I thought the San Jose Sharks had hit a new low with Tuesday nights 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers and former coach Todd McLellan, but I was wrong.
Very wrong.
The Sharks were shutdown and shutout 2-0 by the Minnesota Wild on Saturday for their sixth consecutive loss (0-5-1).
Darcy Kuemper made the start for Minnesota for the injured Devyn Dubnyk and was lights out, making 25 saves for his sixth career shutout. It was Kuemper's third start in a row (1-0-2) and seventh appearance of the season, but just his second win (2-0-4).
The Wild have had their troubles in winning in San Jose of late going 1-9-1 in their previous 11 games on the Sharks home ice. Now nobody finds it difficult to win at the SAP.
The Sharks are now just 4-9-0 at home this season. The four home wins are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche for the fewest in the NHL.
The struggling Sharks continue to falter and have yet to record a win in the month of December. I would be willing to shoulder the blame for this if I believed in jinx's (I have been the Sharks blogger since Dec. 1), but the Sharks struggles started long before my arrival to the scene (Haven't won a game since before Thanksgiving).
So, no... you can't blame me.
The last calendar month of the year is widely regarded as the true barometer for how a particular NHL season and its playoff picture will come together. We are now nearly two weeks into December and San Jose is out of the playoff picture and fading fast.
Not exactly encouraging news if you ask me.
The Sharks offense is in a serious funk and no amount of line juggling by head coach Pete Deboer has been able to snap them from this month long malaise. San Jose has been shutout twice during the losing streak and have been held to three of fewer goals in 14 of the last 19 games since Nov. 1.
The Sharks head out on a five-game roadie before the Christmas break. If there some small glimmer of light at the end of this dark and desolate tunnel its that San Jose is 10-5-1 on the road.
Noteworthy....
- Logan Couture is out again. Couture had surgery to stop an arterial bleed in his right leg. He sustained the injury during the loss to Edmonton . It was just his second game back for Couture who had missed most of the season with a broken ankle and now this.
San Jose released this statement following the surgery...
“In Wednesday night's game in Edmonton, Logan suffered trauma to his right thigh, creating a Charley-horse effect which prohibited him from returning to the game.Upon returning to San Jose, it was discovered that there was a small arterial bleed in the area. Last night, Logan underwent a successful procedure in San Jose to close the artery and is expected to make a full recovery.
At this time, there is no projected time frame for his return to the ice but we do not expect this to be a long-term recovery.
Fortunately, this injury is completely unrelated to his previous ankle injury.…
This is big blow to the Sharks and their already anemic offense. Couture is coming off a career year and his return was supposed to give the team a lift. Instead they are forced to regroup again.
Get well soon Logan...your team needs it.
- To fill in for Couture the Sharks recalled Ryan Carpenter from the Barracuda. He centered the fourth line in his NHL debut. Carpenter played a little of seven minutes and registered one hit. Yawn.
Get well soon Logan...your team needs it.
- Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic returned to the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury. Vlasic's 23:22 of ice time was second only to Brent Burns' 23:33.
- Martin Jones' record fell to 12-10-1 and is 1-5-1 in his last seven starts. Jones had been San Jose's savior...now he's having trouble saving anything.
- Both Arizona and Vancouver have jumped over the Sharks in the standings and the Kings have increased their division lead to double-digits over all of them.
Thanks for reading, Steve