SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks knew they wanted a response after they ended their latest highway journey with a pair of lackluster performances.
The Sharks took a step in the best path Sunday however failed to completely capitalize on their quite a few alternatives in a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at SAP Middle.
With the Sharks trailing 2-0, William Eklund scored a power-play aim on the 18:25 mark of the primary interval. However the Sharks failed to attain on 4 different energy play alternatives, together with a 5-on-3 for 70 seconds, as they misplaced their sixth straight sport to start out the season.
The Sharks (0-4-2) largely dominated the second interval as they outshot the Avalanche 13-6. However they allowed an even-strength aim to Joel Kiviranta halfway by means of the third interval and an empty-net aim to Cale Makar with 1:37 to go.
Ross Colton scored twice for Colorado, together with an influence play aim simply 6:23 into the primary interval after the Sharks had been referred to as for too many males.
Colton scored a second aim on the 16:37 mark of the primary interval, and Avalanche’s goalie, Justus Annunen, scored 25 saves. Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek made 18 saves as he appeared in his third straight sport.
The Sharks now go on a four-game highway journey with stops in Anaheim, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Utah.
The Sharks had Eklund and Will Smith again within the lineup Sunday as they seemed to finish a five-game dropping streak.
Eklund was a scratch for Friday’s sport performed in Winnipeg after he performed the primary two video games of the highway journey. He was within the lineup Tuesday towards the Dallas Stars within the first sport of the journey, however didn’t observe the next day in Chicago. He performed by means of the damage Thursday night time towards the Blackhawks in a 4-2 Sharks loss and had two assists in over 19 minutes of ice time.
Eklund entered Sunday with three assists in 4 video games as he averaged over 21 minutes in ice time, second-most amongst all Sharks forwards.
Smith performed towards the Blackhawks and had what Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned was his greatest sport of the season, as he performed over 19 minutes. However as a part of the workforce’s growth plan for the 19-year-old heart, the Sharks rested Smith for the next night time’s sport in Winnipeg, the place the Jets cruised to an 8-3 win.
With these two coming again into the lineup, Givani Smith and Klim Kostin had been scratched. Jack Thompson additionally changed Matt Benning on the Sharks’ third protection pair, enjoying alongside Henry Thrun.
After their poor performances towards the Blackhawks and Jets, the Sharks needed to get again to how they performed of their first three video games. San Jose misplaced 5-4 in time beyond regulation to St. Louis on Oct. 10 and 2-0 to the Anaheim Geese two days later earlier than their 3-2 shootout loss to the Stars.
“Are we skating on our reloads? Are we tracking? Are we physical? I would say those three things are the big things that I look for,” Warsofsky mentioned earlier than Sunday’s sport. “Are we stopping and starting on pucks?
“We didn’t have much of that, obviously, in Winnipeg. So hopefully we can kind of get that thing going back again. We did the first three games.”
CELEBRINI UPDATE: Macklin Celebrini has began skating once more, Warsofsky mentioned, though he stays week to week with a lower-body damage and has no particular timetable for a return.
The truth that Celebrini’s skating once more is an indication of progress. Till not too long ago, he had been stored off the ice since his NHL debut on Oct. 10 with a hip damage he’s handled since coaching camp. On Oct. 1, in a preseason sport towards the Utah Hockey Membership, Celebrini was tripped up in entrance of the web on a partial breakaway, fell, and landed onerous — hip first – into the tip boards.
Celebrini left that sport halfway by means of the second interval however rejoined the Sharks observe on Oct. 7 and skated with the workforce every day main as much as the season-opener towards St. Louis. In his debut, Celebrini had a aim and an help in a 5-4 time beyond regulation loss to the Blues.
OTHER INJURIES: Ahead Thomas Bordeleau and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin are each now thought-about day-to-day with their respective accidents. Bordeleau and Mukhamadullin had been each beforehand thought-about extra week-to-week
Bordeleau sustained a lower-body damage early in coaching camp and was positioned on injured reserve initially of the common season. Mukhamadullin (decrease physique) was injured in a mid-September observe and took half in an elective skate within the first week of October however has largely skated with a bunch of injured gamers.
“They’re almost on the same timetable,” Warsofsky mentioned of Bordeleau and Mukhamadulliin.
Mukhamadullin and fellow defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (higher physique) are thought-about injured/non-roster gamers.
Initially Revealed: October 20, 2024 at 7:46 p.m.
