SAN JOSE – The Sharks are feeling better about their game right now than they did at the start of the season – a belief strengthened by the fact that they hung tough against three of the NHL’s better teams last week in the first half of a six-game homestand.
Now, as the Sharks enter the second half of the homestand, starting with Tuesday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, that belief has to turn into actual results.
As well as the Sharks played at times against Vegas, Toronto, and Tampa Bay, they still came away with just two of a possible six points, leaving them in seventh place in the Pacific Division, just ahead of Anaheim.
“It’s kind of frustrating because we played like three of the best teams in the NHL the last three games,” center Tomas Hertl said, “and we at least should have (picked up) four points.”
Now at 3-8-0, the Sharks need to start stringing some wins together soon if they have any hope of climbing back into the playoff picture. After Tuesday, San Jose plays the Florida Panthers on Thursday and faces the Ducks again on Saturday.
“We feel like maybe we could have a better record. But we don’t,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “No one cares why. They just look at 1-2 in the homestand. Nobody wants to hear a story about your record, you’re either winning or you’re losing.”
Quinn said the Sharks were furious immediately after their 4-3 loss to the Lightning on Saturday, as blown coverage on a back check led to a Nikita Kucherov goal inside the final minute.
The ticked-off response was different from what Quinn said he experienced after losses earlier in the year when players were still trying to figure out what kind of team they had.
“There’s a feeling now over the last 10 days that I hadn’t felt earlier or we hadn’t felt earlier,” Quinn said. “There was a level of disappointment that I don’t know if I ever felt from our team after a loss because I think they expected to win. Whereas exactly two weeks ago, I don’t think that was there.
“I think there was a lot of wondering, ‘what are we going to look like, how good can we be,’ and I think we’re starting to understand what we’re capable of doing if we’re consistent with the things we’re trying to accomplish.”
In Monday’s practice, Quinn kept his forward lines the same as they were for Saturday’s game, which meant Evgeny Svechnikov remained on the top line with Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl.
That wasn’t necessarily because Quinn loved what that line did against the Lightning, but because he didn’t want to break up the other three lines centered by Logan Couture, Nico Sturm, and Steven Lorentz.
Sturm scored his fifth goal of the season Saturday and is one behind Erik Karlsson for the team lead.
Both the Couture line with Alexander Barabanov and Matt Nieto, and the Lorentz line with Kevin Labanc and Oskar Lindblom, per Natural Stat Trick, created three high-danger chances and allowed only two against an elite team during 5-on-5 play.
“We’ve built off a lot of things as the season’s gone on, gotten better at it,” Couture said, adding that Barabanov, “holds onto pucks extremely well for a small guy, uses his body to protect it. Very heady player, and sees the ice extremely well, obviously a pass-first guy.
“I like to shoot pucks so I need to get myself into better scoring positions because he’ll find me, and (Nieto’s) just a really hard-working player.”
After this homestand, the Sharks begin a tough road trip with games against St. Louis, Dallas, and Minnesota – all playoff teams from last season. They finish the trip on Nov. 15 in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights, who are 8-2-0, including a 4-2 win at SAP Center on Oct. 25.
All of which presumably heightens the importance of these next three games. Although the Panthers are expected to at least contend for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, the Ducks remain in a major rebuild and might be one of the teams the Sharks can expect to beat.
Quinn said he felt Hertl and Meier created more chances on Saturday. If they can produce more goals, and if Karlsson keeps playing at a high level, then maybe the Sharks will have a chance to get on a run. They won’t get a better opportunity than right now.
“They’re going to score, I’ve got no problem about that,” Quinn said of Meier and Hertl.
“We look better in the (offensive) zone. There’s more tempo, the (defensemen) are involved at the proper time. We’re trending in the right direction and those guys will be rewarded for it eventually, statistically.”
KAHKONEN STARTS: Quinn said Kaapo Kahkonen will start Tuesday against Anaheim. Kahkonen earned his first victory of the season last week in the Sharks’ 4-3 overtime victory over Toronto stopping 22 of 25 shots. He also stopped 34 of 36 shots in the Sharks’ 2-1 loss to New Jersey on Oct. 22.
In seven career games against Anaheim, Kahkonen is 5-1-1 with a .919 save percentage and 2.27 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.