The Sharks dropped the second game in their back-to-back and season finale against the Blues 5-2.
San Jose got the start they were looking for in this game early in the first with Dylan Gambrell's second goal of the year, with Brent Burns and Ryan Donato getting the assists. Following up the Sharks' first goal were two straight goals by Vince Dunn and Jordan Kyrou for the Blues. Mike Hoffman almost gave the Blues a two goal lead, but thankfully it was overturned because the Blues went offside on that play.
In the second, Tomas Hertl tied the game at two on a great feed from Timo Meier, who received a great pass from Nikolai Knyzhov. The Sharks had a great middle frame, except they did get into a bit of penalty trouble after Hertl's goal with an over-the-glass delay of game and another Kevin Labanc tripping minor.
The game remained tied at two heading into the third period. The Sharks took an awful and controversial faceoff violation penalty early in the third, which proved costly for them as the Blues took advantage of this and scored three unanswered, specifically by Ryan O'Reilly, Jordan Kyrou, and David Perron. After the faceoff violation, which was served by Patrick Marleau, the Sharks were playing catch-up from there, resulting in another frustrating loss for Team Teal. The last thing I want to mention about the faceoff violation is that I didn't see anything when it happened that made it worthy of calling a minor penalty for it.
Devan Dubnyk was mediocre in this game, but he isn't the main reason why the Sharks lost, recording 16 saves on 20 shots against. There were many unfortunate bounces and defensive miscues by the Sharks in this one like there have been in plenty of games this season.
Matt Nieto didn't play Saturday as he is dealing with a lower body injury. In addition, Rudolfs Balcers still remains out of the lineup with a lower body injury. Kurtis Gabriel was scratched on Saturday as well. In their place on Saturday were Fredrik Handemark and Antti Suomela.
San Jose has wrapped up their season series with the Blues with a 3-3-2 record against them. This was the only game between these two this season that wasn't decided by one goal. Another stat worth mentioning is that the Sharks are now 0-4 when wearing their Reverse Retro Jerseys, which aren't as nice as some other jerseys they have worn previously or are currently using. I also now begin to question if I even want a Sharks Reverse Retro Jersey in my jersey collection anymore.
The Sharks' next miniseries is on Monday and Wednesday against the Kings. If Team Teal doesn't get it together soon, they will certainly be sellers at the upcoming April 12 trade deadline and miss the playoffs for a second straight season. With the way things look right now for the Sharks, this outlook would not be surprising at all, but anything can happen in the second half of the season, and I want to remain optimistic about this Sharks team.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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