Sharks Locker Room: On Pace To Be Worst NHL Team in 2 Decades In This Key Stat

The San Jose Sharks are on pace to be historically bad (again).

Obviously, their current .320 Points % is going to challenge the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings’ salary cap era-worst .275. That’s since 2005-06.

After Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators, the Sharks are 5-24-4 since Dec. 5, a .212 Points %.

And, after blowing another third period lead, San Jose has an NHL-worst .450 Winning % Leading After Two Periods.

How bad is that?

Three teams so far this season, the Minnesota Wild, Seattle Kraken, and Toronto Maple Leafs have perfect winning records with a lead going into the third period.

It gets worse.

No NHL team this year, except for the Sharks, has below a .682 Winning % Leading After Two Periods.

It gets worse.

Counting this season, just five teams in the salary cap era have below a .600 Winning % Leading After Two Periods: The 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche (.579), 2023-24 Sharks (.571), 2013-14 New York Islanders (.556), 2005-06 St. Louis Blues (.500), and this year’s Sharks.

So…San Jose is on pace to be the worst team with a lead after two periods in the last two decades.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on the game-winning David Perron goal, which came after Nico Sturm, Klim Kostin, Collin Graf, Mario Ferraro, and Shakir Mukhamadullin changed with Ottawa possession in the neutral zone:

Didn’t like that line change that we have. We give up an easy goal.

The bounces are going to happen. The 5-on-3. I liked our start.

We did some good things, but the line change goal, unacceptable.

We can’t change in that situation.

Warsofsky, on how to keep the San Jose Sharks from giving in to the negative:

Ignore the noise. Don’t worry about what the outside people think.

We have a chance to get better every time. Tomorrow’s a new day, the sun’s going to come up. No one died tonight. We’ll move forward. That’s life.

This is a big lesson for myself, our coaching staff, our players.

In life, you’re going to get kicked with some adversity, and how do you bounce back from that? Are you going to shy away? Are you going to get up and keep swinging? And we’re going to keep swinging.

Warsofsky, on Jake Walman-Timothy Liljegren pairing:

I thought Lily was good tonight. I thought that top pair was pretty solid. Again, obviously, with the injuries, we’re in flux there of making some personnel decisions and trying to find the right match-ups, but I thought they were good.

Jake Walman

Walman, on challenge of staying positive amidst all this losing:

Pretty tough. It eats you a little bit from the inside. Coming into buildings, the reality of it, other teams feel like they can play confident against us. At some point, we got to strike that down and turn a page.

Walman, on the bad bounce that led to Tim Stutzle’s goal:

I didn’t see much until it was too late, obviously. But system that we’re playing right now is take both the walls on a rim like that, and D goes back behind the net.

My first move was to the boards for a rim out and just a really unlucky play. I don’t even know what happened. Still. I don’t know if it hit the glass or what, but I just heard the the crowd. I reacted to the crowd and I knew something was up, so I just went back to the net and I saw the puck kind of just laying there, try to do what I can.

Ideally, I win that battle. And I think nine times out of 10 I do.

Mario Ferraro

Ferraro, on if he’s ever seen a season with so many close losses:

No, I haven’t. It’s a difference between, I don’t want to bring up last year, but obviously last year, was a struggle as well, but we’re in games right now, we’re right there, small margin for error.

Ferraro, on penalty that he took on Ridly Greig:

He was just at the net front. I was getting him away from my guys, my goalie. It is what it is. I didn’t think it was gonna get called a penalty.

It’s just an unfortunate one, but there were lots of penalties tonight.