The San Jose Sharks now have 14 games left in the regular season and perhaps there’s a bit of team history to try and avoid.
The lowest points percentage the Sharks have had in a full season since they moved into their downtown arena in San Jose in 1993 is .287, set in 1995-96 when the team finished a year of upheaval at 20-55-7 for 47 points.
Winners of just one of their last 15 games, this year’s Sharks team enters Thursday’s date with the Tampa Bay Lightning at 16-45-7, owning that same .287 mark with 39 points. That means they need to collect at least eight of a possible 28 points to avoid setting a new non-Cow Palace era record for futility in a season.
More than that, though, the Sharks want to finish a dismal year in a dignified manner, or at least have better showings than they did Tuesday night when they were flattened by the Nashville Predators 8-2.
Leading by one midway through the second period, the Sharks allowed seven unanswered goals – including four in the third period – to finish off a 0-5-0 road trip.
The Sharks were competitive in the first four games of the trip, but everything went off the rails midway through the second period Tuesday. And after Michael McCarron scored midway through the third period to give Nashville a 5-2 lead, some Sharks players probably wanted the game — and the trip – to end right then and there.
“When our bad is bad, we look like we did tonight,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “As much as we’ve got to be better, we’ve got to make sure our bad isn’t as bad as tonight was.”
The Sharks were their own worst enemy late in the game, as they allowed three goals in the third period in a span of 2:03.
“You can’t let it snowball. There’s still opportunities for us to go and get some goals back,” Sharks winger Luke Kunin said. “But yeah, pretty embarrassing that last bit of the game.”
Here are three questions for the homestand, which continues with games against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
WHEN WILL BLACKWOOD RETURN?: Indications are goalie Mackenzie Blackwood is on the verge of returning to the Sharks’ lineup after missing the last 11 games with a groin injury.
It really can’t happen soon enough for the fragile Sharks, who need an NHL-experienced goalie now more than ever to help settle things down.
That’s not to pin San Jose’s recent struggles all on Magnus Chrona, who has had some positive moments in his first string of NHL starts. But he does have a .876 save percentage in his last seven games, and having Blackwood back will take some off Chrona’s plate and allow him to do more work with goalie coach Thomas Speer.
Blackwood should help, ahem, calm the waters for the Sharks, who would like nothing more than to see him play well and stay healthy for the rest of the season. From Jan. 1 to Feb. 27, Blackwood was 5-4-1 with a .919 save percentage. He can help.
WILL ANYONE GET PROMOTED?: The Sharks need to be somewhat judicious with their post-trade deadline recalls as each team is only allowed four non-emergency recalls from their AHL affiliate. Still, this is the time of year when non-playoff contending teams like the Sharks want to get a look at some players from their top farm clubs.
One wonders if this might be a time to get Jack Thompson up to the NHL. Thompson and a 2024 third-round draft were acquired from the Lightning on March 7 for Anthony Duclair and a 2025 seventh-rounder.
A Thompson recall doesn’t necessarily mean a fellow defenseman has to be reassigned to the Barracuda. But Henry Thrun is the only defenseman on the Sharks’ roster who doesn’t require waivers to go down.
Quinn thought Thrun struggled in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks, and against the Predators, the Harvard product was an unsightly -6, just short of the team record of -7 set by Doug Wilson in Feb. 1993 in a 13-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
WILL A LOSS SATURDAY CLINCH 32ND PLACE?: The Sharks figure to be underdogs to a Tampa Bay team that has now won four in a row since acquiring Duclair, who has five points in that time.
But what about Saturday’s game against the Blackhawks, who come to San Jose for the first time with Connor Bedard, who has 54 points in 55 games?
Entering Thursday, the Sharks are four points back of the 31st-place Blackhawks.
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Here’s a not-unrealistic scenario: The Sharks lose in regulation time on Saturday, and Chicago beats Anaheim on Thursday and San Jose on Saturday. At that point, the Sharks could be as many as eight points back of the Blackhawks with just 12 games left in the season.
If it were to get to that point, it’s tough to imagine the Sharks not finishing in last place in the NHL’s overall standings, and having a 25.5 percent chance of winning the draft lottery.
Conversely, two Sharks wins to start the homestand and they could be ahead of the Blackhawks. So there.
Who says the end of the season won’t hold some intrigue in San Jose?