After yet another 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and a third consecutive loss on the road, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer summed up the team’s season to the media: “We’re not winning enough games.”
It’s a shockingly similar phrase to the one the coach uttered halfway through the Sharks 2016 campaign when San Jose was also having trouble getting in the win column. (The audio may even be on an old iPhone somewhere in this writer’s closet.)
Nevertheless, it tells the same story. This is a Sharks team that isn’t where they want to be at this point in the season. They know how to compete, and how to rally from a deficit, and how to score goals. But all those components aren’t coming together at the same time or for a full 60 minutes, and it’s showing up on the scoreboard.
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SIGN UP HERE “We show spurts and signs we’re capable of it, but we haven’t put together an effort against a top-quality team,” Logan Couture summarized. “We had that spurt in that Nashville game, where we were able to come back and beat them. That may be it.”
Putting it all together could be a number of things. One thing could be San Jose’s special teams. Their penalty kill has been outstanding all season, while their power play hasn’t been nearly as consistent. On Wednesday in Toronto, the Sharks scored an impressive two goals on the man advantage – but surrendered three to the Leafs on four of their power-play attempts.
DeBoer said he thought the Leafs’ three power-play goals were the story of the game.
“You’re not going to win on the road giving up two power play goals, nevermind three,” he said. “And our attention to detail is as good as anybody in the league. You’ve got to give them credit, they have a pretty potent power play and they executed, and they stuck it in the net.”
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The three-goal game, whether it’s on the power play or at even strength, seems to be something the Sharks have struggled with so far this season. All of their losses in the month of November have occurred when the team has allowed three or more goals.
“Since I’ve been in the league, three’s always been… if you can keep it under that, you give yourself a shot,” Joe Pavelski said.
But it all comes back to is that the Sharks didn’t let the Leafs walk all over them. They pushed back after going in a three-goal hole. The problem is, they still aren’t executing that push for a full 60 minutes in many of their games. At 26 games into the season, that’s an overall goal the team has to reach.
“We’ve got to find a way to win games,” DeBoer continued. “We have to find a way to put it all together.”