Sharks Shut Out Opponent for 1st Time This Season, Eklund & Blackwood Shine

The San Jose Sharks host the Seattle Kraken at SAP Center.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Jan Rutta scored, Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves, and the Sharks shut out the Kraken 2-0.

Period 1

Mukhamadullin boxes out Kartye to start.

2 in: Eklund’s career as a center almost starts with a 2-on-1, but Duclair can’t connect on the pass.

Then Mukh does a good job holding McCann off. That’s NHL-strong.

Mature Couture play, Hoffman pass bounces off his stick, turnover, he doesn’t chase puck, he takes the man, prevents his man from jumping on turnover.

5 in: Mukh does a good job finding a lane to get puck through, dangerous deflection.

7 in: Woof pass from Okhotiuk to Tanev. Big Blackwood save.

Mukhamadullin penalty: That’s a trip? Awful call.

Couture-Zetterlund-Rutta-Vlasic just survived a full 2-minute PK. One post & Eberle got away with smacking Zetterlund's stick out of his hand.

3 minutes later, I think Vlasic is still letting the ref know about it

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 31, 2024

8 left: Beaut entry by Eklund. He really seems to have shaken off his post-Christmas doldrums.

3 left: Bailey has been on his horse tonight after getting sat for stretches in the last game. His forecheck causing trouble. Then Sturm and Kunin follow with an energetic forecheck, Sturm making life hard for Gourde. Sharks need more of that.

1 left: Off the draw, Zetterlund loses the puck, Tatar in slot, big Blackwood save. Kraken haven’t had a ton of chances, a four of their 13 shots off a bogus call on Mukh. But San Jose Sharks have had almost zero offense.

Period 2

2 in: Mukh pins McCann, like.

3 in: Kunin, San Jose Sharks with three shots, coming out of corner with puck, instead of a saucer pass to point that’s tough to handle, maybe you gotta turn around, just get it toward net, maybe traffic. Sharks, in their few chances, could stand to be more direct.

6 in: Zadina records Sharks’ first shot on goal since 12:50 of first period.

Oleksiak penalty: Duclair draws a call, but power play needs to play faster, I think. Just one shot.

7 left: Sturm takes another faceoff for Eklund in DZ. That’s happened a couple times tonight.

Eklund doing a good job pushing Kraken back tonight carrying the puck, however, not as dangerous in zone.

2 left: Barabanov almost executes a gorgeous pass to Couture, just goes behind him. But Barabanov basically drew multiple Kraken to him on entry, then went weakside to Couture. Then Couture passed it back to Duclair, not sure why that missed. Feels like a frustrating game for Duclair. But they did get another shot out of it. Mukh jumped on it.

1 left: Whoa Blackwood bails out errant Emerson pass.

To San Jose Sharks’ credit, they’ve played a pretty good defensive game. But eight shots through 40 is unacceptable.

Period 3

1 in: Eklund does really good job getting inside on Wennberg trying to exit. Like.

3 in: Big glove from Blackwood on slot shot.

Mukh does a nice job getting over on the puck that was getting rimmed out.

Vlasic goal: What an entry from Eklund.

Eklund pretty much beat every Kraken on the ice to gain the zone https://t.co/d8RWBw1f3b

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 31, 2024

9 in: I like Eklund pulling that spin-o-rama move off, then I love him going hard on the backcheck.

4 goals in 8 games is tied for the best goal-scoring stretch of Vlasic's career.

2nd time in his career that Vlasic has scored 4 goals in 8 games. First time was 1/18/18 to 2/2/18.

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 31, 2024

9 left: Vlasic in the corner, takes the puck away. He’s had some good pop tonight.

4 left: Good NZ stop from Duclair there. Offense might not be there tonight, but still helping out.

3 left: Sturm on FC does great job forcing Dunn into a really bad pass that Kunin jumps on. That’s a wining play.

First time that #SJSharks have shut out an opponent this season.

Tremendous effort by Blackwood, his first Sharks shutout ever, his first shutout since 12/8/21

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 31, 2024