Sharks current record: 19-51-9 (.297)
Sharks projected record: 20-53-9 (.298)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

Our Sharks Sterility Stare will over soon, with just 3 games left on the San Jose Sharks’ schedule—including tonight’s home finale against the Minnesota Wild. On Monday, the team visits the Edmonton Oilers, and next Thursday, the season gets wrapped up in Calgary against the Flames. And that will be that, even as the Sharks celebrate a fun week that saw them lose in regulation, lose in overtime, and win in regulation.

It’s been a rough year for the team, as San Jose has all but clinched the worst record in the NHL. But considering the organization’s best player basically missed the whole season, it could have been a lot worse for the Sharks. That’s why we started this miniseries, in fact: to document the historical potential of the endeavor. Yet like the Oakland Futility Watch from last year’s MLB season, a lot has to go wrong for history.

We will touch on this next week, but San Jose endured an L11 to start the season; suffered an L12 before the midway point of the year; and struggled through two different L9s in the second half of the schedule. That’s a lot of fucking losses strung together, when you combined them into an L41, basically. That is not what a team wants to be when it’s labeled as “streaky”—it’s downright insane the Sharks ate so much ice in a row.

The other 38 games the team played weren’t bad at all: 19-10-9. That’s like a 5o-win team level of potential, really, if San Jose could have just avoided the major losing stretches. Alas, we all know it doesn’t work that way. Yet at the same time, it does signify some potential and optimism for the future: for example, goaltender Devin Cooley made 49 saves (!) in Thursday’s 3-1 victory on the road in Seattle. That’s just crazy.

Combined with the 34 saves he made in last weekend’s win over St. Louis in overtime, Cooley has been dynamic in net against some decent teams. Maybe he can be the No. 1 starter next year; maybe he won’t be. Either way, it’s exciting to watch young, hungry players rising to their heights in order to make a play for an NHL career that will last. We’d rather see 20 guys like that instead of 20 pampered, has-been veterans.

So here is to the final trio of games this season—and the kids who are hustlin’ to make the 2024-2025 team.