Sharks current record: 6-16-2 (.292)
Sharks projected record: 23-57-2 (.292)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

The San Jose Sharks are on a roll, so maybe it’s time to BREAK UP THE SHARKS. Today on the Sharks Sterility Stare, we celebrate the fact that the holidays may have come early for San Jose—it only took 24 games for the Sharks to earn their first road victory of the season last night (6-3 against New Jersey). That victory caps off a week where San Jose also beat Vancouver and Washington at the Shark Tank. Stunning!

So, since our last update, the team added 3 wins to its season total, thereby boosting its winning percentage for the season almost 100 points in a very short span. The Sharks are two games into a six-game roadtrip, so getting this victory over the Devils last night was well timed, as San Jose will need a little boost of confidence in order to not lose the next four games against from home in the next 8 days before returning.

Still, all this is very positive: since the 0-10-1 start, the Sharks have posted a 6-6-1 record and are playing like a real NHL team. Maybe the opening stretch was an anomaly; after all, we all know pucks take funny bounces, even when you’re coughing up 10 goals in consecutive games. You have to be bad and unlucky for that to happen, right? Now, the San Jose organization seems to have righted the ship a little bit. Superb!

As noted above, the Sharks now have a decent projection ahead of them for the full season, although that is by no measure secure. The team still has to play 58 more games this season, and if San Jose plays .500 hockey from here on out, a tall order, it could finish with a respectable 35 wins—and wouldn’t that be something? The Sharks are in an obvious rebuilding phase, so anything better than last year works.

San Jose went 22-44-16 last year, to finish with 60 points. The team only has 14 points right now, but again, if the current pace holds up for a bit longer, the Sharks will have a great shot at besting last year’s mark and showing improvement. That attracts the late-career veterans with some juice still left in the tank, via free agency, and moves of this sort help the younger talent develop more quickly with veteran presences on site.

One veteran presence that is not helping them is age-36 defenseman Marc-Édouard Vlasic, who is also making $7.25M this year—and is still owed $8M combined over the next two seasons. The veteran blue liner has played in 14 games this season without notching a single point; the rest of his statistics are almost as bad. He is bringing next to nothing to the team while eating up a lot of the payroll in contrast to output.

Another issue is the $8M this season going to veteran center Logan Couture; he’s been out with a “lower-body injury” this entire season, and while this forces the younger talent to step up, the kids on the roster surely would benefit from his experienced presence on the ice next to them—not to mention his talent level. Couture did post 67 points last year, and the scoring punch he’d bring to the table is considerable.

Estimates suggest he could be back mid-month, but there’s not a lot to be optimistic about with this situation. It’s circumstantial and unfortunate, but it is what it is: still, the Sharks definitely need this guy on the ice, as they’re just throwing money away in the meantime. C Tomáš Hertl has 17 points in 23 games, and he’s making $7.5M—but he is one of only two Sharks skaters in double-digit points so far this year.

Think about that: 24 games into the season, and only two San Jose players have at least 10 points on the season, the other being veteran C Mikael Granlund … who has exactly 10 points after tallying 3 points last night. The fact the Sharks scored 6 goals in New Jersey last night actually is pretty shocking. With just 42 goals scored this season, San Jose still is dead last in the NHL for that category. Couture has been missed.

San Jose has reached that quarter point of the season now where the organization can start making wholesale changes, because it’s clear some of these skaters do not belong at the NHL level right now (if ever). There’s nothing to lose this season, so the general manager should start calling young guys up to see if any of them have the intangibles or the spark to make the NHL roster better now—and into the future, too.

Mix it up, Mike Grier. There’s no time like the present.