The Los Angeles Kings played as smooth a game as you'll ever see when they hosted the Sharks on Wednesday night, building a 3-0 lead in the first period and never looking back as they coasted to a 7-2 win. The Kings suffered through a troubled start to their campaign, losing six straight at the very beginning. They've since done some course correction, but teams good and bad are fattening up on San Jose these days.
Just one minute into the evening, as the Sharks struggled to control possession in their attacking zone, L.A. playmaker Artemi Panarin got the puck on his stick by the boards and quickly fired a long-distance pass to Adrian Kempe, who'd disappeared behind the defense. The Kings' reigning top scorer finished his goal on the breakaway, starting his journey to an eventual hat trick.
I would have liked to include some sort of Sharks highlight in this, a blog about the Sharks. But lately those have been harder to find than a monkey in an aquarium. San Jose hasn't made the postseason since 2019, so it's not like it's unfamiliar to have to read down pretty far to find them in the standings. But their 7-9-1 start is a gut punch to those who hoped that this would be a year where the team made another leap forward, or whatever it is that sharks do.
Last season's Sharks had the most fun of any non-playoff team. Falling just two wins shy of extending their season, the Sharks improved by 34 points as they moved from complete irrelevancy to exciting television. There were flaws, but Macklin Celebrini made it difficult to focus on any of them for too long. The 19-year-old franchise savior finished fourth overall in points—behind only Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, and Nathan MacKinnon—as he performed feats of offensive prowess and made his linemates significantly better.
But no matter how many times I learn this lesson, it's still hard to internalize that progress is never a staircase that one simply climbs a step at a time. Celebrini, now 20, was not just going to improve upon 45 goals and 70 assists because he had another year of experience under his belt. Those are tough numbers for even the best hockey players to hit consistently, and Celebrini's lackluster start (which included an injury speed bump) has taken the shine off the Sharks. Playing 80 seconds more per night than he did last year, the kid has so far failed to carry the extra burden, scoring just three even-strength goals (six overall) and delivering four even-strength assists (11 overall) through 15 games.
That's still a point per game, nothing to sneeze at, but it's not enough to make a difference on its own. When they don't have a man advantage, even the Sharks' top lines have struggled to produce. Promising youngsters Will Smith, Michael Misa, and Ivar Stenberg have all made less noise than even this scuffling version of Celebrini, while the older guys in the forward group—Alexander Wennberg and Tyler Toffoli—have been injured and spiritually absent, respectively. Without any real killer attacking trio, the major holes in the rest of the roster are increasingly difficult to avoid noticing. The defense is a dead spot, with all hope resting in the long-term development of guys with very little or no NHL experience, like Nolan Allan and Keaton Verhoeff. And for as charismatic as Yaroslav Askarov can be, the 24-year-old goalie in his second year as a starter still has yet to show he can be a net positive at that position.
Today, I'd have no qualms about swimming in these Sharks' waters. That isn't to say that any of these kids have flunked out, or close to it, but S.J.'s recent play is a harsh reminder that the next phase of the rebuild is always tougher than the last. Everybody in the locker room is giving the perfect quotes about how this team needs to bear down, work hard, and figure out what ails them, even as they hold a players-only meeting to discuss it among themselves. However, it's hard to see the frustration currently permeating this squad, then remember the ease and joy of the most impressive Sharks' performances from last year, and trace any obvious path to recapturing what made them fun (besides acquiring better players, I guess). If it were possible to just want your way out of adversity ... well, that would be great news for the Chicago Blackhawks. As it stands, though, the key that's going to unshackle these Sharks seems as mysterious to them as it does to every other bad team. Macklin Celebrini got them this far. Now what?
