After a night where the Sharks gathered at the Toffoli’s house for Thanksgiving, the struggling Vancouver Canucks came into town hoping to take advantage of the turkey and mashed potatoes weighing the Sharks down. With Vincent Iorio back from the conditioning stint with the Barracuda, he got into the lineup as part of the ever-crowded blueline. Vincent Desharnais, Nick Leddy and Shakir Mukhamadullin were the scratches. It was also the first time since Ryan Reaves joined the Sharks that ex-Shark Evander Kane was on the other bench, something that had the potential to erupt in a fiery exchange.

First period

This game was a weird one from the start. It lacked any real flow, as a lot of it was spent on special teams. It took almost five minutes for the first one minute on the game clock to tick away. Starting 3-0 in the faceoff circle, the line of William Eklund, Alex Wennberg and Adam Gaudette were getting sustained offensive zone time throughout the night. While the Sharks were able to get a good forecheck going early, they struggled in front of their own net, leading to an early Canucks goal from another one of the noted Shark killers, Brock Boeser. The first of six Sharks power plays in the game featured a Will Smith goal after he was found wide open in front of the net by Wennberg.

With Dmitry Orlov back on the primary power play instead of John Klingberg, it seems like the unit can run through Macklin Celebrini, Smith and Eklund more efficiently. Klingberg likes to dance around with the puck on the blueline, almost a poor man’s version of Cale Makar on Colorado.

Second period

After killing the initial penalty to start the second, Elias Pettersson (the #40 one) was able to score from the ground in an admittedly remarkable way, taking advantage of a small confusion between Smith and Celebrini. 

When the Canucks continued to get power plays, SAP started to get loud, but not in the way you might think. Evander Kane is on the Canucks top power play, and during one of the multiple power plays in which the Canucks were able to keep the offensive zone the entire two minutes, the boos started. Every time Kane touched the puck a deafening rumble of boos were heard. The entire crowd caught on quickly, making sure to remind Kane that he is no longer welcome at SAP Center. 

On the power play already, Celebrini decided to do his best Connor McDavid impression and slice through three Canucks defenders and draw another penalty, creating a 5-on-3 for over a minute. Eklund scored on a one-timer and had a celebration that exuded relief after a long goal drought.

About one minute later, Adam Gaudette had a shot that was stopped by Tolopilo, blown dead by the ref. Gaudette started arguing that it went in, and it seemed to work, because the play went under review. As it turns out, Tolopilo caught the puck, but his glove was inside the goal, counting it as a goal, putting the Sharks up 3-2. 

While the Sharks came out of the period on top, the Canucks did outshoot the Sharks 17-7 in the middle frame.

Third period

The third period was a special teams slog. With 10 minor penalties between the two teams, it was up to Colin Graf, Mario Ferraro, and for a brief time, Sam Dickinson to stop Quinn Hughes on the power play. The Sharks’ PK ended the night 9-for-9, a perfect record. A minor penalty to Evander Kane evoked one of the loudest cheers of the night. In crunch time with the Sharks up 3-2, Macklin Celebrini got two minutes for cross-checking. Celebrini disagreed with the refs and made sure to let them know it, earning himself another two minutes for unsportsmanlike. Yaroslav Askarov and the Sharks battled through the questionable penalties to sneak out another regulation win, bringing them to a tiebreaker with Utah for the last wildcard playoff spot in the West as of Nov. 28. 

Other thoughts:

The Sharks have been playing well in November and have another large game against Vegas on Saturday. The Sharks are going to be looking to get revenge after the first game of the season, with Nedeljkovic in net looking to put the blunder of game 1 behind him. Winning a back-to-back against two teams they are in the playoff race against would be huge, not only for team morale but for proving they can compete with the big boys in the NHL. 

Shoutouts

Colin Graf: Being a large part of the first penalty kill unit, Graf put in a lot of work facing off against Hughes on the right side. He held his own and had some incredible effort shifts in the third period to keep the lead. 

Askarov: Ignoring the game against the Avalanche earlier this week, his November has been one for the books. He continues to show elite abilities night in and night out and is a large reason behind the Sharks improved play this month. 

Scoring summary Vancouver Canucks vs. San Jose Sharks Nov. 28, 2025

First period
4:28 VAN Brock Boeser from Connor Garland and Tom Willander
9:25 SJS Will Smith from Alex Wennberg and Macklin Celebrini on the power play

Second period
3:04 VAN Elias Pettersson from Evander Kane and Filip Hronek
14:03 SJS William Eklund from Macklin Celebrini and John Klingberg on the power play
15:17 SJS Adam Gaudette from Philipp Kurashev and Tyler Toffoli

Third period
No scoring