Buzz surrounds Celebrini in return to San Jose, but Sharks now facing a harsh reality
SAN JOSE – It’s been a pleasantly surprising season so far for the San Jose Sharks as they find themselves in contention for their playoff appearance since 2019.
But here’s the reality as the Sharks, on a five-game losing streak, look ahead to this weekend’s home games against the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets:
Thanks to a five-game losing streak, the Sharks are now just as close to 29th place in the NHL standings, where they finished three years ago, as they are to the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Presented with an opportunity to build on the excitement created by Macklin Celebrini’s performance at the Milan Cortina Olympics, capped by a widely viewed gold medal game, the Sharks instead started their season’s most important homestand with a dud, losing 4-1 on Thursday to the non-playoff-contending Calgary Flames.
With the game tied 1-1 in the third period, a bad line change by the Sharks led to a goal by Flames forward Connor Zary at the 5:22 mark. Just under seven minutes later, a turnover by Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren led to Nazem Kadri’s goal with 8:04 left in regulation time.
The Sharks created a couple of scoring chances after that, but an amped sold-out crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center – which was looking for any reason to get involved — went home disappointed as San Jose fell to 0-4-1 since a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 27.
Celebrini was held off the scoresheet on Thursday despite five shots on net and a fast start by the Sharks in which they peppered Flames goalie Dustin Wolf with 16 shots. Wolf, a Gilroy native, finished with 34 saves as he improved to 10-2-0 with a .919 save percentage in 12 career games against the Sharks.
The Sharks are now 1-12-2 this season when Celebrini doesn’t record a point.
“I thought we had good energy, liked our start, did some really good things,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We turn over a couple of pucks and change the momentum of the game.
”The second goal, we have a bad change. The third goal, we turn over a puck. So this time of year, when you do those things, you’re going to lose hockey games.”
The good news for the Sharks is that they have chances to redeem themselves this weekend, as two more sellout crowds are expected for games against Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday and goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the United States’ biggest hero, and the Jets on Sunday.
The bad news is that both the Oilers and Jets are more potent on offense than the Flames, Edmonton especially so, and the Sharks just can’t seem to sustain a solid defensive effort for 60 minutes.
Since the start of January, the Sharks have now allowed an average of 3.63 goals per game, the 27th-best mark in the NHL, as they’ve gone 7-8-1 in that time.
“We have to score, obviously, to win hockey games,” Warsofsky said. “But we have to keep the puck out of our net.”
Celebrini was the youngest NHL player at the Olympics and became the breakout star of the tournament, helping lead Canada to the gold medal game.
Celebrini had five goals and five assists in his five games, but he and his teammates were unable to score a second goal thanks to Hellebuyck’s 41 saves. Jack Hughes then scored early in the 3-on-3 overtime to lift the Americans to a 2-1 win on Sunday at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
Sharks fans were eager to welcome the electrifying Celebrini back to San Jose and gave him the loudest cheer of the night when he and fellow Olympians were recognized during a stoppage in the first period.
“He’s special, right? And he demands a level where we owe it to him,” Sharks winger Kiefer Sherwood said. “He’s driving this ship and this team, obviously, so everyone’s got to dig in and execute at a higher level.
“He’s obviously creating and showing what he can do on the world stage with the best. So, we’ve got to be better around him.”
The buzz around Celebrini, now the NHL’s fifth leading scorer with 81 points in 56 games, won’t go away anytime soon. But the excitement around a potential playoff might be about to disappear.
The Sharks, with 58 points, enter Friday five points behind the Seattle Kraken for the West’s second wild card spot. But San Jose’s losing skid has it just five points ahead of the 29th-place Chicago Blackhawks, although the Sharks have two games in hand on both teams.
If the Sharks are unable to climb back into the race with their next three games, that could prompt general manager Mike Grier to start selling off one or more of his pending unrestricted free agents before next Friday’s NHL trade deadline.
But there still is time for the surprising Sharks, and for now, at least, they’ll have some bigger crowds backing them up.
“I think we can be a little bit more connected on the forecheck and get some more pucks back,” Sherwood said. “We’ve got to learn from it, and we’ve got to dig in here. It’s a big back-to-back coming up.”