Sharks humbled in lopsided loss to Rangers

SAN JOSE — How did the inconsistent Sharks follow up one of their most exciting victories of the year against the Maple Leafs? Naturally they followed up with a game that lacked all of the excitement of Thursday's shootout win with a 6-1 blowout loss to the Rangers on Saturday night.

To be fair, almost any game that features 10 combined goals in regulation is going to keep the crowd engaged but it wasn't just a lack of offense that had San Jose looking non-competitive in this one. New York dominated in the Sharks' end of the ice and consistently found ways to make life difficult for goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.

On Artimi Panarin's first goal of the night, San Jose was guilty of overloading the side of the ice the puck was on while also not shutting off passing lanes. This combination of errors allowed Panarin to sneak back door with so much space it almost felt like the Sharks were following Covid protocols to give the Rangers' leading scorer as much room as possible to shoot.

New York expanded on its 1-0 lead with another goal from Panarin who this time found the back of the net with a hard wrister beating Georgiev stick side with heavy traffic in front at 6:02 in the first period.

On the other end of the ice, San Jose didn't do anything against Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick. The veteran net minder only faced five shots in the first period from the Sharks and didn't have to contend with many shots or any significant traffic.

Understandably terse and frustrated coach Ryan Warsofsky said post-game that his team lost control of the game early on when they failed to be physical.

“We've got size, but we don't use it so what's the point? We gotta be more physically engaged, that's for sure,” Warsofsky said.

By the measure of only allowing one goal instead of two, it could be argued San Jose did slightly better in the second period. Defensive issues still plagued them however as they allowed another open one-timer opportunity to Adam Fox who had joined the rush and snuck backdoor for a goal that looked similar to Panarin's first tally in the opening frame.

Saturday's loss really got out of hand in the third period when the Sharks allowed three goals on 11 shots. Georgiev could have been able to come up with an extra save or two but the reality is that when a team is playing as poorly up and down the ice, no amount of brilliant goaltending will save you.

Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said the team needs to get back to playing the style that allowed them to pick up wins against the Bruins and Maple Leafs last week.

“We just got away from the way we need to play. It's a pretty fine line for us right now. I think it's pretty obvious in the two games we played well that there were things we were doing to be successful, and tonight was not one of those nights,” Ferraro said. “There was nobody playing the right way tonight…(the Rangers) are a team trying to make the playoffs right now and I feel like we just gave them two points.”

Honestly, I was relieved to hear Ferraro mention overall team play as the issue as the Sharks had been playing better of late without me in attendance and I was beginning to worry that my presence in the press area high above the ice had some kind of negative impact. The Sharks are now 1-5 in games I've covered in person.

The one silver lining in Saturday's 6-1 loss is the one goal coming off the stick of Cam Lund, his first career NHL goal with his family in attendance to witness the personal milestone. In a post-game scrum that was predictably low on energy it was nice to see the 20-year-old crack a little bit of a smile when asked about scoring his first goal in only his second NHL game. “It was awesome. It was a great feeling to get the first one,” Lund said. “The puck is probably going to go to my dad. He has a whole collection in the basement so I'm sure he'll put it down there.”

The Sharks have 10 games remaining following Saturday's blowout and while it might mitigate the pain of a loss to have young players show flashes of promise, playing winning hockey is about more than giving the fans a single highlight to feel better about getting outclassed by a fringe playoff team.

The scoring talent is there and will continue to develop but finding consistency in their own zone will be just as important as finding the back of the net. Does it feel good to see a 20-year-old prospect get his first goal and have it be assisted by fellow youngsters Colin Graf and Will Smith?

Yeah, that's nice to see, but when a team is playing irresponsibly on defense and allowing the opposition's leading scorer an abundance of time and space to shoot, there are bigger systemic obstacles to finding the win column.

Warsofsky was succinct in his summary of his team's lopsided loss.

“I would say our young players had young games tonight,” Warsofsky said.