{"id":196735,"date":"2026-02-27T17:28:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196735\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:28:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:28:29","slug":"san-jose-sharks-on-losing-skid-now-face-connor-mcdavid-edmonton-oilers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196735\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, on losing skid, now face Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 It\u2019s been a pleasantly surprising season<\/a> so far for the San Jose Sharks as they find themselves in contention<\/a> for their playoff appearance since 2019.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the reality as the Sharks, on a five-game losing streak,<\/a> look ahead to this weekend\u2019s home games against the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets:<\/p>\n

Thanks to a five-game losing streak, the Sharks are now just as close to 29th place in the NHL standings, where they finished three years ago,<\/a> as they are to the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Presented with an opportunity to build on the excitement created by Macklin Celebrini\u2019s performance<\/a> at the Milan Cortina Olympics, capped by a widely viewed<\/a> gold medal game, the Sharks instead started their season\u2019s most important homestand with a dud, losing 4-1 on Thursday to the non-playoff-contending Calgary Flames.<\/p>\n

With the game tied 1-1 in the third period, a bad line change by the Sharks led to a goal by Flames forward Connor Zary at the 5:22 mark. Just under seven minutes later, a turnover by Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren led to Nazem Kadri\u2019s goal with 8:04 left in regulation time.<\/p>\n

The Sharks created a couple of scoring chances after that, but an amped sold-out crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center \u2013 which was looking for any reason to get involved \u2014 went home disappointed as San Jose fell to 0-4-1 since a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n

Celebrini was held off the scoresheet on Thursday despite five shots on net and a fast start by the Sharks in which they peppered Flames goalie Dustin Wolf with 16 shots. Wolf, a Gilroy native, finished with 34 saves as he improved to 10-2-0 with a .919 save percentage in 12 career games against the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks\u2019 Michael Misa (77) fights for the puck against Calgary Flames\u2019 Yan Kuznetsov (37) in the third period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The Sharks are now 1-12-2 this season when Celebrini doesn\u2019t record a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had good energy, liked our start, did some really good things,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cWe turn over a couple of pucks and change the momentum of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe second goal, we have a bad change. The third goal, we turn over a puck. So this time of year, when you do those things, you\u2019re going to lose hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news for the Sharks is that they have chances to redeem themselves this weekend, as two more sellout crowds are expected for games against Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday and goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the United States\u2019 biggest hero, and the Jets on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The bad news is that both the Oilers and Jets are more potent on offense than the Flames, Edmonton especially so, and the Sharks just can\u2019t seem to sustain a solid defensive effort for 60 minutes.<\/p>\n

Since the start of January, the Sharks have now allowed an average of 3.63 goals per game, the 27th-best mark in the NHL, as they\u2019ve gone 7-8-1 in that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to score, obviously, to win hockey games,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cBut we have to keep the puck out of our net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini was the youngest NHL player at the Olympics and became the breakout star of the tournament<\/a>, helping lead Canada to the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

Celebrini had five goals and five assists in his five games, but he and his teammates were unable to score a second goal thanks to Hellebuyck\u2019s 41 saves. Jack Hughes then scored early in the 3-on-3 overtime to lift the Americans to a 2-1 win on Sunday at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.<\/p>\n

Sharks fans were eager to welcome the electrifying Celebrini back to San Jose and gave him the loudest cheer of the night when he and fellow Olympians were recognized during a stoppage in the first period.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s special, right? And he demands a level where we owe it to him,\u201d Sharks winger Kiefer Sherwood said. \u201cHe\u2019s driving this ship and this team, obviously, so everyone\u2019s got to dig in and execute at a higher level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously creating and showing what he can do on the world stage with the best. So, we\u2019ve got to be better around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buzz around Celebrini, now the NHL\u2019s fifth leading scorer with 81 points in 56 games, won\u2019t go away anytime soon. But the excitement around a potential playoff might be about to disappear.<\/p>\n

The Sharks, with 58 points, enter Friday five points behind the Seattle Kraken for the West\u2019s second wild card spot. But San Jose\u2019s losing skid has it just five points ahead of the 29th-place Chicago Blackhawks, although the Sharks have two games in hand on both teams.<\/p>\n

If the Sharks are unable to climb back into the race with their next three games, that could prompt general manager Mike Grier<\/a> to start selling off one or more of his pending unrestricted free agents before next Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n

But there still is time for the surprising Sharks, and for now, at least, they\u2019ll have some bigger crowds backing them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can be a little bit more connected on the forecheck and get some more pucks back,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to learn from it, and we\u2019ve got to dig in here. It\u2019s a big back-to-back coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 It\u2019s been a pleasantly surprising season so far for the San Jose Sharks as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[27929,18693,2070,1035,9896,88,90,89,98],"class_list":{"0":"post-196735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-calgary-flames","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-macklin-celebrini","12":"tag-nhl-trade-deadline","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-san-jose-sharks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}