SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier felt his team had played well enough this season – especially in its last three games – to warrant keeping them together for the stretch run.
Now it’s up to the Sharks’ players to try to repay that faith.
The Sharks earned a point Friday, as Robert Thomas scored 54 seconds into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win in overtime before an announced sellout crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center.
The Sharks were down by a goal in the third period before Kiefer Sherwood scored his 19th of the season with 6:34 left in regulation time. Macklin Celebrini scored his 31st of the season at the 14:31 mark of the second period to tie the game 1-1.
Beyond that, the Sharks were haunted by several puck management gaffes and a longtime nemesis in goalie Jordan Binnington, who had 23 saves.
The Sharks had 17 shots on goal and were listed as having 19 giveaways. Rookie defenseman Sam Dickinson has six giveaways, and Will Smith has five.
Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 12 saves in the loss.
Binnington, who was a candidate to be traded before Friday’s NHL trade deadline at noon (PST), had 16 saves through the first two periods. He came into Friday with an 8-2-1 record and a .910 save percentage in 13 career games against the Sharks.
Nedeljkovic, who signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension with the Sharks on Friday, stopped 10 of 12 shots in the first two periods. Per Natural Stat Trick, though, Nedeljkovic faced seven high danger scoring chances in the first 40 minutes.
The Sharks entered Friday on a three-game win streak and three points out of a playoff spot, major reasons why Grier didn’t sell off many of his pending unrestricted free agents prior to Friday’s trade deadline.
Grier said some opposing teams called him this week about two of his pending UFAs in defensemen Mario Ferraro and John Klingberg. Grier, though, felt he owed it to the players to keep the group together for a playoff push. The Sharks haven’t made the playoffs since 2019.
“They’ve kind of earned it,” Grier said Friday afternoon. “Not only these last three games, but really throughout the season. It’s a group that deserves to have a chance to see what they can do.”
Besides being three points back of the Seattle Kraken for the second and final wild card spot in the west, the Sharks were four points back of the Edmonton Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division. The Oilers lost 6-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
The Blues dressed 13 forwards and five defensemen as before Friday’s deadline, they traded captain and forward Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders and defenseman Justin Faulk to the Detroit Red Wings.