Sharks Give Up Embarrassing Last-Second Short-Handed Goal, Lose 3-1

The San Jose Sharks head to Rogers Arena to take on the Vancouver Canucks.

Tomas Hertl scored, but the Canucks slugged out a 3-1 victory.

Period 1

1 in: What a Hughes stretch pass to Kuzmenko there. Then Pettersson beats everybody up the ice for the chance.

5 in: Another early San Jose Sharks penalty. Granlund starts out with Carpenter, then Hertl with Kunin. That’s how they’re doing it without Sturm.

6 in: What a move by Eklund. 200 feet of good hockey.

200 feet of Eklund: Intercepts Beauvillier's pass, breaks Boeser's ankles, almost dekes Demko out of his pants, and to cap it off, checks Hertl hard pic.twitter.com/kzG29oSlf0

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 21, 2023

7 left: Zadina off OZ draw loss, steps in front of Canucks pass, finds Duclair in front. Sharks down 12-4 shots, but it feels closer than that with Eklund miss.

4 left: Good Pettersson pursuit by Granlund, like to see that, and Carpenter line has a forecheck pulse.

1 left: Remenda points out that Hertl was about to change but recognized Canucks were about to execute a stretch pass and he was lone guy back. He fills in, wins the puck, good shift.

Canucks 3-1 High-Danger at Even Strength…well, compared to the 10-1 loss, it’s been competitive.

Period 2

Good deception by Granlund up the middle in OZ, going left, then right.

2 in: Good forecheck right off NZ draw, MacDonald on top of Canucks d-man in corner, Carpenter follows it up and just fires it hard, Smith right there.

3 in: Ferraro uses his feet and motor to escape a couple Canucks, like.

10 in: Remenda talks about how good Duclair is on the bench with his positivity.

Eklund goal: Made by Eklund pass in small area on entry, hard and on the tape and in stride under Hronek’s stick, to Zetterlund. His small-area passing might already be the best on the Sharks…and it’s overturned. That’s a tough one. Zetterlund attacks the net like he’s supposed to, where else is he going to go? Good call by Canucks video coaches though. Zetterlund contact with Demko was in the blue paint.

Hughes goal: Eklund had a chance to clear, you’d like a little deeper. He does right thing, gets it out of zone under duress, but it doesn’t go far. Then Hughes finds a spot, nothing Blackwood can do even though it’s a bad angle. That’s one that will look bad with Expected Goals, but it wasn’t a bad goal allowed. Hughes earlier on the shift had beat Zetterlund impressively to a loose puck. That’s 200 feet of Norris-caliber hockey.

Looks like Eklund was put back on PP1 over Duclair, I think a nod to just on his game that he's been tonight

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 21, 2023

3 left: Tough Ferraro to Zadina exchange, Kuzmenko jumps on it and has a one on one on Blackwood, post.

Hoglander penalty: Awful penalty on Labanc, hope he’s okay, he didn’t look good on the bench. He slew foots Labanc then kicks Labanc in the head. Deserved match penalty.

Lafferty goal: That’s last-place hockey by the San Jose Sharks. Outright embarrassing. Lethargic-looking power play on a five-minute major. Hertl loses the puck high, just not playing fast enough. But just 10 seconds left, should be fine. Lafferty then battles hard until the end, takes it from Hertl, Zetterlund vacates the point to help, but that opens things up for Blueger up the middle. Young hockey: Addison is slow to recognize Blueger when Hertl has lost the battle to Lafferty. Then Zetterlund is puck-watching Blueger, does a terrible job of taking Lafferty’s stick. Just panic. That’s devastating.

You can argue the San Jose Sharks outplayed the Canucks in the second, outchanced them at high-danger 3-1 at even strength. But you can’t have embarrassing hockey like that.

Period 3

Good to see Labanc back on the ice.

Hertl goal: Part of it is Eklund and Addison doing a good job in tight up high to keep in, Eklund does great job of hard pass to Hertl weakside.

MacDonald-Duclair-Hoffman-Zadina-Labanc is PP2.

More last-place hockey by the San Jose Sharks, a too many men on the ice penalty as major expires.

But credit to him, they kill the penalty. Still very much in the game.

6 in: Kunin had a moment with the puck in OZ, but Pettersson sticks it away. Great defense.

Beauvillier finds a soft spot in Sharks defensive box. Big save by Blackwood.

Miller goal: Hertl can’t handle Miller in front there. That might do it.

San Jose Sharks starting to bleed chances. Still 10 minutes to go.

9 in: Between Zadina and Hertl, nice bit of puck protection. Ferraro has a good chance.

Sloppy Granlund-Okhotiuk exchange leads to easy counterattack. That’s bad hockey.

8 left: Looks like Eklund and Zadina have flip-flopped lines.

3 left: Great save by Demko on Duclair, think it was a Hertl pass. Then Granlund fights Boeser to keep it in the zone, good effort. Hoffman has a chance to light it up, but he collects it and Miller can get in position to block. Goes out. Then Hoffman penalty and that is all she wrote.