The San Jose Sharks faced off against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night (Nov. 2). Attempting to get their first win of the season on David Quinn’s 300th game as an NHL head coach certainly brought more pressure to the night. It was also a milestone game for Anthony Duclair and Filip Zadina who were playing in their 500th and 200th NHL game respectively.
An early double-minor for Nico Sturm ended up giving the Sharks an early deficit after Brock Boeser found the back of the net for Vancouver and things never got any better for San Jose. They would lose in embarrassing fashion, as Vancouver walked away with a 10-1 win. The Sharks allowed the same amount of goals they’ve scored all season in a single game. Overall, the Sharks’ performance was dreadful, but there were some key areas that stood out more than the rest. Generally, there are at least some positives to take from any outing, but that was not the case this time around. A late goal from Fabian Zetterlund may have stopped the bleeding, but it truly didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Penalty Kill Struggles Continue
Sturm’s aforementioned double-minor happened off of a faceoff just over a minute into the game. While he was in the box, Boeser scored to end the first penalty and not long afterward J.T. Miller capitalized on the second one to give the Canucks an early 2-0 lead. It doesn’t help of course that one of their key penalty killers was in the penalty box, but it seemed as if they had no chance to keep the puck out of the net. To give credit where it’s deserved, the Canucks have a power play that should be feared. Personnel such as Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, and Elias Pettersson are going to be difficult to stop even in 5-on-5 play but especially when they have a man advantage. They certainly proved why in this game, Hughes specifically had five points through two periods.
Near the end of the first period, Mario Ferraro, another key penalty killer, went to the box for tripping and Boeser got his second power-play goal of the night. Giving up three power play goals in the first period alone set the pace of the game moving forward. The Sharks did kill off the next power play though, giving them a 25% success rate through two periods. However, their struggles continued into the third period, as Kevin Labanc took a penalty early for holding the stick and Anthony Beauvillier converted to make it a 9-0 game.
Kahkonen’s Rough Night
Kaapo Kahkonen’s night started off rough, giving up four goals in the first period on 15 shots. While most of them could be attributed to the shaky defense in front of him, specifically on the penalty kill, Hughes’ goal was one he’d definitely want back. Before all was said and done, the Canucks got six past him before he went down with an injury and got replaced by Mackenzie Blackwood.
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Unfortunately, Blackwood didn’t fare much better for the Sharks as he gave up two in the second period as well. When all was said and done, they allowed 10 goals on only 33 shots. While the goaltenders likely could’ve saved a few of them to make the score a bit less embarrassing, a majority of them weren’t their fault.
Kunin Attempted to Bring Life
During the second period, Luke Kunin dropped the gloves with Phil Di Giuseppe after the crowd seemed to chant, “We want a fight.” However, that didn’t go very well for the Sharks either. Within seconds, Kunin was on the ice with Di Giuseppe standing over him. While Kunin attempted to bring some energy back into the game, it seemed to deflate the Sharks even more. It was simply a game where the Sharks could do nothing right, and this moment made that very clear.
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The Sharks have now lost ten in a row to start the season and there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. They’ll take the ice again on Saturday against Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins, and hopefully, for their sake, it’s a prettier performance for the team in teal. The Sharks have had some terrible performances so far this season, but it’s difficult to imagine any worse than this. There’s still plenty of time this season for them to prove me wrong though.