Our Sunday Surmising piece today looks at the sad-sack San Jose Sharks, who not only lost at home but also found two ways to embarrass themselves in the process. First, on Hispanic Heritage Night last night, the team displayed a political message on the Jumbotron that was an insult to the guests in the house, and second, the team outshot the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins, 31-27, but still managed to lose in a 3-0 shutout.

This team just doesn’t know how to win. After a crazy, dumb loss in the season opener the team followed that up with a repeat performance, blowing a two-goal, third-period lead in its second game of the season, before losing just 46 seconds into overtime. So, if you’re keeping score at home, San Jose blew a late lead in each of its first two games, before losing pretty quickly in overtime. The Sharks just don’t know anything.

In the third and fourth games, the team lost by a combined 11-4 score to drop to 0-2-2 on the season before hosting the Penguins. It was a weird game, again, for San Jose as it coughed up 18 SOGs in the first period alone, although the score was tied at zero after the first 20 minutes of play. But for those of us in attendance, we knew the Sharks couldn’t afford to give up that many shots and expect to have any chance.

Well, San Jose gave up just nine more SOGs in the remaining 40 minutes; unfortunately, three of those shots went in the net, two of them past beleaguered goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. While the Sharks were trying to generate some offense and failing the defensive effort—while stellar—just couldn’t do what it needed to do in this one. Sixteen different skaters notched a shot on goal for San Jose, but none found the net.

We applaud the effort even if the end result was the same. The Sharks fought until the end, but they just don’t have the coaching or the experience to overcome their youthful mistakes. San Jose just couldn’t maintain possession of the puck in their offensive zone, nor could they win faceoffs there, either, with any consistency. It’s amazing they even got that many shots near Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry, who was busy.

Alas, it was another loss in another frustrating way as the team remains winless this season through its first five games. Last year? The Sharks lost their first nine games before winning one. The campaign before that? San Jose lost its first 11 games before securing its first victory. What has the organization done in the last two years? A lot: changed the coach, added high draft picks, improved the roster with youthful talent, etc.

Yet nothing changes: absolutely nothing. So welcome to another rendition of the Sharks Sterility Stare (v3).