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The San Jose Sharks’ season-opening losing streak extended to 10 games last night, suffering a 10-1 blowout loss to the Vancouver Canucks
With the Sharks now at just 10 goals across the 10 games this season, the Canucks scored as many goals last night as the Sharks have all season.
After Nico Sturm took a four-minute high-sticking penalty early in the first period, the Canucks struck quickly, with Brock Boeser blasting a one-timer past Kaapo Kahkonen to open the scoring only about two minutes in. Then with the remaining half of the penalty still needing to be served, J.T. Miller managed to finish off a great dump/pass off the end-boards, with the Canucks going up 2-0 from two power play goals in the first four minutes.
The Canucks weren’t done there, and about four minutes later, Quinn Hughes threw a shot on net from the point and it found its way in as well, making it a three-goal game through the first eight minutes. Then later on, the Canucks found themselves on yet another power play, and Brock Boeser batted a puck out of mid-air and in, to make it 4-0 through 20 minutes.
Vancouver scored again only about a minute into the second frame, with Carson Soucy finding Ilya Mikheyev at the side of the net with a nice pass. Then close to the midway mark of the period, Andrei Kuzmenko came down on a rush and beat Kahkonen with a well-placed shot to make it 6-0, before accidentally bumping into Kahkonen after getting the shot off. Kuzmenko made contact with Kahkonen’s head, which forced the netminder out of the game.
Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t do much better, allowing a wraparound goal that went in off Mario Ferraro’s skate pretty quickly after entering the game, making it 7-0 midway through the game. Then closer to the end of the frame, Quinn Hughes found Pius Suter on a 2-on-1 and Suter beat Blackwood, to give the Canucks an 8-0 lead through 40 minutes.
Anthony Beauvillier then snuck a puck through Blackwood on yet another power play only minutes into the third period. Then in the back half of the frame, Beauvillier struck again, making it a 10-0 game.
Fabian Zetterlund did get the Sharks on the board with minutes remaining, so at least the fans who remained at the game until the end had something to celebrate, but the Sharks still fell 10-1.
I don’t know how much really needs to be said about this one. It’s not like the Sharks have even looked competitive in many of their losses so far this year, and this could verge on one of the worst NHL teams of the last decade.
A lot of the time, the Sharks just can’t sustain any momentum at all in the offensive zone and while they may generate chances at times, they’re mostly one-off opportunities. San Jose’s penalty kill (or lack thereof) was a huge factor as well, giving up four power play goals to the Canucks.
I will say the Sharks actually put together a decent third period, where they started to get some better chances. But when you’re down 8-0 after the second period, does that really matter?
Obviously, the talent just isn’t there, but even the least talented teams in the league in a given year would usually put up some sort of a fight. I think maybe the most concerning thing is that nobody is stepping up to actually make an impact on a nightly basis. Usually you can at least draw positives from “x young player is taking a big step” or “this veteran is playing well enough to bring back some assets at the trade deadline”, but there’s almost none of that.
There’s no momentum at all. Not from the team as a whole, not from any specific line, not from any single player.
So we’ll see how long it takes to get this first win. San Jose will be back in action tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are struggling out of the gate as well. Obviously not struggling to the Sharks’ level – nobody is struggling to the Sharks’ level – but it may be one of San Jose’s better chances at getting this first win.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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