How can the Sharks avoid another rock-bottom season?
Nico Sturm: Every returning San Jose Sharks player "has to take a long, hard look in the mirror."
SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks face the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, the Calgary Flames on Thursday, and then will be all too eager to put the 2023-2024 season in the rear-view mirror.
The Sharks’ 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday ensured that they would finish at the bottom of the NHL standings for only the second time in franchise history, with the first coming 32 years ago after the team’s inaugural season.
When it comes to the rebuild, the Sharks (19-52-9) certainly hope that this is rock bottom. After trading Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier, and Tomas Hertl in just over 12 months, it almost has to be.
But when it comes to getting better, at least in the short term, where do the Sharks even start?
They’ve allowed more goals than any other team in the NHL and their offense is the second-least potent in the league.
Sure, it would be nice for the Sharks if they won the draft lottery and selected Macklin Celebrini, the 17-year-old center with Bay Area ties who just won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player following an outstanding freshman season at Boston University.
San Jose’s last-place finish gives it a 25.5% chance of winning the lottery and adding a terrific talent to the organization.
But that’s just the beginning. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Connor Bedard sweepstakes last season and will finish this season just one spot ahead of San Jose.
No, along with accruing talent, the Sharks also have to gain an identity, something they haven’t had since the 2018-2019 season when their high-octane offense nearly led them to a second Stanley Cup final in four years.
What do the Sharks want that identity to be? Well, if you can remember how general manager Mike Grier played during a 14-year NHL career, something close to that, rather than the soft as-baby food style they’ve displayed most of the last two years.
“What I think can get lost in all of hockey — because it’s become such a skill game — is the hardness and the grit to what this game demands, and that will never change,” Quinn said Saturday morning.
“I don’t care how many guys can stick handle through their legs and throw a puck over the shoulder into the net. This is about mano-a-mano, and what can you do when someone’s trying to stop you from doing it.”
While it will take some time for the Sharks’ top prospects to become impactful NHL players, the identity can be implemented next season if the right personnel is added. There’s certainly enough cap space to add players who would make San Jose a more difficult team to push around.
Quinn mentioned Celebrini who can add some of that pushback.
“(Talking) about what we want to be as an organization and what the sport demands, he’s got high skill but he’s got a heart and hardness to him that allows him to be a different type of player,” Quinn said of Celebrini.
“When I watch him, I think of Jonathan Toews a lot. Maybe a little bit more skill. But Toews was an incredible player.”
Something needs to happen for this team to become harder to play against.
Against the Wild, the Sharks had some momentum late in the second period when Mario Ferraro’s goal cut Minnesota’s lead to 3-2.
But with less than two minutes left in the second period, the Sharks were called for icing, something that was completely preventable.
That kept the Sharks’ fourth line on the ice and allowed Minnesota’s top line to come on. After the Wild won a faceoff, they worked it around before Kirill Kaprizov’s shot from the point went off Jan Rutta, the post, and off Mackenzie Blackwood, before the puck crossed the line for a 4-2 Minnesota lead.
Less than a minute later, with the Sharks killing a Fabian Zetterlund penalty, Kaprizov was left alone in front of the net and beat a helpless Blackwood for a 5-2 Wild lead.
“There’s usually cascades,” Sharks center Nico Sturm said. “When we give up a goal, we’ve struggled all year, from day one until now, to contain the momentum of the game. Doesn’t take much in this league and then and then in two minutes, we’re snoozing and the game’s gone.”
The Sharks were the third-worst team in the NHL in terms of 5-on-5 goals against last season but are last in the league in that category right now.
Can’t blame the goaltending, which has improved over last season. Perhaps it’s more a mentality thing, a personnel thing, and since everyone has to share in a season like this, a coaching thing.
“At the end of the day, every single one of us that’s going to be here next year has to take a long, hard look in the mirror,” Sturm said, ”and try not to be in the same position when we stand here next year.”