A part of goalie Mackenzie Blackwood’s transient legacy with the San Jose Sharks was his capacity to present his group an opportunity in many of the video games he performed.
On Tuesday, Vitek Vanecek did the identical for the Sharks towards the Carolina Hurricanes.
However the Sharks, below siege for many of the third interval, gave up two targets within the last 15:49 of regulation time in a 3-2 loss to Hurricanes on the Lenovo Heart in Raleigh, N.C.
With the sport tied and the Hurricanes urgent, Macklin Celebrini, stationed subsequent to the Sharks web, tried to backhand the puck out of the zone. However Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield stopped it and fired a shot from contained in the blue line that beat a screened Vanecek with 2:39 left within the third interval.
Vanecek completed with 25 saves, and Luke Kunin scored twice, however the Sharks misplaced their third straight recreation and fell to 2-3-0 on this six-game highway journey that ends Thursday in St. Louis.
The Sharks (10-16-5) nonetheless haven’t crushed the Hurricanes on the highway since Feb. 4, 2018. Since then, they’re 0-3-3 in Raleigh.
“We don’t manage puck there in the third period,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned. “We give the momentum, obviously the tying goal and then the game-winning goal.”
The Sharks on Monday traded Blackwood, their No. 1 netminder, ahead Givani Smith, and their very own 2027 fifth-round decide to the Avalanche for goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, ahead Nikolai Kovalenko, Colorado’s 2026 second-round choice, and a conditional fifth-round draft decide in 2025.
Each Georgiev and Kovalenko dressed for Tuesday’s recreation, with Georgiev backing up Vanecek and Kovalenko beginning on the Sharks’ fourth line with Nico Sturm and Ty Dellandrea.
This season, after starting the yr with a 0-2-2 report, Blackwood, a preferred determine within the Sharks’ dressing room, had a stable 6-6-1 report and a .916 save share in his final 14 appearances. That included a stellar 51-save efficiency on Saturday within the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.
“Sad, I would say,” Sharks ahead William Eklund mentioned of his response to the commerce. “He was a good friend of mine, and he’s going to be a good friend of mine for (a long time). It’s part of business, but it’s also a human being. It’s tough to see a friend going away.”
Amongst goalies who had performed a minimum of 10 video games, Blackwood, per Cash Puck, was seventeenth in targets saved above anticipated (3.9) and nineteenth in targets saved above anticipated per 60 minutes (0.221).
“He was kind of our backbone here these first 30 games, so it’s difficult,” Warsofsky mentioned of Blackwood earlier than the sport on the Sharks Audio Community. “You’ve got to talk through it. (But) you go out and move forward, and just like anything in life, when adversity hits you, how do you respond?”
“I know it’ll be tough for our group,” Sharks normal supervisor Mike Grier mentioned Monday. “I think our group really likes (Blackwood) and enjoyed playing in front of him.”
Vanecek was making his first look since Thursday when he allowed 5 targets on 12 photographs within the opening interval of San Jose’s 8-1 loss to the Lightning.
Vanecek made 18 saves within the first two intervals Tuesday. However with San Jose main 2-1 within the third, defenseman and ex-Shark Brent Burns completed off a reasonably passing play by the Hurricanes and beat Vanecek on the 4:11 mark of the third interval for his second purpose of the season.
The Sharks have ended a stretch of video games towards the NHL’s highest-scoring groups. Earlier than Tuesday, Washington (4.04 targets per recreation), Tampa Bay (3.92), Florida (3.75), and Carolina (3.74) had been the highest 4 groups within the league in common targets scored per recreation.
SMITH TO IR: Earlier than Tuesday’s recreation, the Sharks positioned rookie ahead Will Smith on injured reserve, that means he’ll additionally must miss Thursday’s recreation towards the St. Louis Blues to finish the highway journey.
The Sharks activated Barclay Goodrow off IR to take Smith’s spot on the 23-man roster, and he began the sport on a line with Kunin and Alexander Wennberg.
Smith, who had been thought-about day-to-day with an upper-body harm, could be activated as early as Friday. The Sharks play the Utah Hockey Membership on Saturday to start out a three-game homestand.
In 24 video games this season, Smith has 11 factors, which was tied for sixth-most amongst all NHL rookies earlier than Tuesday’s video games.
Goodrow was positioned on IR on Nov. 28, a day after he absorbed a excessive hit from Ottawa Senators ahead Ridly Greig. He had been skating with the group lately. Goodrow has two targets in 25 video games this season however is averaging 14:46 in ice time per recreation and is among the Sharks’ main penalty killers.
MUKHAMADULLIN RECALLED: After the sport, the Sharks introduced that defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin had been recalled from the AHL and that defenseman Jack Thompson and ahead Ethan Cardwell had been loaned again to the Barracuda.
Mukhamadullin had six assists in 14 video games with the Barracuda this season after the Sharks assigned him to the AHL on Oct. 22. Thompson, who has been within the NHL for many of the season, had 5 factors in 14 video games with the Sharks. Cardwell had performed in three video games since his recall on Nov. 28 and scored his first NHL purpose the subsequent day towards the Seattle Kraken.
Initially Printed: December 10, 2024 at 6:43 PM PST
