The New York Islanders were too much for the Sharks in this one, as Team Teal closes out their current homestand with a 4-1 loss and zero wins in their past four games.
The Sharks kicked off the scoring in the first period on Kevin Labanc’s 12th goal of the year from Logan Couture and Nico Sturm. After the Sharks scored the first goal of the game and got off to a great start, it was all Islanders from there, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau evened things up at one later in the first. The Isles then added two more goals in the second period via Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Pulock, followed by one more goal in the third period by Zach Parise.
Kaapo Kahkonen made a total of 29 stops in net against the Islanders Saturday night.
Another noteworthy storyline from this game is that the Sharks had their LGBTQ+ Pride night at SAP Center, and the Sharks players wore special Pride jerseys during warmups. All of the Sharks players on the active roster except for James Reimer, who didn't skate in warmups as he opted not to wear the Pride warmup jersey citing his religious beliefs. I respect Reimer's decision here, but at the same time, this can come off as insensitive and homophobic to the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
In addition, the Sharks announced after the game that they would send top prospect William Eklund back to the Barracuda after he scored his first two NHL goals this week. The main reason why this somewhat shocking decision was made was due to the Sharks feeling the need to give Eklund more experience in meaningful games. This comes as the Barracuda are currently in a top-seven position in the Pacific Division in the AHL and are fighting to keep it that way. At the same time, this makes a lot more sense if you think about it more.
The Sharks hit the road for their next-to-last road trip of the 2022-23 season, starting on Monday in Edmonton against the Oilers at 6:30 pm PT. Both of San Jose's remaining road trips this season are in Western Canada.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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