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The San Jose Sharks dropped their first two games following the holiday break this week, falling 6-2 to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, followed by a 4-3 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
Against the Canucks, the Sharks got down early and had a hard time trying to get back into the game. After Bo Horvat buried a rebound to open the scoring, later in the frame, Vancouver’s forwards were able to take several whacks at a loose puck, before Elias Pettersson scored to make it 2-0. San Jose did get one back on a power play before the end of the opening frame, with Timo Meier converting off a perfect pass from Erik Karlsson, but Vancouver took a huge lead in the second period, with early goals from Ilya Mikeyhev and then Quinn Hughes making it a 4-1 game. The Sharks did get some quality chances in the final frame but Bo Horvat ended up burying his second goal of the contest to make it 5-1, and while Meier managed his second of the game as well to get one back, a late tally from Brock Boeser left the Canucks with a 6-2 win.
Then last night, the Sharks faced another team who’s been struggling this season, being the Philadelphia Flyers. In a first period that saw some pretty good chances exchanged both ways, the Sharks struck first off a goal from Tomas Hertl midway through the period. The Flyers did respond quickly though, with Travis Konecny tipping in a shot from Tony DeAngelo under a minute later.
San Jose went back ahead in the second period, with Hertl redirecting a pass from Timo Meier to score on a power play. The Sharks put together a strong middle frame overall and sustained a ton of pressure on a late power play (where Logan Couture was robbed off a great save from Samuel Ersson), but remained ahead by one through 40 minutes.
Then under a minute into the final frame, Kevin Labanc beat Ersson with a perfect shot coming down the wing, making it a 3-1 game. However, Owen Tippett converted on a clever pass to catch Kaapo Kahkonen off guard a few minutes later, cutting the lead to one. Still though, the Sharks did a decent job holding the lead, only giving up six shots in the frame.
But then with two minutes to go and Philadelphia’s net empty, Travis Konecny just threw the puck on net and it redirected off Mario Ferraro and in, tying the game. The matchup continued to overtime, where the Sharks gave up a 3-on-1 about a minute in, which was finished off by Tony DeAngelo, as Philadelphia completed the comeback for the win.
It’s kind of a theme that the Sharks pretty consistently manage to stay competitive in games, but rarely actually come away with the win. The loss to Vancouver wasn’t as lopsided as the score would suggest, and they had the lead against the Flyers, just to end up blowing it.
Some of it can be chalked up to lapses, while a timely save would be great as well. It doesn’t necessarily seem like there’s a clear solution, but for as poor as the Sharks’ roster is, they’ve been performing better than their placement in the standing would suggest.
Regardless though, they still just can’t seem to keep the puck out of their net. The Sharks have now allowed at least four goals in four of their last five games, and the 10 goals they allowed over the two games this week came on just 51 shots.
In some positive news, Erik Karlsson continues to completely dominate, with four assists over the two games. He’s now tied for fifth in the NHL in points, with the only players ahead of him being Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jason Robertson and Nikita Kucherov.
The Sharks will be back in action for a road back-to-back this weekend, starting tomorrow against the Dallas Stars.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM DECEMBER
Sharks come up short against Maple Leafs, fall 3-1
Sharks give up three power play goals, lose 5-2 to Senators
Sharks fall to Sabres in final game of road trip for third straight loss
Ranking the Sharks’ offseason additions based on their play this season
Sharks beaten by Canucks in overtime for fourth loss in a row
Eetu Makiniemi earns win in first NHL start, Sharks beat Ducks 6-1
Sharks fall to Kings in shootout but point streak extends to four games
Sharks collapse against Flames, Tomas Hertl suspended
Sharks allow seven goals in rematch vs. Flames, Luke Kunin done for season
Sharks head into holiday break on high note with win over Wild
Sharks prospects Filip Bystedt and Benjamin Gaudreau participating in WJC 
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