What a crapshoot this team has been. The San Jose Sharks have gotten off to one of the worst ever starts IN NHL HISTORY…and it really doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better for them going forward.
How can a team be this bad in the modern NHL?
Despite having a few decent players and the legacy of being a very competitive team, the San Jose Sharks look like they are one a one-way course to making history…but for all the wrong reasons as they have started out the season 0-10-1. And, to be honest, I think the Sharks are going to struggle to win 15 games this year.
In the 15 or so years I have been watching hockey (which is about as far back as I can remember), I don’t think I have ever seen a team as bad as the 2023-24 San Jose Sharks. Okay, well, I guess I should qualify that by saying there has been three teams, the 1943 New York Rangers, the 2017 Arizona Coyotes, and the 2021 Arizona Coyotes (isn’t it great to be a Yotes fan!) have had 11-game winless streaks to start off their, respective, seasons as the Sharks now have with their 10-2 loss to the Penguins yesterday.
So, I guess it’s not entirely true to say there hasn’t been teams as bad statically as the Sharks, but neither one of those teams (well, I’m guessing for the 1943 Rangers as that was a good 70 years before my time) LOOKED as bad as the Sharks. The San Jose Sharks are the only team since the 1965 Boston Bruins to have given up 10+ goals in back-to-back performances…and they’ve only played in 11 games.
The Sharks are bottom of the NHL in wins (0), regulation losses (10), total losses (11), points (1), goals scored (12), goals scored/game (1.09), assists (21), individual player points (31), goals against (54), goals against/game (4.91), shots against (413), and they have the second worst SV% (.873).
When you consider the fact that the Sharks don’t even have double-digit scorer yet and have an NHL-worst -42 goal differential (which is the very worst any team has posted in the recorded history of the league across the opening 11 games), I think you just have to give it to the Sharks GM Mike Grier for creating one of the most ruthless tank jobs in NHL history.
Okay, it’s not all Mike Grier’s fault as this team was steadily declining for the better part of the last four seasons and losing Joe Pavelski (went to Dallas), Erik Karlsson (traded to Pittsburgh), Logan Couture (injured), Timo Meier (traded to New Jersey), Brent Burns (traded to Carolina), Joe Thornton (left to Toronto, then Florida, and has now retired), and Evander Kane (traded to Edmonton), it’s really no surprise this team has went down the gutter.
Aside from their young prospects, there’s really no star talent, let alone superstar talent, on this roster. Sure, Tomas Hertl is a good forward on his day, but he hasn’t posted a 70+ point season in 5 years…and he only did it once in 2018/19. And do you really consider Anthony Duclair, Mikael Grandlund, Filip Zadina, a 33-year-old Mike Hoffman, and a 36-year-old Marc Eduard Vlassic star players? I don’t.
And don’t even get me started on that defense and goaltending tandum of Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kakineen as they might very well be worse than most AHL teams.
I don’t know if this team will be as BAD as the 1974-75 Washington Capitals (who won 8 of 80 games), but them surpassing their own ancestor team in the 1992-92 San Jose Sharks (they won 11 of 84 games) might very well be possible if they continue this losing streak into Game 20 or even Game 30.
I really am sorry Sharks fans, but you guys might very well have the treat of watching the worst NHL team ever for the rest of the season!
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