Sharks Locker Room: Eklund as Frustrated as Ever as Losing Streak Hits 9

This is a different kind of nadir for the San Jose Sharks.

When they started the season 0-10-1, rock-bottom was back-to-back contests giving up 10 goals apiece, a 10-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 2 and a 10-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins two days later.

They responded with a surprising 9-7-2 run.

Now, they’re on yet another epic losing streak, dropping their ninth-straight to the Detroit Red Wings.

But this is a different despair, the frustration from doing (almost) everything right, but still everything goes wrong.

Fabian Zetterlund, Justin Bailey, and Alexander Barabanov scored — Barabanov’s goal, his second of the season, gave the Sharks a brief 3-2 lead in the third period. For once, San Jose dominated at even strength, with a 17-7 Slot Shots and 19-5 High-Danger Chances advantage, per SPORTLOGiQ.

But their unforced errors and some Red Wings bounces turned a one-goal lead into a 5-3 defeat.

“They get a lot of bounces that we don’t get right now,” a dejected William Eklund said.

There’s a temptation, I have to imagine, for some Sharks to give in and stray from a structure that will help them win games, if they stick to it. We’ll see if head coach David Quinn can keep them playing together.

“It’s really tough. We got to find a way to get through it. Everybody here is gonna dig in deep,” Eklund said. “We’ll get through it.”

Quinn outlined the San Jose Sharks’ mistakes that cost them the win. Eklund admitted that this was the most frustrating loss from this losing streak. Zetterlund took responsibility for the game-tying David Perron power play goal. Kaapo Kahkonen also took his share of the blame.

David Quinn

Quinn, on what happened at the end of the game:

Very simple. We fell asleep on the power play goal [when it was] 3-2.

Then just completely mishandled a simple breakout, [lose] the puck in the neutral zone, goes from the corner, goes off a skate and in.

We just gave it to them in the neutral zone. That’s what happened.

Quinn, on what the refs told him about the Eklund high sticking penalty:

They called it, they talked about it, they apparently went and looked at it. That’s the call they made.

Quinn, on Kahkonen’s performance:

Made some good saves. I’m sure there’s a couple that he’d want to have back. But listen, he’s had a hell of a year.

William Eklund

Eklund, on if this loss is the most frustrating defeat of this losing streak because of all the right things that the San Jose Sharks did:

Yeah. It’s tough. It’s really tough. We got to find a way to get through it. Everybody here is gonna dig in deep. We’ll get through it.

This is the most frustrated that I've seen Eklund post-game so far in his career: "They get a lot of bounces that we don't get right now."

Declined to speak on high sticking penalty: "I'm not even going to comment on that." pic.twitter.com/HZQKVoLi1a

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 3, 2024

Fabian Zetterlund

Zetterlund, on the David Perron game-tying power play goal:

I just gotta hold the seam there.

That’s on me. Can’t happen.

Kaapo Kahkonen

Kahkonen, on the J.T. Compher goal:

Weird shot. Kind of a floater. Dropped a little bit. Obviously, want to have that. But kind of a sneaky play.

Like I said, I want to have that back.