I fully expected the San Jose Sharks to brush aside the struggling New Jersey Devils when the two clubs met last night at the SAP. That certainly was not the case as the Devils behind the stellar performance of Keith Kinkaid blanked the Sharks 3-0 in their own building.
Kinkaid made 30 saves in only his second career shutout. His first shutout came earlier in the season against the Kings.
Travis Zajac scored two third-period goals, including an empty-netter in the final seconds of the third. Devante Smith-Pelly had a goal in the second period. It was Smith-Pelly's third in four games with New Jersey.
It's only the fourth time the Sharks have been blanked this season and the third time at home.
The loss dropped the Sharks to 12-15-3 in the Shark Tank. Ouch. Hurts to even type that.
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My Two Cents...
The Sharks weren't horrible...but the loss continues a mind-boggling trend of being embarrassed at home by teams they should beat. I listed several of them is yesterday's blog but most of those happened earlier in the season when the club was still trying to hit its stride.
I think that makes this loss sting a bit more.
While the Devils still have a shot at making the playoffs, their play of late has been far from good. New Jersey has lost five of their previous six games and scored just five goals combined in the losses. Basically, they have been a bad, bad hockey team and were sellers at the deadline.
Look, like I said they Sharks didn't have an awful game. New Jersey pretty much got all the breaks. The Devils had a fluky goal and Kinkaid made some really good stops.
I worry about the Sharks inability to make their own luck at home. It been an ongoing theme this season and it doesn't bode well for a team headed to the playoffs.
And I don't think a goal song like this is going to help their cause...
San Jose has to quickly put this one behind them and get ready for the Eastern Conferences top team, the Washington Capitals, on Saturday.
*** thanks for reading. Steve