Ivar Stenberg left Tuesday night with a milestone and a reminder. The rookie had the first multi-point game of his NHL career, including his first NHL goal, but the Sharks still came away with a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins at SAP Center.
Stenberg’s power-play goal at 5:48 of the second period, set up by Macklin Celebrini, got San Jose on the board. He later returned the favor, helping on Celebrini’s power-play marker at 5:04 of the third to pull the Sharks within 4-3.
That was as tight as it got.
The Sharks finished their two-game homestand winless and have now dropped three of their last four, with a six-game road trip set to open Thursday in Nashville. After that comes Detroit, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, before San Jose closes the swing on Oct. 24 against the same Bruins at TD Garden.
Boston piled up a season-high in goals against the Sharks, and the numbers on the San Jose side were ugly too. Stenberg and rookie defenseman Luca Cagnoni each ended the night at minus-4.
The Sharks did get two assists from Dmitry Orlov, while Yaroslav Askarov stopped 20 shots.
Before the game, the Sharks shook up their forward lines, with Igor Chernyshov moving to the top unit alongside Celebrini and Will Smith, while Stenberg slid onto a line with Michael Misa and Kiefer Sherwood. The reshuffle was designed to spark a group that had managed just three 5-on-5 goals over its previous three games, with Smith and Mason Marchment both going four games without a point.
But line changes only matter so much if the chances never really show up. Through five games, the Sharks had generated just 22 high-danger chances, the lowest per-game average in the NHL, according to Natural Stat Trick. Through the first 52 minutes Tuesday, they had created nine and allowed 10.
For a while, this had the feel of another night where a few costly breakdowns would decide everything. The Sharks said after Saturday’s 3-1 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers that they had played a solid defensive game and just made a handful of mistakes that ended up in the net. Tuesday followed a similar script early.
The first goal came after Stenberg turned the puck over on a clearing pass into the neutral zone, which allowed Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov to jump on it. Zadorov moved the puck to Casey Mittlestadt, who entered the zone, got a shot on goal, tracked down his own rebound, circled the net and found Frazer Minten trailing the play for the finish and a 1-0 Boston lead at 12:55 of the first period.
Late in the opening frame, Boston doubled up. The Bruins pinned San Jose’s fourth line in its own zone, Charlie McAvoy stripped the puck from Barclay Goodrow in the slot, then gained inside position at the net and redirected a pass from JJ Peterka past Askarov for a 2-1 lead at 18:43.
That goal, along with Pavel Zacha’s tally at the end of the second period, extended a troubling trend for San Jose: the Sharks have now allowed a goal in the final three minutes of a period four times in six games this season.
Askarov entered Tuesday with a 2-2-0 record in four starts, along with an .860 save percentage and a 3.71 goals-against average. Per moneypuck.com, his goals saved above expected per 60 mark of -0.074 ranked 19th among 25 NHL goalies who had appeared in at least four games before Tuesday.
The Sharks have been loose defensively at times to open the season, giving up 35 high-danger chances over Askarov’s first three starts. Still, Askarov has given them a chance to win in three of his four outings, including Saturday against Edmonton, when turnovers by teammates factored into all three Oilers goals.
In Other News...
Sharks Just Locked In A Young Forward Who Became Essential
Collin Graf arrived in San Jose as an undrafted college prospect, but he has worked his way into the kind of role teams do not give away lightly. After signing his entry-level deal, he broke out in 2025-26 by playing 81 games and putting up 21 goals and 25 assists, production that helped turn him into a dependable middle-six winger with real value at both ends of the ice.
The Sharks have now committed to that growth with a three-year extension that keeps Graf under contract through the 2028-29 season. His rise has been especially noticeable in the trust he earned on the penalty kill, and with that responsibility already part of his game, he looks set to remain a significant piece of San Joses forward group for the foreseeable future. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Already Face Early Pressure With A Few Lineup Calls
The Sharks 3-2-0 start has given the early schedule a little breathing room, but it has not erased the sort of lineup questions that tend to surface quickly on a young team. Goaltending is already part of the discussion, with Yaroslav Askarovs play drawing concern and Alex Nedeljkovic looking like a candidate for a larger share of the net while the staff sorts out what it wants from the position.
There are similar decisions up and down the lineup, from how Misa, Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith are being deployed to what San Jose wants from its fourth line. Kiefer Sherwood, Zack Ostapchuk, Barclay Goodrow, Ty Dellandrea and Adam Gaudette all factor into that conversation, and the early mix suggests the Sharks may not wait long to keep adjusting ice time and combinations until the right fit shows up. [Read more 🡒]