CHICAGO — The San Jose Sharks showed their two faces on Wednesday night, in a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

At times this season, like for most of their 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday, they’re a group capable of playing a direct, playoff-worthy game.

They did so for 40 minutes, defending hard and stifling a sleepy-looking Blackhawks squad with their forecheck. At that point, the Sharks were up 2-1, and per Natural Stat Trick, had outchanced the home team 10-6 at 5-on-5.

And then, the irresponsible San Jose side that flamed out and missed the playoffs showed up in the third period. Careless with the puck and lax defensively, they allowed four unanswered goals.

For a number of the San Jose Sharks youngsters, it was a Jekyll and Hyde performance. Hopefully, next year, there’s a lot more Jekyll than Hyde.

Yaroslav Askarov, for example, made back-to-back brilliant saves on Ilya Mikheyev in the first period, including a penalty shot…and then he surrendered a soft bad-angle bid to Sam Rinzel to close the second period.

Macklin Celebrini has enjoyed a Hart Trophy-worthy campaign, but it was his blind pass up the middle that Connor Bedard jumped on to go the other way, finding Louis Crevier to tie the game.

Sam Dickinson killed play after play in the first period, but then fell asleep on Crevier attacking the net, on what should’ve been a routine 3-on-3 backcheck.

Luca Cagnoni had his best offensive period in the NHL in the opening frame…and then lost Tyler Bertuzzi on a corner pin, before Bertuzzi hit Crevier on the blueline for the 4-2 bomb.

Those are just some of the young players who need to find a little more consistency and gain more understanding of how to play with momentum, yes, even franchise star Celebrini. I’m focused, by the way, on the youth, because they’re most likely to be able to improve.

“This one is a kick in the gut, because we should know by now,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’ve talked about enough of the momentum shifts in games and when to simplify it and when to be a mature team.”

Just a little more consistency this year, and the Sharks would’ve made the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

“Understand that really, we’ve controlled most of the game the first two periods, let’s go put zeroes in the third and we win a hockey game,” Warsofsky said. “And until we do that, we won’t make another step.”

Instead, they’re going home early, wondering what could’ve been.

Michael Misa

Misa, on playing with momentum:

[Warsofsky’s] definitely right about that. We definitely got to find times when they have the momentum, make sure we’re playing well defensively. And then, when we have the momentum, we got to be on the attack. I thought we were for the majority of that game, but yeah, came up short.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky: “This one is a kick in the gut, because we should know by now. To be honest with it, we should know by now, we’ve talked about enough of the momentum shifts in games and when to simplify it and when to be a mature team and understand that really, we’ve controlled most…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 16, 2026

Collin Graf

Luca Cagnoni

Cagnoni & Warsofsky thought, 1st half of the game, was most comfortable offensively that Luca’s looked in NHL

Cagnoni: “I’m just trying to do what I’ve been doing down in the A all year, just trying to produce, set up guys, or give myself a look thought, I found some open ice…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 16, 2026