SAN JOSE – Not only is the situation similar to the last time the Sharks went on a lengthy road trip, but the tone in the dressing room and from the head coach is also comparable.
A month ago, despite losing eight of their previous 11 games headed into a season-long six-game stretch away from home, the Sharks and coach Pete DeBoer expressed confidence that their game would start producing results. The historic six-game sweep validated that conviction.
Now, despite losing six in a row, including a 2-0 shutout at home at the hands of the Wild on Saturday, there is still a calmness being preached by DeBoer both publicly and to his troops ahead of a five-game roadie that starts on Tuesday.
What’s the message?
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“Just stick with it,” Tommy Wingels said. “Every team goes through these sorts of streaks and lulls throughout the year. We’ve got to find a way to dig ourselves out of it, and the only way we’re going to do that is work our way through it.”
“Every team in the league is going to go through adversity,” DeBoer said. “This is our adversity right now. We’ve got to be careful in that there’s really good parts to our game, I just think lately we haven’t been able to put it all together. … We’ve just got to find a way and trust that if we keep playing the right way, that it will turn around.”
DeBoer wasn’t overly displeased with the Sharks’ most recent performance on Saturday, saying that the club generated “18 quality chances.” That’s debatable, though, as the Sharks didn’t do much after the first 10 minutes and just weren’t very aggressive in getting to the front of the net. After all, if it was a strong effort, why shake up the line combinations again ahead of Tuesday’s game in Montreal, which is what the coach has done?
Despite being a well-rested team at home against a club in the second half of a back-to-back, the Sharks were generally flat on the offensive side of the puck. They certainly didn’t look like a team that was playing with enough urgency to end what was a five-game skid. They have just 10 goals during their 0-5-1 stretch.
[KURZ: Tierney's performance rare bright spot in Sharks latest loss]
Conversely, though, the Sharks played admirably on the defensive side and in goal, aided by the return of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and more steady minutes from Dylan DeMelo on the third pair. Other than a head-shaking mistake by Brent Burns on Zach Parise’s game-winner, the Sharks were solid in their own end. That will have to continue.
“The natural reaction is to open it up here and start to cheat on the offensive side,” DeBoer said. “We can’t do that.”
The Pacific Division standings are also getting dicey. The Flames and Oilers have won five in a row headed into Monday night’s games, and each is just one point behind San Jose. The Sharks are only one point behind second place Vancouver, but they’re just two points ahead of last place Anaheim.
They can be calm, cool and confident about their game all they want, but if the wins don’t start coming soon, they’ll be in trouble.
“We know where teams are at. We know it’s a tight race,” Martin Jones said. “It’s that time of year where we’ve got to start putting some points away.”
Joe Pavelski said: “Usually when you’re going good you’re probably not as good as you might think you are, and when you’re bad you’re probably not quite as bad as you think you are. It’s that fine line of just figuring out how to be a little bit better. Just stay with the plan, stay with the process, and [the wins] are going to come.”
After Tuesday's game in Montreal, the Sharks visit Toronto, Ottawa, Chicago and Los Angeles. They are 10-5-1 on the road this season.
