The San Jose Sharks are horror-bad

[Russian_fanatic]

Then why do people care about finding ways to eliminate tanking?

lol

Kucherov, Pettersson, Panarin are top 3 in scoring. Not one of them was drafted first overall.

Makar, Heiskanen, Hughes, Fox neither was drafted first overall.

Bergeron, Marchand, Tim Thomas, and Krejci where not even drafted in the first round, but where a core who won the Stanley Cup.

 

[Chips]

The historically bad sharks looked a lot better than the Oilers defensively

 

[HighAndTight]

Solid team all around.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

The historically bad sharks looked a lot better than the Oilers defensively

They did this time but their puck play was still pretty much ass. Took advantage of some sloppy Oilers plays and leaned hard on Blackwood and blocking shots. They can suck some wins out that way but they’re losing most nights playing like they did tonight. I’m glad their win causes some distress among Oilers followers lol

 

[MS]

Just when you think a team is generationally bad, the Coilers step up to remind you how much they can coil.

 

[ricky0034]

 

[Three On Zero]

Yeah, nobody expected the Sharks to contend any time soon, but holy hannah they are awful so far. Like, horror-bad awful.

After nine games, they have 1 shoot-out loss to show for the season.

They have 9 goals, total, in nine games. (Alex Debrincat, by himself, has matched their entire team's goal production.) They've allowed 26 goals against, putting them almost at -3 per game (or -240 for a full season).

Amazingly, their goaltending -- by save percentage, anyway -- has been fine. Their PK is about League-average so far, and their PP isn't the worst in the League (they dishonor goes to St. Louis's staggering 4.8% on the season), so their inept results are mainly down to 5-on-5 utter futility. They have scored six even strength goals all season.

How bad is it going to get? Will it get worse? Or, is this start just a mirage and they're actually not too bad?

I will just leave this here

 

[Devilmademedoit]

Oilers enter the room and say "hold my beer"

 

[ijuka]

I will just leave this here

View attachment 766023

Yeah, but even this match had Oilers at 77.6% deserve-to-win meter on moneypuck, for example.

Second match in a row that Blackwood steals.

But anyway it's impressive that Oilers manage to be this bad with those players.

 

[Three On Zero]

Yeah, but even this match had Oilers at 77.6% deserve-to-win meter on moneypuck, for example.

Second match in a row that Blackwood steals.

But anyway it's impressive that Oilers manage to be this bad with those players.

That's a pretty generous 77.6%, they looked completely outclassed by San Jose, peppered Blackwood with easy shots

 

[MCR74]

The Sharks just beat the Cup favorites. That counts for something.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

One team has McDavid and Draisaitl as the top two centres and the other Hertl and Granlund (who no one wanted). Idc about a deserve to win meter, these teams should not be in the same class.

 

[weastern bias]

It shouldn't be lost on us that in these two wins we've been outshot by 43, more than a minus 20 shot differential a night

We really haven't improved our play, we've just played two basement teams and gotten .962 goaltending, all the problems are still staring us in the face

I do like some of the roster changes (top line Eklund, Addison addition, Okhotiuk looking great), but we're not playing any better, we've just had our luck turn a bit, I fully expect the losing to resume soon

 

[coooldude]

It shouldn't be lost on us that in these two wins we've been outshot by 43, more than a minus 20 shot differential a night

We really haven't improved our play, we've just played two basement teams and gotten .962 goaltending, all the problems are still staring us in the face

I do like some of the roster changes (top line Eklund, Addison addition, Okhotiuk looking great), but we're not playing any better, we've just had our luck turn a bit, I fully expect the losing to resume soon

I also fully expect to resume losing, in fact as soon as tonight and Sunday. But I think the shot totals were a bit inflated and I think it's unfair to the team to say they didn't improve their play last night. It was like the Avs game, where the Sharks were playing hard, but were simply outmatched, and Blackwood stood on his head, but the Avs truly deserved to win and you couldn't say the Oilers deserved to win last night. Not unlike the Sharks in some of our fake contender heyday, there were a lot of fairly harmless shots. Yes, there were also high danger chances, but the Sharks also had high danger chances. In general the run of play felt fairly balanced.

Last night, there were actually hockey plays being made, there were high danger chances being created not just lucked into, there were breakouts. Amongst all that there was also marginal talent and bad decisions, but there was effort. This is what a 20-25 win team looks like and I am sticking to my guns that that's where we'll end up, especially with the Addison addition, which may give us like 0.5-1 extra wins on the year given the alternatives, If the youngsters continue to grow (specifically Okhotiuk, Eklund, Zetterlund), we'll get there. Now, if anyone else important gets injured or the youngsters stagnate, then we could easily end up in the 10-15 range. I just think it's not as likely as you do.

 

[JTToilinginToronto]

They're as good as the Oilers at least.

 

[weastern bias]

I also fully expect to resume losing, in fact as soon as tonight and Sunday. But I think the shot totals were a bit inflated and I think it's unfair to the team to say they didn't improve their play last night. It was like the Avs game, where the Sharks were playing hard, but were simply outmatched, and Blackwood stood on his head, but the Avs truly deserved to win and you couldn't say the Oilers deserved to win last night. Not unlike the Sharks in some of our fake contender heyday, there were a lot of fairly harmless shots. Yes, there were also high danger chances, but the Sharks also had high danger chances. In general the run of play felt fairly balanced.

Last night, there were actually hockey plays being made, there were high danger chances being created not just lucked into, there were breakouts. Amongst all that there was also marginal talent and bad decisions, but there was effort. This is what a 20-25 win team looks like and I am sticking to my guns that that's where we'll end up, especially with the Addison addition, which may give us like 0.5-1 extra wins on the year given the alternatives, If the youngsters continue to grow (specifically Okhotiuk, Eklund, Zetterlund), we'll get there. Now, if anyone else important gets injured or the youngsters stagnate, then we could easily end up in the 10-15 range. I just think it's not as likely as you do.

We haven't improved our play one bit, we've just finally gotten to play against some trash teams and we still can't generate shots with any consistency

19 shots against Philly
18 shots against Edmonton

The real difference is those teams got a combined .864 sv% vs our. 962 over those 2 games

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

We haven't improved our play one bit, we've just finally gotten to play against some trash teams and we still can't generate shots with any consistency

19 shots against Philly
18 shots against Edmonton

The real difference is those teams got a combined .864 sv% vs our. 962 over those 2 games

This is it. The Sharks really struggle on both ends of the ice, but Blackwood has just been phenomenal. If San Jose really wants the #1 overall, the team should look to move Blackwood ASAP. Guy's playing too well to tank properly.

 

[coooldude]

We haven't improved our play one bit, we've just finally gotten to play against some trash teams and we still can't generate shots with any consistency

19 shots against Philly
18 shots against Edmonton

The real difference is those teams got a combined .864 sv% vs our. 962 over those 2 games

Not one bit eh? I dunno man, attending the VAN game, watching the PIT game, and watching the last two games were like watching different teams. As I have said countless times, both of those teams are bottom 1-2 teams, but those 18-19 shots included serious high danger shots and extended zone time, where the 10-goal losses had maybe one or two memorable high danger chances all game, horrific breakouts and break-ins, poor effort, etc.

For some reason I think you don't hear the part where I say "I pretty much agree with you" and only hear "I don't exactly agree with you," and you've got a lot of determination to convince everyone that this team will be a 5-12 win team and if you don't agree you're wrong and maybe even an idiot. I feel less confident than you seem to be, and I'm just not that attached to the outcome so long as we pick top 3. Time will show us all.

 

[weastern bias]

This is it. The Sharks really struggle on both ends of the ice, but Blackwood has just been phenomenal. If San Jose really wants the #1 overall, the team should look to move Blackwood ASAP. Guy's playing too well to tank properly.

I don't think Blackwood will stop us from tanking just because we won't be facing bottom 5 teams every night and even though we get the backup treatment most games we're still gonna play against better goalies than Ersson and Skinner most of the time

 

[weastern bias]

Not one bit eh? I dunno man, attending the VAN game, watching the PIT game, and watching the last two games were like watching different teams. As I have said countless times, both of those teams are bottom 1-2 teams, but those 18-19 shots included serious high danger shots and extended zone time, where the 10-goal losses had maybe one or two memorable high danger chances all game, horrific breakouts and break-ins, poor effort, etc.

For some reason I think you don't hear the part where I say "I pretty much agree with you" and only hear "I don't exactly agree with you," and you've got a lot of determination to convince everyone that this team will be a 5-12 win team and if you don't agree you're wrong and maybe even an idiot. I feel less confident than you seem to be, and I'm just not that attached to the outcome so long as we pick top 3. Time will show us all.

I don't think anyone is an idiot for disagreeing with me, I just think we're getting lucky rather than improving our play

High danger or not, we shot 13.5% as a team in those two games, league average this year is 9.7%

There's some regression happening because prior to those games we were shooting 2%, and even we aren't THAT bad, but we're also not generating enough scoring chances to expect us to continue scoring at this pace, we've just had our luck turn a bit

 

[Erep]

I don't think anyone is an idiot for disagreeing with me, I just think we're getting lucky rather than improving our play

High danger or not, we shot 13.5% as a team in those two games, league average this year is 9.7%

There's some regression happening because prior to those games we were shooting 2%, and even we aren't THAT bad, but we're also not generating enough scoring chances to expect us to continue scoring at this pace, we've just had our luck turn a bit

The team is still awful, like you have said. It is just the difference between worst team (era adjusted) in the history of the league improved to a normal year, worst team in the league.

A team that will usually lose but can win when things like shooting % get lucky. Before the Philly game, it looked like a team that even with perfect "luck" would still lose every night.

 

[coooldude]

For me personally, the good news is, the last two games haven't been "horror-bad" to watch. Many of us will be happy with a worst team in the league that is fighting and showing some development of the youngsters. It beats the last 3 years of failing to acknowledge the purgatory we were in and failing to start the necessary rebuild, leading to zero hope for the future.

And that's why tanking is good for business!

 

[weastern bias]

For me personally, the good news is, the last two games haven't been "horror-bad" to watch. Many of us will be happy with a worst team in the league that is fighting and showing some development of the youngsters. It beats the last 3 years of failing to acknowledge the purgatory we were in and failing to start the necessary rebuild, leading to zero hope for the future.

And that's why tanking is good for business!

Basically this, more than anything I just want to see our young players show improvement and develop good habits, and we have a couple bright spots on this team that are encouraging for the future

All the losing will also hopefully help us draft a more foundational piece, we're still missing that fulcrum that we can build a future winner around, it's why I've argued that winning the lottery is so important

 

[Kahvi]

Best part of this thread is that it was started by an Oilers fan

 

[Chainshot]

Good to see them compete hard against the Flyers and Oilers. They had rolled over in the two 10-goal against games. If nothing else, muster some passion and show the fans they care even if they're outclassed talent-wise.