The Sharks conclude their 2023-24 season with a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
Although it didn’t go as terribly as their previous game on Monday in Edmonton, the Sharks were on the wrong side of another one-sided affair in Calgary and were very ready to begin their offseason. The Flames busted the doors wide open to begin both teams’ season finale, scoring five unanswered goals, two in the first period from Adam Klapka and Blake Coleman and three in the second period from Oliver Kylington, Kevin Rooney, and MacKenzie Weegar. After the score became 5-0 Flames early in the second period, Devin Cooley was pulled from the Sharks net in favor of Georgi Romanov for the second consecutive game. Cooley finished his night with 18 saves on 23 shots against, while Romanov stopped all 14 shots he faced in his second-ever NHL game.
On the flip side, the Sharks narrowly avoided getting shut out with less than ten seconds remaining in regulation, as Fabian Zetterlund scored his team-leading 24th goal of the year, with Mikael Granlund and Collin Graf registering assists on the Sharks’ only goal of this game. With the primary assist on Zetterlund’s 24th goal of the year, Granlund ended his 2023-24 campaign on a 13-game point streak. In addition, Fabian Zetterlund is the only player this season to appear in all 82 games for the Sharks this season, and this game marked the first in NHL history that two Bay Area-native goalies faced off against each other, with the Sharks’ Devin Cooley from Los Gatos and the Flames’ Dustin Wolf from Gilroy.
In other news, Luke Kunin was named the Sharks’ nominee for the King Clancy Award this season, who has been heavily involved with his LKT1D Foundation benefiting children with Type 1 Diabetes.
And with that, the Sharks 2023-24 season has finally come to a close, finishing with a 19-54-9 record, good for 47 points and dead last in the entire NHL. I am more relieved than anything that the Sharks’ worst season in recent memory is finally over, and hopefully it all becomes worth it when the Sharks win the draft lottery and the Macklin Celebrini sweepstakes next month. Depending on what plays out this offseason for Team Teal, it is only up from here for San Jose hockey.
Next up, the always thrilling Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on Saturday, so expect my yearly fun playoff bracket predictions post on this site no later than Saturday afternoon. Thank you for following CPF Hockey all season long, and see you in October for more Sharks game reviews!
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, Sharks Audio Network, Sharks + SAP Center App, NHL App
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