Another subpar second period and other mistakes lead to the Sharks dropping their fifth-straight game to start the season, a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders. This is their first 0-5-0 start to a season in franchise history.
Team Teal had a solid first period, scoring the first goal late in the first by Nico Sturm, getting assists from Evgeny Svechnikov and Jaycob Megna.
San Jose led 1-0 through one period of play, and things held steady until the second half of the middle frame. The Islanders went on to score the next two goals via Anders Lee and Zach Parise. The Sharks tied the game at two soon after on Evgeny Svechnikov’s second goal of the season from Matt Benning, only to trail again by one moments later on a go-ahead goal by Oliver Wahlstrom for the Islanders before the second intermission.
This game only got further away from the Sharks in the third period. Oliver Wahlstrom scored his second goal of the game early in the third, while Cal Clutterbuck put the cherry on top with an empty-netter late in the third.
James Reimer made saves in his third start of the season. Like in his first two starts of the season, Reimer has had to bail out his offense and defense many times because said offense and defense couldn't step up when necessary.
On a more positive note, Alexander Barabanov is back in the lineup after missing the first four games due to an undisclosed injury, and the fourth line has been productive. However, the Sharks can't rely solely on the fourth line to generate all the offense every night.
The start to this season for San Jose has been nothing short of deflating. I hope they turn things around at some point, but the more they keep up their current pace of play, the less confidence I will have in this team doing anything significant throughout the entire season.
Next up, the Sharks face the other New York team, the Rangers, at Madison Square Garden on Thursday at 4 pm PT, still looking for their first win of the season.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
P.S. Become one of the first to own a piece of my hockey apparel (pictured below) (Baseball merch now available as well): CPF Store
No comments:
Post a Comment