Joe Thornton’s knee injury has him out six to eight weeks. The Sharks have dropped four straight for the first time all season, including a shootout loss to the hapless Red Wings on the road. They have little to no assets to trade at the deadline, and will not be making a major impact move. The sky seems to be falling on San Jose—or is it? Losing four straight, in any sport, is never a good thing, but the Sharks have played relatively well in three of those four.
Peter DeBoer’s squad can bury the game tape on the 6-5 home loss against the New York Rangers. This was the first full game after Thornton’s injury, and they came out looking shell-shocked (including the coach). The line combinations didn’t work, and it was one of the poorest defensive games they played all year. Losing your emotional leader, and one of the leading scorers on the team hurts—a lot. They had quite a bit of reorganizing to do after Thornton’s injury, so call the Rangers game a wash.
The Sharks then traveled to Pittsburgh to begin the first game of a road back to back. The Penguins are a team that has had San Jose’s number since, well, I don’t have to bring that up again.
The scoreboard will not show it, but San Jose actually outplayed Pittsburgh that night in an unlucky 5-2 loss, out-shooting the back to back Stanley Cup Champs 42-31. But, the Pens capitalized on what were two of the worst turnovers you’ll see all season. Brent Burns and Martin Jones both made inexplicable errors behind their own net, leading to the easiest hat-trick of Evgeni Malkin’s career, which included an empty-netter at the end of the game.
The second game of the road back-to-back involved the Sharks’ first trip to the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit (a horrible name for a hockey arena, but alas). The Sharks came out firing but were thwarted by an awesome effort from Red Wings Goalie Petr Mrazek. The Sharks were out shot by the Winged Wheel 44-31, but were bailed out by the best effort this team has seen from Martin Jones since the beginning of December. Jones made 43 out of 44 saves and looked the sharpest he’d been since his nagging injury. The only goal for Detroit came on Trevor Daley’s backhand that squeaked by Jones. San Jose tied the game late in the third period with a power-play goal on a rocket from Kevin LeBanc. That would be the only goal for the Sharks in regulation and OT. The game ended in a rare seven-round shootout with the Red Wings Tomas Tatar’s slick goal, and an eventual game-winning save from Mrazek on Tomas Hertl’s final shootout attempt.
There were some positives to take from each of those games. The Sharks played pretty well offensively, and the four lines are showing signs of gelling without Joe Thornton. It is going to be a difficult road ahead without number nineteen. But this is a veteran club and have weathered many a storm.
The Sharks have a difficult three games left on this five-game road trip. Including two tough games against Eastern Conference opponents Columbus Blue Jackets, and the young and raw Carolina Hurricanes. A team that gave the Sharks some trouble early in the year. It would be an accomplishment for this team just to tread water in the Pacific Division until Jumbo’s return.