The San Jose Sharks have little to be thankful for this weekend, as they currently have a 3-game losing streak that has dropped their record to 3-15-2 overall this season. For this installment of Sharks Sterility Stare, we’re going to revisit the goaltender issue which is problematic still, for a few reasons—the least of which is the struggle to win an overtime shootout. This current L3 lowlights the issues the Sharks have.

First, Monday’s 3-1 loss at Vancouver: once again, San Jose couldn’t score much, and the Sharks are not going to emerge victorious too often when scoring just once. But the circumstances here were brutal: San Jose gave up a short-handed goal with 1 second left in the second period to fall behind 2-0. Then, on the same power play, the Sharks scored to make it a 2-1 game with 19-plus minutes remaining in the game.

Watching the video of the shortie, it’s clear to see San Jose goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood was left hanging out to dry by misguided teammates. His .919 save percentage for the game was pretty good, but the Sharks continue to cough up way too many shots and scoring chances to the opponents. And while San Jose did score to get the goal back, the point is the Canucks never should have been up 2-0 in the first place.

If it’s tied 1-1 with 19-plus minutes left, maybe the Sharks find a way to win. Maybe they lose, anyway. Yet every hockey fan knows two things: giving up a shorthanded goal is soul crushing, and so is giving up a goal with mere seconds left in any period. The former is common sense; the latter we personally learned watching the 1980 Winter Olympics medal-round game between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.—soul crushing.

Moving on to Wednesday’s ugly 7-1 loss in Seattle, the Sharks were just terrible on defense: both goalies were terrible, as Kaapo Kähkönen coughed up 4 goals in the first period and Blackwood gave up 3 more goals in the last 40 minutes. Overall, this was just a total team failure and perhaps a wee bit of a hangover from Monday’s disappointing conclusion in Vancouver. Maybe the blame for this one goes to the coaches.

Finally, the Sharks finished off their holiday week with a 3-2 overtime shootout loss at home against the Montréal Canadiens on Friday. Once again, San Jose could not hold on to a third-period lead, as after going up 2-0 in the second period, the Sharks gave up a goal with 1:58 left in that frame before surrendering the game-tying goal in the third period. Then, San Jose lost in the shootout to drop another game this year.

Blackwood’s .917 save percentage was very good, but in the shootout, he allowed two goals on six attempts by the Habs. Once again, there’s only so much the goalie can do when he feels he needs to be perfect to win. The defensive failures continue to pile up here, and that puts even more pressure on the goalie. Blackwood’s overall effort right now—his .897 S% is better than his effort last year with New Jersey—isn’t that bad.

The problem is Blackwood, and the others backing him up, are facing too many shots. In fact, Blackwood’s percentage of quality starts this year (61.5%) is the highest of his career since his first season in the NHL back in 2018-2019. However, the fatigue is real for him, as when he has been bad? He’s been really bad, and when it comes down to it, San Jose’s defensive schemes and personnel are perhaps the biggest issue here.

Think about it, however: the Sharks have lost two All-Star defensemen in the last two offseasons. First, Brent Burns was traded in July 2022 to the Carolina Hurricanes, and then Erik Karlsson was traded in August 2023 to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This has left the blue line all but vacant in San Jose now, and it’s showing almost nightly: the Sharks have allowed 659 shots this year, 34 more than the next-worst team.

Yet six teams have worse save percentages in net than San Jose does, so again that’s a testament to Blackwood’s decent play this year under the circumstances. On the flip side, the Sharks have attempted the third-fewest shots this year, and they’re just 2 shots better overall than the worst team in the league right now. Giving up the most shots and taking the fewest shots? Is no one’s recipe for success in hockey, period.

Sharks current record: 3-15-2 (.200)
Sharks projected record: 16-64-2 (.200)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)