The San Jose Sharks went out this summer and added a handful of players with a history of working hard and playing a responsible, two-way game. These were critical pieces for the Sharks, who were in the nascent stages of forming an identity and taking baby steps forward in developing a culture.
What the Sharks didn’t add was a ton of offense.
Although Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith were coming in, Tyler Toffoli was the only proven elite goal scorer added to the lineup, and he was going to be tasked, for all intents and purposes, with filling the offensive void left behind by the departure of Tomas Hertl.
The only healthy players on the Sharks roster who have scored 20 goals in an NHL season besides Toffoli are Mikael Granlund (two times) and Fabian Zetterlund (once, last season).
With that in mind, is it a complete surprise to see the Sharks struggle on offense as much as they have?
With their 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, the Sharks have now gone three-plus games, or nearly 190 minutes, without an even-strength goal. The last four goals the Sharks scored came on the power play, with three coming from Mikael Granlund and one by William Eklund.
The Sharks (0-6-2) have seven even-strength goals in eight games, the fewest in the NHL on a per-game basis. Their 1.88 goals per game average is also the worst.
The Sharks scored the second-fewest 5-on-5 goals in the NHL last season with 119.
The Sharks, who face Hertl and the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, are the second team in NHL history to go winless through eight games in back-to-back seasons, joining the 1960-61 and 1961-62 Bruins.
The Sharks started last season 0-10-1, prompting a team meeting in which general manager Mike Grier did most of the talking.
It’s not guaranteed San Jose can avoid the same 11-game losing streak. After Saturday’s game against the Knights (4-2-1), the Sharks finish the road trip at Utah (4-3-1) on Monday before they return home to face the Kings (4-2-2) the next day. There are no easy nights for San Jose.
“I just want to win a game,” Zetterlund said. “It doesn’t matter how it looks and how we do it, we’ve just got to win.”
The Sharks, again, didn’t start on time – remarkable considering they knew the Kings were playing their home opener and were coming off a lopsided loss to the Golden Knights two days earlier.
Before some privileged fans could even start in on their prime roast beef or hand-carved turkey sandwiches from the luxe Buss Stop inside Crypto.com Arena, the Sharks were down a goal and trailed 3-0 after the first 11:36. Jordan Spence collected one, and Warren Foegele added two for the Kings.
The Sharks had plenty of time to come back but had trouble generating many quality scoring chances, especially at even strength. The Kings gave the Sharks six power plays, including four in the final two periods, allowing them to close the gap as Granlund scored midway through the second period and with one minute left in the third.
In between, other Sharks players – including some new to the team — put the work boots on and forechecked, won battles, and won some races. San Jose was the better team for parts of the second period and most of the third.
But the finish at even strength was once again lacking.
“You saw the second half of the game. We started to wear them down, got pucks behind them, and started playing more towards our identity,” Sharks winger Luke Kunin said. “Just got to be consistent in doing that. For us to string together – we’ve got to get the first one — but if we do that consistently, that’s how we’re going to get wins for our group.”
Most nights, the Sharks face a talent disparity, especially without Celebrini and Logan Couture.
The six players the Sharks had on Thursday’s third and fourth lines now have a combined five points this season. The six players on the Kings’ bottom two lines now have 16 points.
The Sharks still have not gotten a goal from one of their defensemen, although rookie Jack Thompson assisted on all three of Granlund’s power-play goals.
“We need guys to step up, we need a lot of guys to step up and be more consistent night after night, and we’re just not getting that at all,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “A lot of passengers, and when one guy’s going, the next night, he’s not going. We’ve got to find some consistency in our game.”
The Sharks could undoubtedly use more offense from Alexander Wennberg, who had his first point of the season Thursday, or from fellow newcomers Carl Grundstrom, Ty Dellandrea, and Jake Walman.
But those players have never been major point producers in the NHL, at least not lately. Wennberg had a 59-point season in 2016-17 but has averaged less than a half-point per game since. Dellandrea and Grundstrom’s career highs in a season are 28 and 19 points, respectively.
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Walman has had a solid start for the Sharks, averaging about 23 minutes in ice time, but we haven’t seen the Griddy yet.
All of those players and others have helped the Sharks stay competitive in most games. Now, it’s a matter of generating more chances, although it won’t be easy. Not right now.
“You saw towards the end when we were getting pucks behind them and playing that blue-collar style,” Kunin said. “Just physical, feisty, getting pucks to the net, getting it behind him, not being cute at the blue lines, we were getting looks. We’re getting sustained time in their zone, and that’s what we got to do more of.”