SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks have struggled with attendance at SAP Center this season but have still played six games before announced crowds of 17,000 fans or more.
The Sharks have now lost all six, with the latest coming in exasperating fashion.
Friday night, the Sharks carried a lead into the third period only to give up four unanswered goals – including two in 23 seconds while shorthanded – in a 6-3 loss to Tomas Hertl and the Vegas Golden Knights.
Fans were loud and energetic throughout. But on this six-game losing streak, which the Sharks will carry into Saturday’s home game against the Calgary Flames, they’ve held a third-period lead five times and have one point to show for it.
“Extremely frustrating,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “I think our fans deserve a lot more than that.”
Friday’s crowd of 17,435, the Sharks’ fourth announced sellout in 18 home games so far this season, saw the Sharks take a 3-2 lead into the third period on goals by Shakir Mukhamadullin, Will Smith, and Tyler Toffoli.
But it all came apart shortly after the Sharks (11-21-6) began a power play early in the third period.
With the Sharks leading 3-2, Brayden McNabb took a pass from Jack Eichel, entered the San Jose zone, and ripped a shot past goalie Alexandar Georgiev to tie the game at the 1:03 mark of the third period.
Just 23 seconds later, the Golden Knights broke out of their own to set up a 2-on-2. After taking a pass from Mark Stone, Eichel split Alexander Wennberg and Timothy Liljegren, got in alone, and beat Georgiev with a backhand to forehand move.
There was still 18:33 left in regulation time, but it felt like a death blow to a fragile Sharks team that has done nothing but struggle in the third period for the better part of two weeks.
“We stopped skating. Stopped hunting the puck and then (pucks) end up in the back of our net,” Warsofsky said.
Before Friday, the Sharks’ average announced crowd was only 13,352, or 76.6 percent of capacity, through their first 16 home games this year.
After Friday, San Jose is now 0-5-1 in games with an announced crowd of 17,000 or more.
Another big crowd might be on hand on Saturday. We’ll see how the Sharks respond. So far, it’s been pretty dismal.
“We want to be better for the crowd,” Smith said. “When this building’s packed, it’s pretty loud. We want to make sure we go out there before and perform for them. We want them to come watch our games. We want to get a W there in the third, and we’ve got to be better for them.”
The Sharks are using the slogan ‘The Future is Teal’ this season. Right now, fans must take the 31st-place Sharks at their word.
“We should be winning these hockey games,” Warsofsky said. “We have leads. When we play together, when we play the right way with our structure and with our effort, I think we put teams on their heels, and when we have, we play some pretty good hockey.
“But again, we don’t do it consistently enough, and we’re going to keep getting this result until we do it.”
Not only did the Sharks’ power play personnel allow two goals, but it also went 0-for-3 with the man advantage, generating four shots on goal.
“This can’t happen,” Wennberg said of the glaring power play issues. “Right now, in this stretch here, we’ve been having the lead and just finding ways to lose games. We had a little break here, but it’s the same story.”
“We’ve got to learn from this, and I think it’s got to come from within the room,” Warsofsky said. “We have to understand and learn what it takes to win in this league, and we don’t know what it takes to win.”
Warsofsky again tweaked his forward lines with William Eklund injured and unavailable, and had Smith play with Macklin Celebrini and Fabian Zetterlund. The trio was exciting to watch, especially in the first two periods.
On Smith’s goal at the 5:53 mark of the second period, Celebrini created a turnover in the neutral zone. With an extra effort by Celebrini, the puck came back to Smith, who sent a no-look pass back to Celebrini before he charged the net. Celebrini put a shot on goal and then sent a pass to Smith, who knocked it across the line for his sixth goal.
Still, it continues to be a learning process for all of the Sharks’ younger players and for some who are not so young.
“Offensively, they do some good things,” Warsofsky said of the line. “But what we’re trying to build here is winning habits, foundation habits, to win in this league, and you see organizations up and down this league that are still struggling with their young players to figure out what it takes to win. And It needs to start now. It can’t start in two or three years. It needs to start now.
“That is a message with our group, with our younger players, with our older players, the winning foundational habits that you need to play with in this league to win. It’s pretty simple and pretty direct. And if we don’t do that, this is going to be a long process, and we don’t want it to be a long process.”
