The San Jose Sharks put forward a better effort but were unable to come out with a point in the team’s visit to Dallas on Friday night. Despite plenty of opportunities, the Sharks could not find the back of the net and lost to the Dallas Stars 4-1.

While the score makes it seem like a lopsided effort, it was a much closer game for most of the night. The score was 1-0 Dallas after the first period. The Sharks scored the only goal in the second period and the score stayed tied at one until Sam Steel broke through at 10:56 in the third.

Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s GameFlow chart at even strength, you can see how the game unfolded.

The Sharks came out a little slower in the first period. It wasn’t that they were flat per se, just that they didn’t match the tempo that Dallas brought to the game. You can see from the above chart that Dallas quickly turned the game into its favor in the first period. That led to a pair of penalties by the Sharks because when you don’t have the puck, you’re more likely to take a dumb penalty. Dallas, being the effective and efficient scoring team that it is, managed to pot one on its second chance of the night.

While San Jose came out better prepared to match Dallas’ pace in the second period, playing catch-up is never a true recipe for success. The Sharks struggled with scoring in this game, looking for the perfect shot instead of the shot that was there through the first portion of the game. When they finally got shots on the net, they couldn’t get them through.

Wasted chances

It didn’t help that the team wasted several chances on the man-advantage. While the Stars went 1-for-2 on the power play, the Sharks had a much different result. The Sharks went 0-for-4 on the man-advantage.

In many instances, the Sharks’ power play actually offered Dallas more scoring opportunities than the Sharks, with goaltender Yaroslav Askarov forced to make several saves just to ensure the score stayed close.

While Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky said the Sharks have worked on the power play, and there was a new look to this one with John Klingberg moved down to the second unit, there’s still more work that needs to be done.

Celebrini still has steps to take to become “elite”

For a sophomore season in the NHL, Macklin Celebrini is doing an outstanding job. The young 19-year-old deserves all the praise in the world for his ability to create offense, his deceptive shot and his incredibly high hockey IQ. He is, as many in the NHL have said, well ahead of schedule in terms of his development. However, he’s a teenager playing in a man’s league and that was very much apparent in last night’s game.

Despite the fact that the Dallas defense was depleted without the services of Thomas Harley, Nils Lundkvist and Liam Bichsel, the blueline still had Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen. Every time Celebrini was on the ice, they were there. They took away his time and his space, shoving him to the boards, cutting off his entries into to offensive zone, effectively smothering his offensive attacks.

Against one of the top pairings in the league, we learned that Celebrini still has some things to learn before he can become a full-fledged superstar. Stars like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby have learned how to power through and around the best defenders in the league. Celebrini will have to use last night as a learning experience as he grows in this league.

Scoring depth needed to come through

That said, on a night like this when a team’s defensive depth is tested and they’re rightfully giving your superstar a healthy dose of the top defensive pairing, then it’s your depth guys that need to step up.

Looking at HockeyStatCards GameScore Impact Card, you can see that while the second line of Philipp Kurashev, Alex Wennberg and William Eklund were the most impactful forwards, aside from Kurashev, they didn’t produce on the scoreboard.

Kurashev did not get an assist on the Sharks’ lone goal in the second period, but he was there to help influence the play. The goal came off the stick of Collin Graf, who picked up a loose puck in front of the Dallas crease.

After the game, head coach Ryan Warsofsky called Graf San Jose’s best player.

Graf has now put together two really good games even as the rest of the team is struggling to find its way.

Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Dallas Stars Dec. 5, 2025

First period
14:20 DAL Jason Robertson from Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen on the power play

Second period
8:23 SJS Collin Graf from Ty Dellandrea and Nick Leddy

Third period
10:56 DAL Sam Steel from Alexander Petrovic and Mikko Rantanen
16:39 DAL Mikko Rantanen from Wyatt Johnston and Vladislav Kolyachonok
17:41 DAL Miro Heiskanen from Roope Hintz into the empty net