By Ivan Makarov

SAN JOSE, CA — Much like last year, this season San Jose Sharks are known as a team that plays down to the level of their competition. The worse their opponent, the worse they tend to play. Such was the case once again on Monday night when they were facing one of the league’s worst team in New Jersey Devils – a team that only won 16 times in 46 games they played before playing in San Jose.

But it was the Devils who looked better during most stretches of the game, playing better offense, defense and dominating on special teams. They were the hungrier and the faster team, taking the leads each time Sharks tied the game, and looking fresher and sharper in the third period.

Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said that it was all 60 minutes of the game in that loss that frustrated him the most, saying “there wasn’t a lot of good in our game. This may sound strange but our power play was the best part of our game and we have up a short handed goal…so that is how the night went for us.”

Unlike in their previous game against Calgary Flames, when Sharks had a terrible first period, San Jose did start the game with the goal, when Joe Pavelski gave Sharks a 1-0 lead. Sharks capitalized on the Devils turnover inside their own zone when Scott Gomez lost the puck to Joe Thornton. Pavelski was an open man on the play and as he got the puck, he shot it quickly over the Schnedier’s glove.

But following the goal, the Sharks lost the momentum and it was the Devils who played with more energy.

“The first five minutes was the start we want,” said Joe Pavekski. “We get the goal right on them. We get out five shots that we had in that period in the first five minutes. Then it goes the other way. They never really felt dangerous on their part, but they get a couple goals in our own net that we can’t let happen. We didn’t have enough pressure after that.”

Devils tied the game towards the end of the period on a goal by Jordan Tootoo. It was a series of won rebounds in front of Alex Stalock – four of them and the fourth went into the net. New Jersey didn’t stop there and scored on the very next shift. It was former Shark Steve Bernier scoring on a rebound from the shot taken by as Brandon Dillon turned over the puck behind the net.

Matt Nieto made things even for the Sharks when he scored at the start of the second period. Brent Burns brought the puck into the Devils zone with some speed, passed it to Hertl on the left wing who found Nieto collapsing on the net. Nieto put quite the one timer on the net from close range and it flew into the top corner, making it 2-2.

Devils took another lead in the game with 5 minutes remaining in the second period. They took advantage of a power play opportunity with Brent Burns in the box for illegal hit to the head, with Mike Cammaleri scoring.

Sharks had a lot of chances to tie the game in the third period – none of them were better than came during 4-minute long power play that included 12 second playing 5-on-3. But they didn’t create enough chances at that point, and instead, let the Devils take the two goal lead when Travis Zajac was the first on a rebound from a shot taken by his teammate all the way from the Sharks blue line. Scott Hannan was too far away in his coverage of Zajac, and didn’t do enough to stop his stick from reaching  and putting the rebound into an open net, with Stalock stretched out on the ice.

Jacob Josephson sealed the game for the Devils when he scored a goal with 5 minutes remaining in the game to make it 5-2. Sharks were on a power play, but Tomas Hertl turned over the puck along the boards, giving up 2-on-1 going the other way. Sharks were too late on the coverage, and Josephson was scoring on the pass through the crease and into an open net.

With the loss, Sharks dropped to 1-1-1 during the first half of the seven game home stand – a key stretch in their season. And they haven’t looked particularly good in any of those three games.

“I’m concerned about our drive right now,” said McLellan. “Our life that we bring to the games. I don’t know if you want to call it passion, but the internal drive per person isn’t where it needs to be.”