Sharks current record: 15-33-5 (.330)
Sharks projected record: 24-52-6 (.330)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

We’re back from the All-Star break on the Sharks Sterility Stare, and with only two games to discuss, it will be a shorty today. The San Jose Sharks have gone 1-1 in the last week since firing up the engines after a 2-week break from games, and we’re pretty confident at this point that the team will avoid the infamy the 0-10-1 start to the season teased us all with last fall. It’s now fun to watch San Jose hockey again, for sure.

To get back into the swing of things, the league handed the Sharks back-to-back road games in Canada this week, which seems kind of rough. However, San Jose did pretty well, all things, considering outscoring the Winnipeg Jets and the Calgary Flames by a combined 6-4 margin. Unfortunately, the first game—on St. Valentine’s Day in Winnipeg—ended up in a 1-0 defeat where goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen was amazing.

But despite his making 38 saves, the Sharks skaters couldn’t penetrate the Jets’ net, getting a mere 17 shots on goal themselves in a relatively pathetic effort. But as fate would have it, the team didn’t dwell on it … or didn’t have time to do so, as the next game came right away. And San Jose responded well, dropping the Flames, 6-3, thanks to 4 points from one-time prospect, right wing Filip Zadina (2 goals, 2 assists).

Zadina was the No. 6 overall pick in 2018 by the Detroit Red Wings, and now at age 24 with the Sharks, he’s trying to reboot his career. It hasn’t been successful, really, with just 17 points in 48 games—including this effort against Calgary. Maybe it’s a sign of changing times, but we’d have to see it to believe it. Until then, he always will have this 4-point game to remind him of his own potential and talent at the NHL level, right?

Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood made 31 saves in the win, as the San Jose skaters managed to get 31 shots off themselves, which was impressive energy on the second night of a B2B road situation. In fact, with the 6-goal outburst, the Sharks are no longer the lowest-scoring team in the NHL: that distinction now goes to the Chicago Blackhawks, who also have a worse record (14-37-3) despite the Sharks having a game in hand.

The team now has a 29-game sprint to the end of the regular season, starting with a home matchup tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets (16-26-10). In fact, San Jose is now home for the rest of the month, with 5 games to perhaps build some momentum. In order, it’s the Blue Jackets, the Vegas Golden Knights (31-16-6), the Nashville Predators (27-25-2), the New Jersey Devils (27-22-4), and the Anaheim Ducks (19-32-2).

[Ironically, we will be in Las Vegas this week and catching the defending champions against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, but we digress.]

The next 5 games at home could produce 2 or 3 wins for San Jose, so we will certainly keep an eye on this for you, as with every week, the team usually seems to get better and better, and that’s encouraging for next year and beyond. Now that the relief from avoiding disaster has passed, probably, it’s time to get back to just enjoying the youth movement for what it is … love of the game, and all that stuff. Zamboni time!