The San Jose Sharks have a ton of issues to determine this summer time in the event that they need to transfer out of the NHL’s basement subsequent season.
However what comes first? Tightening up a leaky protection? Including some wanted firepower? Bettering their woebegone goaltending?
All of these shortcomings had been on show Sunday in an 8-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Area, a consequence that matched the Sharks’ most lopsided lack of the season.
From Feb. 1 to March 7, the Sharks traded two of their main forwards in Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund, their two most-used defensemen in Cody Ceci and Jake Walman, and two blue collar forwards in Luke Kunin and Nico Sturm.
In different phrases, the Sharks shouldn’t have a lot margin for error proper now, they usually made a handful of errors Sunday, together with all the penalties they took.
The Sharks took 5 minor penalties within the first two intervals Sunday evening, and allowed power-play objectives to Adrian Kempe and Warren Foegele.
Ahead Noah Gregor was known as for hooking and holding within the first interval and defenseman Mario Ferraro took hooking and tripping penalties within the second. In between, rookie ahead Cam Lund was additionally whistled for tripping, making it 4 stick fouls known as on the Sharks within the first 40 minutes.
So San Jose by no means gave itself an opportunity.
With Gregor serving a hooking name, Kempe scored the primary of his two objectives on the ability play on the 15:13 mark of the opening interval. With Ferraro within the field for tripping, Foegele additionally scored the primary of his two objectives on the person benefit on the 13:31 mark of the second to present Los Angeles a 4-1 lead.
On that play, Sharks goalie Georgi Romanov couldn’t catch a shot on objective by Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, and Foegele scored after he collected the free puck.
Kempe and Foegele every added an even-strength objective later within the second, and the Kings added two extra objectives within the third, because the Sharks completed March with a 5-8-0 file. They continue to be in thirty second and final place within the NHL’s total standings with 49 factors, two factors behind the Chicago Blackhawks with 9 video games left within the common season.
The consequence matched the Sharks’ most lopsided lack of the season, as in addition they misplaced 8-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 5.
Lund scored for the second time in as many video games, as his even-strength objective on the 4:52 mark lower the Kings’ result in 2-1. However Trevor Moore received that again simply 2:05 later, the primary of 4 straight objectives by the Kings as they broke the sport extensive open.
Going into their recreation towards the Anaheim Geese on Tuesday, the Sharks have been shorthanded 225 occasions in 73 video games, a mean of simply over thrice per recreation. That whole, earlier than Monday’s video games, was the second-highest within the NHL, trailing solely the Montreal Canadiens (230 occasions in 73 video games).
The Sharks had been shorthanded 252 occasions final season, twelfth most within the NHL, and had the Twenty eighth-ranked penalty kill at 75.4%. The Sharks’ penalty kill got here into Sunday ranked twenty seventh within the NHL at 74.6%.
The Sharks additionally had points on the ability play Sunday, going 0-for-3 with the person benefit and not using a shot on web. Down 1-0 within the first interval, the Sharks had a two-man benefit for 1:4, however a Macklin Celebrini shot from the purpose off the publish was as shut as San Jose got here to scoring.
The Sharks had been coming off a 6-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Initially Revealed: March 30, 2025 at 10:03 PM PDT
