Sharks current record: 16-42-7 (.300)
Sharks projected record: 21-54-7 (.299)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

The Sharks Sterility Stare reaches its 20th edition today, and there’s little to report in a week that saw the San Jose Sharks lose 2 more games to “reclaim” the worst record in the NHL. While the team is probably not going to go on an L19 to end the season, that remains the only scenario in which the Sharks end up with the worst record in league history for an 82-game season—which was the fear that motivated this whole series.

Yes, San Jose has 17 games left on the schedule, and only if the franchise lost every remaining game in regulation would it finish with a record below that above. The Sharks unloaded some overpriced bums last week at the trade deadline, and they’ve committed to starting a young goaltender for the rest of the season, too, so the wins may come less often than they have hitherto. But the math is in the team’s favor right now.

That may change: already this season, San Jose has put together losing streaks of 11, 12, and 9 games, respectively. After losing 3-2 in Philadelphia and 6-3 in Pittsburgh this week, the Sharks are working on an L2, currently. But even in those terrible losing slides earlier this season, the team managed to reach overtime on multiple occasions: once in the L11 and twice in the L9. They should be able to do it once more.

It’s interesting that the team has used only 3 goalies this season, as more often than not, a team this bad will cycle through as many netminders in the organization as possible in order to find a decent one. At age 23, Magnus Chrona is the perhaps the future of the franchise in the crease: he has made 6 starts this season, and 3 them have qualified as “quality starts”—with 5 of those starts having come in this month of March.

He dropped that shootout in Dallas where the offense should have won the game for him multiple times, and then he beat Ottawa at home last Saturday. He’s been inconsistent, but Chrona also has shown flashes of brilliance behind a roster that is bereft of talent. The team has a lot of rebuilding to do, and with “the next Gretzky” nowhere to be found in the next NHL Draft, turning the franchise around will take a lot.

So, as we approach the final weeks of the regular season, we will anticipate the next few points that will secure the Sharks’ place outside the record book of futility; our final visit to the team in person should be on March 23—next Saturday, against the Chicago Blackhawks, who won last year’s draft lottery and landed a franchise difference maker. Alas, the San Jose organization probably won’t be so fortunate come summer.