BOSTON - The San Jose Sharks are only a little more than three weeks into the season, but the early read is pretty clear: there’s enough here to feel better about the start, and enough problems to know the work is far from done.
At 6-5-1, the Sharks have managed to survive a demanding opening stretch that included eight of their first 12 games on the road. That slate got even tougher with a six-game trip against mostly Atlantic Division opponents, and yet San Jose still came out of it at 3-2-1 after Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
That record puts the Sharks in a far better spot than they’ve been in recent years. They’re off to their second-best start in five seasons, and they’re headed into a four-game homestand beginning Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres.
“We got some results. We still have a long way to go,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said after Saturday’s loss. “We still have some things we’ve got to get better at.
“It starts with protecting our net front. That’s going to be one.
We’ve got to start scoring five-on-five. That’ll be another one.”
Those two issues, plus a few things that are already working, define the Sharks’ early season.
The goaltending has helped keep them afloat. Between Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic, San Jose entered Saturday with a team save percentage of .891, which tied for 12th in the NHL. That number looked much worse earlier in the trip; before the Sharks played the Nashville Predators on Oct. 15, it sat at .855, 26th in the league.
The individual numbers back up the eye test. Among goalies who have played at least four games this season, Nedeljkovic is eighth in goals saved above expected at 4.6, according to moneypuck.com, and Askarov is 16th at 2.7. Askarov’s 3-4-0 record and .883 save percentage don’t tell the whole story, and the Sharks appear to be getting something useful from splitting the workload.
The power play has also carried its weight. San Jose ranks sixth in the NHL at 26.9 percent, going 11-for-41, and it has scored with the man advantage in five of its last seven games. That run includes goals from Dmitry Orlov and Michael Misa against the Bruins, as well as Macklin Celebrini’s overtime winner against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
The Sharks have clearly leaned into a quicker look on the power play, spending less time setting up and more time getting pucks to the net. That approach will get a test now that injured forwards Alexander Wennberg and Igor Chernyshov are likely out for a few weeks.
Still, with the team struggling at 5-on-5, special teams have become even more important. Tyler Toffoli has three power-play goals and has been one of the team’s bright spots with nine points in 12 games.
Then there’s Ivar Stenberg, who has wasted no time looking like he belongs. The rookie is only 12 games into his NHL career, yet he and Toffoli are tied for second on the Sharks with nine points apiece.
Stenberg was also tied with Bruins forward James Hagens for the league lead in rookie scoring after Saturday. For a 19-year-old selected No. 2 overall in June, that’s about as strong a start as the Sharks could have asked for.
The other side of the ledger is less flattering.
San Jose has been a mess in third periods, getting outscored 21-12 in the final frame. The Sharks have already blown multi-goal leads four times in their first eight games, and only overtime and shootout work kept those nights from turning into bigger losses.
Even in a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators, the third period was rough. Natural Stat Trick had the Sharks being outchanced 13-2 in that final 20 minutes, and Askarov had to make 16 saves just to preserve the result.
Warsofsky has seen enough of the late-game wobbling.
“Doesn’t mean we can’t make plays. Doesn’t mean we can’t stay aggressive,” Warsofsky said after Thursday’s win.
“But we’ve got to smarten up in some areas when we have the lead, when we start games. There’s an onion that needs to get peeled back here a little bit.”
Defensively, the Sharks are still giving up far too much. Entering Sunday, they had allowed 139 high-danger chances in 12 games, which works out to 11.6 per game. Only the Vancouver Canucks have been worse on that front, at 11 per game.
The Bruins found plenty of room in those areas Saturday, with San Jose surrendering 18 high-danger chances and producing just four at 5-on-5. Four of Boston’s first five goals came in front of the Sharks’ net, where the defense simply wasn’t good enough.
Warsofsky didn’t want to pin it on one thing.
“It’s every guy on our team,” Warsofsky said
Still, there’s no escaping that the defense pairs have struggled. The Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring duo had one of the roughest nights again, with both on the ice for Boston’s first three goals.
On the first two, they appeared to be watching the puck. On the third, David Pastrnak’s shot went off Nurse’s stick and past Nedeljkovic to make it 3-3.
Per moneypuck.com, the Nurse-Kesselring pair ranked 17th out of 17 duos who have played at least 120 minutes together, with an expected goals-against per 60 of 3.87. Warsofsky said he will examine everything, including the defense pairings, before Monday morning’s practice.
One more problem is tied directly to the first two: the Sharks just aren’t creating enough quality looks. Through 12 games, they’ve generated only 80 high-danger chances, and their high-danger chances percentage of 36.53 ranks 32nd in the NHL.
The Celebrini, Will Smith and Igor Chernyshov line had been creating more than it allowed, as had the Wennberg, Toffoli and Mason Marchment line. But with Wennberg and Chernyshov both out for at least the next few weeks, San Jose will need other combinations to start producing at 5-on-5.
For now, the Sharks can point to a decent record, some strong goaltending and a power play that’s doing real damage. But the list of fixes is already obvious, and Warsofsky made that much clear after the loss in Boston.
In Other News...
Oilers Blue Line Just Lost A Key Piece At The Worst Time
The latest injury news around the Pacific Division continues to reshape the early-season picture, and it matters for a Sharks team that is trying to sort out its own forward depth while keeping tabs on the teams around it. Calgary captain Mikael Backlund is close to returning from a lower-body injury and could be in the mix against Toronto, while Jonathan Huberdeau is set to begin practicing as he works back from offseason hip-resurfacing surgery, though he is still not close to a game appearance.
San Jose also has a fresh health issue of its own to monitor after Igor Chernyshov went down with an upper-body injury. The young forward is expected to miss several weeks, leaving the Sharks with another hole to fill and another reminder of how quickly a promising stretch can get complicated by injuries. For a team already trying to manage its roster carefully, the timing is less than ideal. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Finally Turn To Adam Gaudette As Forward Depth Gets Tested
Adam Gaudette is finally set to get his first action of the season Saturday against the Boston Bruins, giving the Sharks another body up front at a time when their depth has been stretched thin. He missed the opening stretch with an upper-body injury, then spent seven games as a healthy scratch, but now he is headed into the lineup on the fourth line with Zack Ostapchuk and Barclay Goodrow.
The opening has come because San Jose is dealing with injuries to Igor Chernyshov and Alexander Wennberg, both of whom are out on a week-to-week basis. For Gaudette, it is a chance to move from the sideline into a game that matters for the Sharks immediate forward mix, even if the circumstances around his return are hardly ideal. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Let Another Winnable Game Slip Away Late
The Sharks had plenty of offense to work with at TD Garden, getting goals from Michael Misa, Kiefer Sherwood, Dmitry Orlov and Will Smith in a matchup that looked very much there for the taking against the Bruins. For stretches, San Jose matched Boston shot for shot and found ways to answer back, giving the club another chance to bank points on the road against a veteran opponent.
But the late-game details are what will linger. San Jose was still in position to leave with something meaningful before Boston seized control in the closing minutes and turned the final stretch into a painful reminder of how thin the margin remains for this group. It was another one of those nights where the Sharks did enough to stay in the fight, only to watch the game slip away when the finish line came into view. [Read more 🡒]