With poor start, Sharks are halfway to breaking an ignominious record

NHL: San Jose Sharks will be looking for their first victory of the season Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Don’t worry, the San Jose Sharks are still a long way from breaking the franchise record for the longest winless streak to begin a season.

But it might not be long before that ignominious mark of 11 feels all too close.

The Sharks were defeated for the sixth time in a row on Tuesday, falling 3-1 to the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena.

If the Sharks don’t win on this road trip, they’ll be just two games away from breaking the team’s season-opening winless streak record of 11 games, set in 1995 when the team lost seven games and tied four others.

Despite some encouraging individual performances against the Panthers, the Sharks’ loss was their fifth in a row with only one goal.

The Sharks (0-5-1) have only scored eight goals through six games, the second-lowest total in the league and tied for the fewest in team history (the 2003-04 team also scored eight during a 1-4-1 start).

The Sharks have three more chances to win on this road trip. They play the Carolina Hurricanes (3-4-0) on Friday and the Washington Capitals (1-3-1) on Sunday after Thursday. The Sharks were defeated 6-3 at home by the Hurricanes on Oct. 17, and they will play their fourth game in six days when they visit the nation’s capital. Washington, on the other hand, has only scored six goals in its first five games.

“Just got to throw more pucks at the net and create chaos,” said winger Fabian Zetterlund, who scored Tuesday and is now tied for the team lead with two goals, “and then it will come.”

But what happens if it doesn’t? A four-game homestand against the Vancouver Canucks begins next Thursday, followed by games against Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins and John Tortorella and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Is it possible to rule anything out at this point?

We’ll see where Logan Couture and Mikael Granlund stand in terms of health by the start of next week. Couture, who has been out with a lower-body injury, has resumed skating in San Jose, but according to Sharks coach David Quinn, Granlund has had a minor setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury.

Certainly, their absences have had a negative impact on the Sharks’ offense, as the majority of the Sharks’ big boys have failed to produce. Tomas Hertl has five points in six games, but Anthony Duclair, Mike Hoffman, and Alexander Barabanov have one goal, one assist, and 25 shots between them.

Quinn told San Jose Hockey Now on Wednesday that Barabanov has an upper-body injury and will be out indefinitely. Quinn stated that the Sharks have no plans to call up anyone from the AHL to replace Barabanov, who was injured late in the third period of Tuesday’s game.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Sharks gave up 17 high-danger chances against the Panthers, including 12 in the first period, while creating only seven. The Sharks have created fewer than eight high-danger chances per game this season while allowing more than 13.

All the while, the Sharks have outstanding goaltending. Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves on 34 shots on Tuesday, giving her a.914 save percentage in four games this season.

With the Sharks leading 1-0, Blackwood didn’t get much help from his teammates, as Carter Verhaeghe was left wide open beside the net after taking a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and scoring his third goal of the season. Later in the second period, the Sharks committed back-to-back penalties, allowing Sam Reinhart to score on the power play.

“It was disappointing that we surrendered the goal that we did,” Quinn said of Florida’s first goal. “It was entirely avoidable… “We faded away from the puck, and it was just a big breakdown in the zone.”

The Sharks are now halfway to making history, with their 11-game winless streak tied for the second-longest in NHL history. The 1943-44 New York Rangers set a record by going 15 games without a win to begin a season.

That could be a topic for another day.

“I thought our third period was our best period and I thought as the game went on, we started finding our footing and did a better job on breakouts and establishing some forecheck,” Quinn went on to say. “Just too little, too late.”