Sharks Game 38 Recap: Ducks 5, Sharks 1 (4/6/21)

 The Sharks played down to their competition for much of this game as they lose to the Ducks 5-1, snapping their four-game win streak. 

For the most part, the Sharks were awful in this game. The Ducks jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first on a goal by Adam Henrique. Later in the first period, after an initial scrum between the Sharks and Ducks, Jeff Viel and Sam Carrick dropped the gloves and went at it, which ultimately left Carrick with a huge cut on his nose from his visor. 

Early in the second period, Max Comtois scores to extend the Ducks' lead to two on the power play. Roughly a minute later, Erik Karlsson fakes a slapshot and makes a great pass to Kevin Labanc, who finds Patrick Marleau to get one back for the Sharks on their power play chance. This was certainly the bright spot for the Sharks last night as Patty scored his third goal of the season and moved into 23rd on the all-time goals list with his 565th career goal. 

From then on, the rest of the game got further and further away from the Sharks as the Ducks added two more goals in the second period from Isac Lundestrom and Nicolas Deslauriers. Anaheim also buried the empty net in the third with less than eight minutes remaining to place the exclamation point on this game, which was scored by David Backes. 

Martin Jones had a drop-off in his performance last night compared to his last four starts, making 29 saves on 33 shots against. John Gibson bailed the Ducks out of this one, recording 34 saves. 

As for the rest of the Sharks' lineup, Marcus Sorensen was a late scratch due to injury, so Noah Gregor replaced him on the fourth line. Sorensen has also been subject to trade rumors as of late, so it's possible he could get dealt soon for all we know. In addition, Christian Jaros made his Sharks debut against the Ducks last night. 

Luckily this was only the Sharks' second loss to the Ducks this season and the only one to occur in regulation thus far. Hopefully this game is an anomaly for the Sharks and they pick back up on their hot streak and winning ways as they continue to chase a playoff spot in the West Division. Their next two-game set isn't until Friday and Saturday versus the Kings, with puck drop for both games at 7:30 pm PT. 

Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App