ST. LOUIS — The San Jose Sharks, I think, will ultimately benefit from this losing streak that’s likely extinguished their playoff hopes this season.

On Mar. 14, after a 4-2 victory at the Montreal Canadiens, San Jose held the last wild card spot in the West.

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12 days later, after their sixth-straight loss, a 2-1 OT defeat at the St. Louis Blues, the Sharks are six points out, four teams to leapfrog.

There have been lots of hard lessons over these last 12 days.

Tonight?

The obvious lesson, you can’t let up, which is what Macklin Celebrini (71), perhaps unintentionally, did on the Dylan Holloway (81) last-second OT goal.

“I need to come back harder. I just misjudged it, and he scored. It’s frustrating,” Celebrini admitted. “I was trying to come back, be patient, for maybe a late guy [coming from behind]. I didn’t know he was gonna cut in the middle there, and I also didn’t feel like there was that much time left. I should have been there for the guys.”

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Celebrini might understandably, at the end of a 1:28 shift and having already played 3:42 of OT, been tired, too.

Another lesson for the San Jose Sharks is how you react to a mistake.

Right before the Holloway strike, Dmitry Orlov (9) had an emotional reaction, looking toward the sky after ripping a potential game-winner high.

It’s a game of mistakes, but it’s how you react to mistakes which is often the difference between winning and losing, as the veteran defenseman knows too well.

Orlov’s frustration was certainly understandable, and there’s no telling, after his miss, if he could’ve influenced the Philipp Broberg (6) stretch pass to Holloway anyway.

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But as his 19-year-old teammate learned, there was just a little too much time left on the clock to let up.

The San Jose Sharks should be the better for all this next year.

Youngsters Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, Igor Chernyshov, Collin Graf, Michael Misa, Zack Ostapchuk, Sam Dickinson, Shakir Mukhamadullin, and Yaroslav Askarov are seeing first-hand, in this skid, where they’re wanting individually and as a team, as playoff-hungry opponents raise their level at this time of year.

That’s defensively, puck battles, puck management, the little details that are often the difference between winning and losing.

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Learning to raise your level in March and April will help you learn to up your game when you actually make the playoffs.

Every game for the last two weeks has been the biggest game of the season for the San Jose Sharks, and they’ve lost every one. Randy Hahn mentioned it to me this morning, it’s like Game Seven loss after Game Seven loss. If San Jose isn’t learning something from this, GM Mike Grier is also figuring out who shouldn’t be here for the next stage of the Sharks.

Macklin CelebriniNick LeddyAlex Wennberg

Wennberg, on his skill kicking pucks up to his stick, which led to his goal:

Maybe a little combination of playing soccer. Other than that, it’s also always something I worked on. It’s another tool in your toolbox. If I can have an advantage to get the puck quicker to my stick, I try to do it.

Ryan Warsofsky

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