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The San Jose Sharks picked up a shutout win over the Montreal Canadiens last night, coming away with a 4-0 victory.
It marked the end of a three-game losing streak for the Sharks. The series of losses had seen San Jose give up eight goals against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, before coming up short against the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 loss on Friday and then badly outshooting the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday, despite still falling 4-3 in overtime.
Last night though, the Sharks capitalized early, with Matt Nieto putting San Jose on the board only 1:33 into the game. After putting about seven shots on goal in the first five minutes, however, the Sharks didn’t manage another shot for the rest of the frame, as Kaapo Kahkonen had to make some key saves to protect the lead. We then saw a really slow second period after that, where each team managed just six shots and despite a few good chances being exchanged, neither team could capitalize.
Early in the third period, the Sharks extended their lead off a redirect from Tomas Hertl and then just a minute later, Logan Couture snuck a shot through Jake Allen on a breakaway for a three-goal lead. Hertl then added an empty netter late in the frame, to secure a Sharks win.
Special teams obviously played a factor, as the Sharks’ penalty kill continued to have great success, killing off all six of Montreal’s power plays (despite the fact San Jose also went 0-for-5 with the man advantage).
It’s good to see the Sharks picking up the road win to snap their losing streak, but Kaapo Kahkonen also had to be very good and was called upon to come up with key stops pretty consistently. San Jose has dropped five of their last seven games, and now at the 25-game mark of the season, it’s a good time to assess the team so far.
As of now, San Jose sits 29th in the NHL in points percentage, with just a 8-13-4 record. They already sit 15 points back of the Pacific Division leading Vegas Golden Knights.
There have been some positives, though. Following a five-game losing streak to start the year, the Sharks have actually been somewhat competitive. Their top players are performing like top players after a slow start as well, with Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier all hovering around point-per-game numbers. Alexander Barabanov has been really good as well, with 15 points in 21 games, while Kevin Labanc has been more impactful. On the blue line, Erik Karlsson is having a massive resurgence, with 11 goals and 32 points this season already.
Many of the offseason additions have actually worked out alright: Nico Sturm has been a steady defensive presence and was producing better than expected before being injured. Luke Kunin is also adding a bit of secondary offense and Steven Lorentz adds some intensity on the forecheck.
But with the Sharks looking like they’ll miss the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, the biggest thing is that they still really don’t have any sort of direction right now.
They’ve performed pretty much in-line with expectations so far, which is kind of the issue. There weren’t really any hopes that San Jose would find their way back to the postseason, but the Sharks also haven’t done a ton in terms of active efforts to build for the future.
Their remaining core is aging, so giving up future assets to improve should be out of the question. They also don’t have enough cap space to actually make any additions anyways.
Yet they also aren’t rebuilding, with Tomas Hertl on the first year of a brand new eight-year contract. Their prospect pool remains fairly weak, and they don’t have many high-end prospects who are ready to take spots in the lineup right now. The Sharks are just sort of directionless this season, even though that’s been an issue for a while now.
Timo Meier remains perhaps the one notable trade asset, given he’ll be a restricted free agent this summer. The decision on whether or not to trade him before the deadline is undoubtedly a major one.
Looking ahead at the remaining 57 games, San Jose isn’t likely to make the playoffs, but also probably won’t finish low enough to get a top draft pick. Perhaps we see Meier dealt, or the team opts to continue pushing off a rebuild. In the meantime, we can hope the team keeps games competitive, but shouldn’t expect any sort of large-scale turnaround.
The Sharks will be back in action tonight for the second half of their back-to-back, when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM NOVEMBER
Erik Karlsson’s hat trick not enough as Sharks fall to Ducks in shootout
Sharks mount comeback against Panthers but still fall in a shootout
Sharks outplay Ducks but blow another lead for third straight shootout loss
Sharks split road back-to-back, beat Stars following loss to Blues
Sharks split road back-to-back, beat Stars following loss to Blues
Sharks battle back to defeat Wild in shootout
Sharks cap off successful road trip with win over Golden Knights
Sharks give up seven goals in loss to Red Wings
James Reimer makes 41 saves but Sharks still fall 2-1 to Rangers
Kaapo Kahkonen comes up big for Sharks in win over Senators 
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