SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier felt his team had played well enough this season \u2013 especially in its last three games \u2013 to warrant keeping them together for the stretch run.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s up to the Sharks\u2019 players to try to repay that faith.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t totally happen Friday, as the Sharks allowed two goals to Robert Thomas, including one 54 seconds into overtime, in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues before an announced sellout crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center.<\/p>\n
Kiefer Sherwood tied the game 2-2 for the Sharks at the 13:26 mark of the third period, taking a pass from Philipp Kurashev and one-timing a shot from near the faceoff dot past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington for his 19th goal of the season and second as a Shark.<\/p>\n
But in overtime, Philip Broberg possessed the puck inside the Sharks\u2019 zone and put a shot on net that hit the crossbar behind goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. Thomas got in position ahead of Sharks defenseman Sam Dickinson and knocked it into the net, handing the Sharks their first loss in four games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have our best tonight,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cCouldn\u2019t make a play. Too many odd-man rushes. We just weren\u2019t good enough tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini scored his 31st goal of the season for the Sharks, who were haunted by several puck management gaffes and a longtime nemesis in goalie Binnington, who had 23 saves. Nedeljkovic, fresh off signing a two-year, $6 million contract extension, made 11 saves in the loss, although, per Natural Stat Trick, he faced seven high-danger scoring chances in the first 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Sharks had 17 shots on goal and were listed as having 19 giveaways in the first two periods. In that time, Dickinson had six giveaways, and Will Smith, who was benched for the final seven minutes of the first period, had five.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot trying to turn the puck over; just trying to make the best play I can,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSome passes there that didn\u2019t connect. Just\u00a0 can\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
After two tough periods, Warsofsky, looking for a spark, juggled a couple of his forward lines, moving Alex Wennberg to the top line, where he centered Celebrini and Smith, and had Kurashev center a line with Collin Graf and Sherwood.<\/p>\n
Still, the Sharks had their three-game win streak snapped and are now 3-1-1 on this six-game homestand that ends Saturday night against the New York Islanders. Oddly enough, while the Sharks have wins over the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens on this homestand, two teams that are in a playoff spot, they\u2019ve also lost to non-playoff contenders St. Louis and Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve got to continue to have our foot on the gas, and we\u2019re still striving for a full 60,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to value each and every little detail.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks are now two points back of the Seattle Kraken for the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference, and three points back of the Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division. The Sharks have one game in hand on the Kraken, which was idle Friday, and three on the Oilers, who lost 6-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
Binnington, who was a candidate to be traded before Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline at noon (PST), had 16 saves through the first two periods. He came into Friday with an 8-2-1 record and a .910 save percentage in 13 career games against the Sharks.<\/p>\n
The Sharks entered Friday on a three-game win streak and three points out of a playoff spot, major reasons why Grier didn\u2019t sell off many of his pending unrestricted free agents prior to Friday\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve kind of earned it,\u201d Grier said Friday afternoon. \u201cNot only these last three games, but really throughout the season. It\u2019s a group that deserves to have a chance to see what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grier said some opposing teams called him this week about two of his pending UFAs in defensemen Mario Ferraro and John Klingberg. Grier, though, felt he owed it to the players to keep the group together for a playoff push. The Sharks haven\u2019t made the playoffs since 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great message that management believes in us to move forward,\u201d said Sherwood, who was signed to a five-year, $28.75 million extension on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, they could have made a lot of moves and whatnot, but to keep the group together and let us battle and give us a chance says a lot, so we\u2019ve got to do right by that and find a way to get in. These games are coming quick, so we have to take advantage of our home stretch here and find a way to get two points tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blues dressed 13 forwards and five defensemen as before Friday\u2019s deadline, they traded captain and forward Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders and defenseman Justin Faulk to the Detroit Red Wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier felt his team had played well enough this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120],"tags":[71,2617,27663,5,4,27664,168,2618,43,534,84,5285,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-490895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-blues","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-central-coast","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-northern-california","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-santa-clara-county","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-st-louis","18":"tag-st-louis-blues","19":"tag-stlouis","20":"tag-stlouisblues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116186988320631877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}