The Seattle Karken’s defenseman Will Borgen (3) gets in front of the San Jose Sharks (left winger) Anthony DuClair (10) in first period action at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Wed Nov 22, 2023 (AP News photo)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks fell 7-1 to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday. Seattle goals were scored by Brandon Tanev, Oliver Bjorstrand, Adam Larsson, Yanni Gourde, Jared and McCann, with two goals from Eeli Tolvanen. Joey Daccord made 13 saves for the win. Mike Hoffman scored for the Sharks, Kaapo Kahkonen started the game and made 13 saves on 17 shots. Mackenzie Blackwood came in to finish and made 10 saves on 13 shots.
The Sharks had eight defensemen in the lineup, due to unavailable forwards. Kevin Labanc was out due to an injury sustained in Monday’s game. Nico Sturm was away for personal reasons. Still injured are Logan Couture, Oskar Lindblom and Alexander Barabanov. Although the team used eight defensemen, Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a scratch.
After the game, Anthony Duclair was asked if the team’s poor performance was a result of the missing regulars. He said: “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup, you gotta compete. You’re in the NHL, you gotta compete and if you don’t compete that’s what’s gonna happen in the first period. It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup, everybody has to be ready to go and it cost us.”
The first period was the worst for the Sharks. They gave up four goals, and but for an off-side call, it would have been five. The Sharks managed seven shots in the period but allowed seventeen to the Kraken.
“We can’t start a game like that in the NHL, you’re going to get embarrassed. We’ve been embarrassed before this season but nothing like the first period today. That was just unacceptable,” said Duclair. Asked what went wrong for the team, he said: “We just got out-competed, that’s not the xs and os, it’s win battles and losing battles one v one all over the ice and it cost us.”
Sharks Head Coach David Quinn went into more detail:
“Embarrassing. We weren’t ready to play. Two break aways in the first minute and a half. I mean just absolutely freaking embarrassing. We lost every single battle, got beat off walls every time there was a 50/50 puck battle we’re fishing for pucks get on the wrong side of it. One guy would get beat one on one and the other guy would dive in.”
In light of that start, the second period might have been worse. The Kraken only had four shots, but they had a four goal lead. The Sharks, trailing as they were, still had just one shot in the period. The total shot count for the game was 30-14 Kraken. The Sharks even had an unusually bad night in the face-off circle. Though they were missing Nico Sturm, their second best in that department, the rest of the team’s top three were present. Still, the Sharks won just 48% of the draws.
Quinn was asked if Wednesday’s performance was a symptom of the team being fragile this season. Quinn seemed out of patience with that excuse:
“I don’t want to hear about freakin fragile, okay? It’s the National freakin Hockey League and you better show up ready to play every freakin night. I don’t care about fragile, sometimes you don’t have it, I get it, but you want to show up and play with the right freakin intentions and we didn’t do it.”
The Sharks will next play on Friday at 12:30 PM PT against the Montreal Canadiens in San Jose.
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