The Sharks are slipping into a dangerous stretch, and the calendar is starting to matter as much as the standings.
San Jose has dropped five straight and seven of eight heading into Monday’s matchup with the New York Islanders, and the numbers around the skid are ugly. The Sharks are still the NHL’s worst team at allowing high-danger chances at 5-on-5, they’ve scored a league-low 1.88 goals per game since Oct. 23, and their special teams have gone from steady to wildly inconsistent.
Even after a hard-fought 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, they sat 14th in the Western Conference by points percentage before Sunday at .395, six points out of a playoff spot. Only the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks, both rebuilding, were behind them in the West.
MoneyPuck has the Sharks’ playoff odds at 4.3%.
That puts a sharper edge on the next few weeks for a team that is 7-11-1 and trying to convince itself - and everyone else - that the process is heading somewhere. Coach Ryan Warsofsky pointed to the last two games, which also included a 4-1 loss to the Western Conference-leading Minnesota Wild on Friday, as signs of progress.
“I think we’re making strides these last two games,” Warsofsky said Saturday, also referring to his team’s 4-1 loss to the Western Conference-leading Minnesota Wild on Friday. “Again, we’ve got to stick to the process and just continue to work and get better, and the result will come.”
Warsofsky has also leaned hard on Macklin Celebrini, and the usage has gotten extreme. Against the Stars, on the second night of a back-to-back, Celebrini was double-shifted with Filip Bystedt all but benched and logged 28:05 of ice time while collecting three assists.
That was the most ice time any Sharks forward has ever had on the second night of back-to-back games since Owen Nolan played 28:54 on Feb. 9, 2000.
“He’s going. He’s making things happen,” Warsofsky said of Celebrini, who now has five points in his last three games. “So you’ve got to play him.”
The problem is that the rest of the scoring has dried up.
That leaves general manager Mike Grier as the central figure in what happens next. Recent reports say he is not looking to make a coaching change, but the bigger question is what he does with the roster if the slide continues. The Sharks have had interest in disgruntled Detroit Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson for some time, and Grier has already made at least one real offer to Red Wings interim general manager Shawn Horcoff - his former Edmonton Oilers teammate - that was turned down.
The clock matters here. Restricted free agents like Edvinsson have until Dec. 1 to sign before they become ineligible to play the rest of the season, and Horcoff is under pressure to get a proper return for both Edvinsson and center Dylan Larkin.
If Detroit can’t get a deal done, the price on Edvinsson could change. The question is whether that price comes down as the deadline gets closer, and who blinks first.
For San Jose, the cost would be steep. Would Grier be willing to move Michael Misa, the 19-year-old forward who is tied for third on the Sharks with 11 points in 19 games, along with another asset for a top-pairing defenseman like Edvinsson? It would be a major swing, one that could matter more for the future than for this season.
Maybe Grier waits. Alexander Wennberg, the Sharks’ top shutdown centerman, could return as soon as this homestand, which also includes Wednesday’s game against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
San Jose plays six of its next seven at home, and only three of those seven opponents made the playoffs last season. That gives Grier a little more time to see what the group looks like with Wennberg back before making a major move.
But if he sees a deal that helps now and later, he’ll act.
Last season, the Sharks had two six-game losing streaks - one to open the year at 0-4-2 and another from mid-to-late March at 0-5-1 - and both played a role in the club missing the playoffs for a seventh straight year. That history hangs over this slump, and it’s why the next stretch feels so important.
“I think the attention to detail, the will to work every single shift, I think it’s been there a lot these last two days,” said Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 26 of 30 shots Saturday. “I don’t think we can say that, honestly, about the couple of games before that.
So it’s a different feeling of frustration. Obviously, it (stinks) losing.
I’m not going to sugarcoat that.”
In Other News...
Sharks Young Scorers Offered Hope Before Another Brutal Late Collapse
The Sharks got exactly the kind of jolt they have been waiting for in Dallas, where Michael Misa, Ivar Stenberg and Will Smith all found the net in a game that briefly looked like it might tilt San Joses way. For a team searching for offense and confidence, the sight of three young scorers contributing in the same night was a welcome change, especially against a Stars club that has usually made life difficult at American Airlines Arena.
But the encouraging start did not survive the finish, and the latest loss fit too neatly into a frustrating pattern for San Jose. The Sharks have now dropped seven of their last eight, and while the goals from Misa, Stenberg and Smith showed there is some promise in the groups emerging talent, the late collapse left the bigger question hanging: how long can those flashes matter if the points keep slipping away? [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Let Another Winnable Game Slip As Familiar Problem Returns
Macklin Celebrini did his part in a game the Sharks badly needed, piling up three points and helping San Jose build an early lead before the night turned into another frustrating chase. Michael Misa got the opening goal with Celebrini on the assist, and for a while it looked like the Sharks might finally turn a strong start into something more lasting against Dallas.
Instead, the Stars leaned on the power play to swing the game back their way, and San Jose spent the rest of the night trying to dig out of the hole. Will Smiths late power-play goal gave the Sharks a chance to steal a point at the end, but the equalizer never came and the 4-3 loss became their fifth straight defeat, another reminder that the margin for error keeps shrinking. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Need Alexander Wennberg Back More Than Ever Right Now
Alexander Wennberg is inching closer to a return, and the Sharks could use the help. The center has been on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, but he has been skating with the team and was recently moved from week-to-week to day-to-day, a sign that his comeback is getting closer. For a San Jose group that has struggled without him, his presence would be a welcome boost as the schedule shifts into an important homestand.
The timing matters because the Sharks have been trying to steady themselves without one of their more reliable two-way options in the middle of the ice. Wennbergs return would not solve everything overnight, but it would give the lineup more structure and experience at a time when the team needs both. There is still a little waiting to do before the next update, and the Sharks will be watching closely to see how soon they can get him back in the mix. [Read more 🡒]