Sharks Winless Through 8, Lose 3-2 to Kings

LOS ANGELES — The San Jose Sharks visit Crypto.com Arena to take on the Los Angeles Kings.

The 0-5-2 Sharks are the last team in the NHL with a win.

And unfortunately, San Jose stays winless. They’re now 0-6-2.

Mikael Granlund scored twice, but the Sharks dropped a 3-2 decision.

Tonight is Dan Rusanowsky's 2,500th Sharks broadcast.

Sharks have played 2,528 games in their history. Dan's been there for 98.9 percent of them.

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 25, 2024

Period 1

2 in: San Jose Sharks have left Kings unattended in slot twice early, need to improve that. Gushchin with a strong shift there though, good one-on-one battle determination with much-bigger Lee in corner, keeps puck alive. They both go down, but that’s a credit to the smallish Gushchin.

Family photo op 📸😁

Tonight, @FabianZetterlun and his cousin Andre Lee will play against each other for the first time in their NHL careers! pic.twitter.com/iusAEddWph

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 25, 2024

4 in: Small play there, but Walman wins it high in DZ, good, but he had time and space to not rush a pass to Shark in stride, he misses though, it’s icing.

Spence goal: Toffoli loses it high in OZ, Kings off to counterattack, no one picks up Spence, looks like a clean shot and in there. And hey, there’s a relationship there between shitty ice position that shift started at with an unnecessary icing too. Last time that the Sharks had a lead was 35:12 mark of Dallas game, that’s five games ago. Also the last time that the Sharks scored the first goal of the game.

Foegele goal: Thrun loses the battle in front to Foegele, can’t get the stick, that’s a big boy test that Thrun loses.

Kunin vs. Lee, I’d actually call that a draw. Good job by the much-smaller Kunin. Anyway, Sharks need some kind of jolt.

Foegele goal: He’s causing chaos, Granlund can’t tie him up in front. That’s exactly what the Sharks practiced yesterday, getting in the goalie’s eyes, having sticks available for point shots in front. That possession started with Eklund unable to tie up Clarke on forecheck.

Sharks down 14-3 shots, 5:31 left in the first period.

5 left: Kostin with good handle with F1 pressure on him, but then he passes it to a covered man in NZ. But Sturm draws a much-needed penalty there.

One of the biggest losses with Celebrini, I think, is losing his speed and handle to gain the zone on the power play. He played just one game, but he looked to be the type who could push back defenses on the drop pass. He was their No. 1 option, MacKinnon lite there. Sharks have struggled, I believe, with establishing their PP set-up in general, this is a big reason why, it’s such work to gain the line.

#TheFutureIsTeal, with an emphasis on FUTURE, will start the 2nd period with 1:25 of power play time, which is about the only positive thing that I can say about that period

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 25, 2024

Period 2

Like clockwork, Sharks can’t establish their set-up on the power play, struggle to break in, Walman takes a penalty to prevent a shortie chance, PP over.

Kunin again with a big block.

3 in: Like the battle win by Zetterlund on Anderson, has happened seldomly tonight. Good to see some fire.

6 in: Feel like Walman fighting the puck tonight a little, that wasn’t a great exit touch, an easyish exit goes the other way.

8 in: Good basic hockey, Thrun fires it up, forward touches it to get it in zone, Toffoli and Eklund go to work on FC, San Jose Sharks get a point shot, Eklund draws a call.  Need a goal here.

Granlund goal: So badly needed. Credit to the PP, once they got set up, a lot of good work by all the forwards especially, they got crafty veteran forwards on PP1. But like I said, Celebrini staples it together as a potential entry monster.

Gushchin penalty: Not a good one, exactly what Warsofsky doesn’t want. It’s the type of penalty, let the guy go, trust your teammates to cover for you, don’t make it worse.

7 left: Granlund does a good job of staying with Kopitar all the way up the ice, otherwise Kopitar would’ve had a Grade-A one-timer chance as Kings’ power play was expiring. Got a stick on the pass coming into Kopitar’s wheelhouse. That’s winning play…for a losing team, I know.

3 left: Really strong forecheck initiated by top line, then followed up by new Goodrow-Sturm-Kunin construction. This is the way. Broken record, but I do like San Jose’s pushback in this period. Have to say, I really watching Goodrow play. Sounds counterintuitive, but there’s a refinement to his grind game.

Period 3

Kostin, who's on the bench, last played at 11:36 of the second period

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 25, 2024

4 in: Good battle between Danault and Thompson net front.

6 in: Zetterlund covering on D needs to do a better job of staying above puck. Blackwood bails him out.

Kings have played a good, hard 3rd, but so have the San Jose Sharks. Just wish San Jose hasn’t spotted them 3. Sure Sharks think the same.

6 left: Spence with the extra cross-check in a dangerous area, good job by Gushchin to draw it. Hustle by Gushchin. Big power play.

That ENG bid was headed in maybe, Walman stops it. Then Eklund getting into it with Gavrikov, after Eklund gave an extra stick into covered by Rittich puck.

Granlund goal: Granlund and Toffoli and Zetterlund are only Sharks with more than one goal this year.