Sharks struggle to find positivity after trade deadline

SAN JOSE — Now that San Jose has finished trading away its top performers for picks and prospects, the reality for those that remain officially set in when the Sharks played their first contest since the trade deadline.

The new, but not yet improved Sharks lost to the New York Islanders on Saturday night 4-2 despite generating a lot of early opportunities having outshot New York 19-8 in the opening period but they trailed 2-0.

“I loved our first period, and you know, sometimes it happens. You don’t score in the first (period) with that type of volume of chances and shots usually you feel it’s going to come the other way,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “You know I’ve got to give our guys a lot of credit for what they’ve gone through these last couple of days: lost a lot of teammates, a lot of new guys coming in, the long road trip coming back, playing right away.”

Perhaps it was appropriate that the game’s first goal was scored by former Shark Anthony Duclair who was traded by San Jose to Tampa Bay almost a year to the day during last season’s rebuild.

What felt almost just as apropos was a strong start to the game marred by a goal with under a minute left in the first period. The Islanders second tally came from Jean-Gabriel Pageau when he was left wide open for a one-time slap shot off of a feed from Noah Dobson.

As San Jose got deeper into the routine of finding positives wherever it can, the Sharks can at least say they didn’t let the game get away from them. The impressive shot total hadn’t yielded any goals to that point, but a simplified offensive approach did have the team show signs of life in the second period. Nikolai Kovalenko screened and tipped a shot past Ilya Sorokin to cut the lead in half. Shakir Mukhamadullin and Macklin Celebrini picked up assists on the goal.

. Celebrini kept his point per game plus average that night by assisting on both San Jose goals but after a game in which he put 10 shots on goal, the Calder candidate was left feeling like he could have contributed more offensively. “(Sorokin) is a good goalie, he made good saves. I didn't hit the spots I wanted to,” Celebrini said. “I’ve got to fix that. If I hit the spots I want, it’s a goal.”

Unlike some other nights where Team Teal has struggled this season, shots on goal were not at all an issue. San Jose put 40 shots on net and were turned away 38 times in their 39th regulation loss of the season. Saturday’s defeat was sponsored by a woefully ineffective penalty kill that was only weakened in the short-term after trading away Luke Kunin, Fabian Zetterlund and Jake Walman.

Could shuffling the line combinations and the penalty killing unit specifically played a role in Saturday’s struggles? It probably didn’t help. But as Barclay Goodrow pointed out, killing penalties wasn’t one of the Sharks strong suits before the series of trades made at the deadline.

“It may be a little bit (of an adjustment) but I think it’s been sliding even when they were playing. I think we’ve been killing with different pairs the whole year,” Goodrow said. “That’s not really an excuse and we have got to find a way to get the job done.”

The Islanders eventually put the game out of reach with a pair of goals from Anders Lee and and Adam Boqvist with the Boqvist tally being the second power play goal San Jose surrendered.

The PK unit looks different game to game and makes a lot of sense considering the squad has given up more power play goals than any other team this season. Coach Warsofsky has no choice but to mix and match with different line combos and defensive pairings as the slow burn of the rebuild continues to engulf this roster and put the most talented players in the line of fire. 

With the on-ice impacts of losing talented leaders in the locker room, those left behind on this non-contending team are feeling the sting of having colleagues whom they enjoyed going to work with everyday, shipped off to another city. The dressing room has reportedly been a positive tight-knit group despite the lack of success as exemplified by the now famous sleepover with Tyler Toffoli, Will Smith and Celebrini.

Fun stories like that are a reminder that you are dealing with human beings at the end of the day, and in the case of Celebrini and Smith, young humans who probably wanted to hang out and watch scary movies in the hotel with their big bro Toffoli. I’d like to think they stayed up late watching movies, eating popcorn and talking about girls but those reports have not been verified.

Celebrini spoke to the impact of losing teammates he enjoyed having around after Saturday’s loss. “Those guys meant a lot to our group. I had a good relationship with all of them. It was tough to go through that and lose some of those guys,” he said.

Keeping an eye on the future has been the running theme of everything going on in San Jose for the past few years but next year figures to be a good gauge on whether or not the right pieces are in place for the Sharks to be contenders again.

With some much-needed days of coming up in between games this month, Warsofsky says the last month or so of the season will be huge for players looking to solidify a spot for next season.

“The good thing is our schedule is pretty light so we have practice time so that’ll be a big focus. And there are jobs to be won here for the future of this organization. If you don’t realize that you’re in the wrong business,” Warsofsky said. “Are you part of the solution here in the future?”