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Burning Barracuda Questions: When Will Askarov Play? Could Top Prospects Still Go Back to Juniors? (+)
Mikael Granlund a Natural Mentor for Will Smith (+)
Warsofsky Doing Things His Way in Surprising Sharks’ Training Camp (+)
Sharks’ Opening Night Roster Projection: Should Grier Claim Anyone Off Waivers? (+)
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ANAHEIM — The San Jose Sharks visit Honda Center to take on the Anaheim Ducks.
Mikael Granlund scored, but the Sharks lost again 3-1, and will start the season 0-5-2.
1 in: Nice change of pace for the San Jose Sharks to start the game with a power play. Walman-Granlund-Wennberg-Toffoli-Eklund is PP1. Thompson-Smith-Gushchin-Zetterlund-Kunin is PP2.
3 in: Really nice 1-on-1 defending by Ceci on Zegras. Negated a possible great Zegras chance.
Now Kunin gets a stick on Zegras, who had an open net to side. That would’ve been a sure goal.
6 in: Nice lead pass from Goodrow to Smith. He’s also been good on the PK to start.
Oh man, how did Gushchin miss that? Gauthier maybe too aggressive on forecheck, Gushchin blows by Carlsson, Wennberg serves him with a gimme. Off the crossbar, skitters on the line, stays out. Gushchin will be thinking about that if the Sharks lose.
9 left: Walman wants a slew foot call there. He did fall awkwardly, no call.
Love that stutter step by Gushchin to create space on Gudas, get his shot off. That’s an “I belong in the NHL” move.
7 left: Another outnumbered for the Sharks, Goodrow jumped on a loose puck, he and Smith off to the races. Good pass to Smith, who tried to tuck it under Dostal. Huge save. By all rights, Sharks could have a 3-0 lead now. There was a Kunin shorthanded post too.
Good recovery as acting F3 by Eklund there. Great hustle. Love to see it, stopped a pass up center lane.
5 left: Gushchin has had a great start, but don’t love that exit pass, gotta rewatch but can’t give it up the middle there. Eat it or lose it along side.
That’s a pass from Smith, backhand corner to Goodrow in slot.
2 left: Just noticed Kostin in OZ. Was thinking, “Pulp Fiction”, he needs to be a Bad Mother Fucker every night.
Another Granlund penalty. Ugh. He’s been so good otherwise this season, but that’s been a real problem. Ducks have had three power plays to Sharks’ one, always a losing proposition. San Jose has been good otherwise, Ducks have more 5v5 shots, but Sharks have clearly had way better chances.
Good keep-in efforts by Goodrow and Eklund as PK ends. Both have been good tonight.
2 in: Nifty Gushchin pass to Zetterlund attacking through middle. Good chance. Then on exit, nifty Goose pass through NZ.
4 in: Like Thompson demanding the puck high there, then quick shot that gets through. Shows confidence.
5 in: Dumoulin like catnip on FC for Eklund. Good shift for Sharks’ FC. Save for the penalties, if San Jose Sharks play like this whole year, they’re going to be fine…but I said that during the last Ducks game too.
6 in: And they keep taking penalties. Not a good penalty for Smith, you can’t do that. Bad penalty in OZ. Something he’ll have to learn from. “You cannot get your stick across the body” while defending, Remenda says, and he’s right. Hahn suggests that Zellweger dove, and he’s right. But Smith has to learn better.
Terry goal: You can’t stop the dam forever.
Ducks have had multiple chances the last couple minutes, San Jose Sharks need to steady the ship. It’s just a 1-0 deficit. Blackwood coming up big.
9 left: Smith tries a play that maybe works in college, not here. Basically tried to cut through the middle, pass to himself through a Ducks defender.
8 left: Good job by Thrun one-on-one up high on Terry. Sharks were in an almost static man to man D posture there. Very nice play.
7 left: Nice patience and feed by Thrun coming down slot. Think to Zetterlund. Fans too hard on Thrun, I think, I’m seeing legit improvement this year.
5 left: San Jose Sharks have restored order a bit after Ducks fed off Terry goal. Now for the Sharks to actually score.
Maybe Kostin got lost there in the middle? He was the Shark manning the middle, but his man beat him up the ice for a Ducks’ 2-on-1. Mega Blackwood save on McGinn.
Sharks getting a little loose here again. Strome just found himself open in slot, big Blackwood save.
1 left: Smith almost had his first point, point shot deflected, off post. Goodrow deflection. Then hilarious, in net scrum, Smith flagged down fellow USNTDP alum Zegras.
1 in: Good D work by Thompson on McGinn, making up for a turnover.
2 in: A lot of pressure by Ducks, Leo Carlsson almost Sportscenter’ed them, but they get out of it. Smith finds weakside for exit, Ferraro gets an OZ faceoff with smart dump, Goodrow was first in zone.
Don’t like Walman off OZ faceoff though, he reaches up high for puck, Duck gets past him. Just not a high percentage reach there. A little scrambly but Eklund covers for him on 2-on-2.
4 in: What a move by Eklund down low. He’s been getting better and better this season.
Wennberg goal: He needed it, first point and goal as a Shark.
Smith penalty: Oh no. You can’t be careless with your stick like that. Smith has to learn that fast, with the puck, he’s not hurting the Sharks, and he’s doing better defensively, but these penalties are very correctable and have to be corrected soon. There’s a balance where everyone knows it’s about development, but you’re getting in the way of the team getting a much-needed win.
Carlsson goal: I know Smith feels awful, but he’s gotta pick himself up. Stop trying to do so much. As Warsofsky noted recently, one shift at a time.
Toffoli breaks his stick against the bench door after that ENG.
Sharks' winless streak will go to 7 to start this season
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 23, 2024

Final: Ducks 3, Sharks 1.
San Jose played well at times, but remains the last winless team in the NHL.
— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 23, 2024

Sharks Locker Room: Ceci & Warsofsky Agree — Stop Complaining So Much to Refs
Bordeleau, Mukhamadullin Start Road Back to Sharks With Cuda Assignment


This is Sheng’s fault for giddily planning a win tweet before game 1 ended
Was already planning my parade outfit…learned my lesson!
James Hagens
They’ll revert to the mean and start getting more puck luck if this effort level continues. My bet is this is the worst losing streak by a long way for the rest of the season. Once they break it I don’t think they lose more than 4 in a row the rest of the season.
I like the positivity and agree that better luck should be coming. If they get healthy and the kids start to improve down the stretch, this bad start could look like a blessing when the draft order is set.
Even if it gets better, when they move Granlund (which they should), it’ll get worse. Can’t imagine Granlund wants to stick around after this season and not sure if the Sharks need another 33 year old forward on a multi-year deal, even if he is among their better players.
It feels more and more like 2023/24. Not good
Nah, these are almost all 1 goal games with an empty netter. Sharks getting blown out by 4 or 5 minimum last year during the opening losing streak and it looked they ween’t trying. This team is battling at least.
One of the worst teams in the league out shot the sharks by 20. This is not good.
“Smith tries a play that maybe works in college, not here. “ Posted a couple days back, for a lack of a better description, I thought Smith needed to get the ‘college’ out of his game. I’m finding myself more comfortable where Smith is. He’ll get the college out of his game, but its a process. Sometimes its moving a beat sooner to get a puck or engage in a puck battle. Sometimes its not realizing the NHL guys can make plays NCAA sorts can’t — the F3 video from an earlier post by Sheng showed one of those, the NHL… Read more »
Smith had no more bad plays than veteran guys on the team tonight IMO. He’s making real strides game to game. Thought he looked pretty great compared to game 1 of the season. At this point I’m all in the keep in the NHL camp until he hits a serious confidence wall, which may not happen with them regulating his number of games. They get Celly back in the lineup I can see a number of these games turning into wins simply because the matchups will change. Smith’s points are coming and coming fast. He’s a pretty amazing kid IMO.… Read more »
I can live with this. Played hard, killed themselves with penalties against a more talented team. Hit a few posts/crossbars and had some great chances. Goaltending was great, .950 Save %, obviously elite. Blackwood deserves a better fate so far this season. Love that Thrun and Thompson now in the top 4. Thompson looked great IMO and seemed to be rewarded as the game moved along. Rutta & Ferraro 3rd pair at the end of the game. Thompson basically playing 1st pair with Walman and looking great doing it. Get the youth movement going on D sooner than later. Now… Read more »
“Get the youth movement going on D sooner than later.”
100% agree. The defense is really what’s holding this team back from scoring enough to win, but it’s also the area the Sharks can potentially improve the most from within. We know what we have in Benning, Rutta, Ferraro, etc. They’re not going to magically get better overnight. But Thompson, Mukhamadullin, even Cagnoni to some degree – all three have upside we’ve yet to see. Handing the keys over to the young guys might be this team’s best chance at improving in-season. 
Don’t know why I feel that some of the penalties to the sharks were ticky tack BS calls going one way. Watch a replay of Eklund’s wraparound attempt and he is slashed on the wrist at least three times as he goes behind the net. And I’m already tired of Remendas endless yakking on what the refs are calling regarding the parallel stick; it isn’t called both ways so he can quit brown nosing the league. Granted, they aren’t playing well, but they are getting hosed on the calls as usual
I went to the home opener and had a great time, but admittedly was miffed by coaching decisions at that game… it felt totally winnable and HCRW’s turtling and line decisions felt like they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory… When Celebrini was ruled out I honestly stopped watching the games. Until he starts dressing again or until I hear about someone else stepping up… I just couldn’t watch the same Sharks as last year – rudderless and frustrating… So I have a question for my die-hards actually watching all the games: what has it looked like to you?… Read more »
Cannot say I agree, but at least you have a sense of humor. And last I checked, we are all entitled to our opinions. If the losing continues, I may need to borrow the Worseoffsky line.
My short review of the season so far is that the team has looked much more structured and competitive, but that it doesn’t matter much yet because the talent isn’t there. My worry at this point is that if the results don’t come, the players will stop buying in and that’s how we end up with another truly rudderless season. This team is so, so much better. But that’s no consolation for the players when they’re looking at a winless record through seven. The bounces haven’t been there, which is usually the case when you’re low on talent. But one… Read more »
Perfect breakdown. One thing I’ll add, this is why they added so many veteran high compete guys. They don’t give up easily. Ceci was part of that dismal start for the oilers so he has some at least anecdotal experience to pull from to help keep guys focused. As long as they continue to enjoy each other as teammates they should be able to hold it together. another thing to consider is that around Christmas this team could be rolling with Smith having taken a step, Celly playing and Askarov manning the net. They could be in a much different… Read more »
Seems like a lot of growing pains and sorta getting used to playing together, this is a factor of new system and huge turnover. They have been more enjoyable to watch. There are more chances it seems, more fun plays, more wow, more offensive zone time. I think the offence is more dynamic. However, I feel like wow same old D. Mario, has just worn me down, though I do not think he adjusts well to change so give it some time. Thompson should have to get pushed out, Thurn been getting better as has Whalman. Cece and Ruta look… Read more »
I was at the game as well. As the lead slipped away I noticed he was playing the veterans over the young guys, but they still lost the lead. Ironically he put the young guys out for the OT and they never touched the puck. I would have likely played more vets in the third, but also vets to start the OT. I think the potential downside of putting Mac and Smith out there was evident, and it came to pass. Hopefully not crushing their confidence too much.
What do you mean the lead slipped away? It didn’t slip away. Smith took a horrible penalty and they scored on the PowerPlay. It was a one goal game until the empty Netter. I don’t know what you mean about playing the veterans only. Smith played the whole time till the end when they were trying to get a goal. Period. Thompson was out there too a ton at the end. This forced narrative of him only playing veterans is just delusional. Eklund played a ton too.
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