharks will enter 2025 on an eight-game losing streak that threatens to get even longer considering who they play next week.
On Tuesday, the Sharks took a step back.
They looked flat, were unable to reap the benefits of a handful of scoring opportunities and allowed two power play goals in a 4-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in front of an announced New Year's Eve crowd of 14,816 spectators on the SAP Center.
“Not our best performance,” Sharks center Mikael Granlund said. “We really couldn’t get anything going. We have to do better.”
Sharks goaltender Alexandar Georgiev stopped 17 of the primary 20 shots he faced, but allowed a tied goal by Nick Seeler in the primary period and game-winning power play goals by Ryan Poehling and Travis Konecny within the second period.
Egor Zamula then ended any hopes of a Sharks rally on the 2:30 mark of the third period when his shot from behind the online ricocheted off defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin and past Georgiev, scoring his third goal of the season and giving the Flyers a 4th lead :0 took the lead.
The Sharks (11-23-6) have lost 11 of their last 12 games and are 0-7-1 since a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 12.
“We need a lot more from everyone,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “All.”
The problem for San Jose is that Tuesday's game against the Flyers (16-17-4) may need been the best winning game for the remainder of the house team.
The Sharks face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and the Vegas Golden Knights next Tuesday. All three teams are within the playoffs and the Sharks have already been beaten by Tampa Bay and Vegas this season.
“Very disappointing. No despair, and now you see teams finding their identity in the league,” Warsofsky said. “I think we've probably caught surprising teams in the past. Now the time has come. It's almost January now.
“There will be a dogfight every evening. Every night we're going to bring out the best teams because they're fighting for the playoff spots. They are fighting for places in their divisions, tables, wherever, and we have to recognize that.”
Three takeaways from Tuesday:
LETHARGIC GAME: You'd think the Sharks would come out of Tuesday with all kinds of energy considering their recent losing streak, including a 6-3 loss to the Golden Knights on Friday and a 3-1 loss to the Flames on Saturday.
An “enough is enough” approach was needed against the mediocre Flyers.
That didn't quite occur. While Tyler Toffoli and Luke Kunin had breakaway probabilities and each Toffoli and Macklin Celebrini had shots that hit the post. Too often the Sharks found themselves at the tip of their game within the offensive zone as they struggled to determine forecontrol or maintain pressure within the offensive zone early on.
As a result, they only managed seven goals in the primary period and eight more within the second period.
“You have to keep working to find different solutions and answers,” Warsofsky said. “We've obviously tried a number of things over the course of the season to take care of that desperation and understand the competitiveness you may have to play with.
“We've managed it sometimes, but right now we're in a bit of a lull for some reason and I need to figure it out.”
OFFENSIVE BATTLES: The Sharks' longest losing streak this season is nine games. That record is in serious jeopardy considering how lackluster the offense looks.
The Sharks have scored only one goal within the last seven periods. That was an influence play marker from Celebrini within the second period of Saturday's loss to the Flames.
Celebrini and Will Smith had two of the Sharks' higher scoring probabilities within the early stages.
First, Celebrini and Smith engaged in a 2-on-1 duel, and after a back-and-forth affair, Celebrini fired a shot that bounced off Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson and hit the post at 17:34. Later, Smith carried the puck into the neutral zone and fired an 80-foot diagonal tape-to-tape pass to Celebrini, whose shot went past Ersson but didn’t have enough power to cross the goal line.
Entering Thursday, top scorer Granlund and center-six Alexander Wennberg each had just two assists in his last seven games, and Nikolai Kovalenko had no points in five games. To his credit, Granlund was simpler on Tuesday than he has been in recent games.
On offense, it is straightforward to see that the Sharks are missing their most dangerous winger in William Eklund and their most dangerous defender in Jake Walman. These two, each injured, have combined for 52 points in 67 games this season. The Sharks' power play is now 2 for 13 of their last six games.
GOALKEEPER QUESTION: Goalie Yaroslav Askarov has played well in three starts since his last retirement from the Barracuda on Dec. 18; He is 0-2-1 and has stopped 89 of 98 shots, for a solid save percentage of .908.
With the Sharks set to play a consistent variety of games next month, Warsofsky said he wanted to offer Georgiev a likelihood to play on Tuesday to maintain him and Askarov fresh. Still, one wonders if Warsofsky could give Askarov a number of starts in a row just to offer his team one of the best possible likelihood to win.
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