PHILADELPHIA — If the San Jose Sharks want to continue their surprise pursuit of a playoff berth, they’ll have to figure this out.
Why are they consistently no-showing periods and games?
On Tuesday, it was the opening frame against the Philadelphia Flyers, getting outshot 16-3. They ended up, improbably, tied at one apiece after one, mostly due to the heroics of Alex Nedeljkovic.
Of course, even the best teams have off periods and games. But for the Sharks, since Nov. 13, you can argue that they’ve alligator-armed about half their games (at Calgary Flames on Nov. 13, at Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 26, versus Washington Capitals on Dec. 3) or significant periods of them (versus Ottawa Senators on Nov. 22, at Dallas Stars on Dec. 5, at Philadelphia tonight).
That’s about six noteworthy head-scratching performances in their last 14 games.
Tonight, the stage seemed set for the San Jose Sharks to play for something higher than themselves: Yaroslav Askarov was ill, so Alex Nedeljkovic was thrust into the starting role, EBUG Justin Kowalkoski backing up.
Instead?
“We got out of our structure again,” Ryan Reaves offered. “We play a good game, and then all of a sudden, it looks like we just want to wheel and deal the next game.”
“We talked about playing fast, playing hard, tough puck plays, and get the puck to the net,” Alex Wennberg said. “We didn’t come up to our level.”
“First period neutral zone turnovers were not good,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We line change twice in that second period, one ends up in the back of our net. We have soft puck play, and that creates chances against, and then we’re not hard enough on our own end, and that creates motion and chances again.”
Point to whatever you want, the Sharks followed one of their best games of the season with one of their worst periods of the year. They’re consistently inconsistent right now, an improvement over the last two seasons’ consistently bad, but a far cry from where they want to get to.
“So right back to the drawing board,” Warsofsky said.
That is?
“Hard puck play, [good] line changes, guys committed to the process,” Warsofsky said, recalling Sunday’s triumph over the Carolina Hurricanes. “Every guy was on and saying the right things and doing the right things. They were doing their job in that particular zone and that particular part of our structure.”
Justin Kowalkoski
Kowalkoski says that he’s going to retire from being an EBUG after this season. He’s 39, got 2 kids & being a hydrogeologist pays better than being a traveling EBUG. So great way to end it with his first rookie lap, family in stands
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 10, 2025
Alex Nedeljkovic
Nedeljkovic says Askarov felt progressively worse throughout the day, so #SJSharks might be calling up a goalie for the Toronto game
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 10, 2025
Alex Wennberg
Ryan Warsofsky
Ryan Reaves
Reaves: “Win one, lose one, play well, play like shit, just not going to cut it.”
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 10, 2025