{"id":262781,"date":"2026-04-11T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T15:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:48:20","slug":"san-jose-sharks-playoff-hopes-hurt-by-anaheim-ducks-john-carlson-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262781\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ playoff hopes hurt by Anaheim Ducks, John Carlson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Sharks\u2019 playoff hopes were hanging by a thread even before they played<\/a> the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re just about over<\/a> now.<\/p>\n

Looking for a response after a lopsided loss<\/a> to the Edmonton Oilers the previous night, the Sharks instead allowed two goals in the opening seven minutes \u2013 and didn\u2019t get a shot of their own on net in more than 13 minutes \u2013 in a crushing 6-1 loss to the Ducks at Honda Center.<\/p>\n

The Sharks allowed first-period goals to Leo Carlsson and John Carlson, and a second-period goal to Alex Killorn, offering little in response as they lost in regulation for the third time in four games.<\/p>\n

Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin scored San Jose\u2019s only goal, and goalie Yaroslav Askarov finished with 27 saves, but not before Carlson scored twice in the third period to complete the hat trick. Frank Vatrano also scored with 2:28 left in regulation time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not good enough this time of the year,\u201d Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be outwilled or outworked; it\u2019s unacceptable. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a back-to-back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks, with 81 points after the loss, are now in 11th place in the Western Conference standings, four points back of the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card spot<\/a>. Both the Sharks and the Kings have four games left.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only part of the Sharks\u2019 problem. They\u2019re also three points behind the Nashville Predators and have now been passed by the Winnipeg Jets, who have 82 points after their 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.<\/p>\n

Add it all up, and the Sharks might need a miracle over the next week to end their six-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, the Sharks, including their 5-2 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, just aren\u2019t passing the smell test right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw it last night (against the Oilers). The other team wanted it more, and the same thing tonight,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cWe have to learn from it, and we\u2019ve got to look inwards here a little bit. We\u2019re changing the standard. It\u2019s not OK to lose, it\u2019s not OK to lose battles, lose PKs, and just shifts on end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks face the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday in their final home game of the season. After Monday\u2019s game in Nashville, the Sharks finish the season with games in Chicago on Wednesday and Winnipeg on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 frustrations against the Ducks began almost right away.<\/p>\n

On the first shift of the game, Will Smith had the puck on his stick near the Ducks\u2019 net with no one immediately around him except for goalie Lukas Dostal.<\/p>\n

Instead of putting a shot on Dostal, Smith tried a low percentage pass across the crease to Macklin Celebrini. But the puck was intercepted by the Ducks\u2019 defense and sent back up the ice.<\/p>\n

It was a sign of things to come for the Sharks, who managed just four shot attempts in the first 15 minutes, and four shots on goal in the second period.<\/p>\n

Carlsson scored at the 2:59 mark of the first period, and Carlson gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead just 3:21 later.<\/p>\n

On a Ducks breakout, Sharks defenseman Nick Leddy tried to pinch down on winger Chris Kreider in the Anaheim zone. But Kreider was able to direct a pass to Carlsson, who carried the puck into the Sharks\u2019 zone, danced past winger Ty Dellandrea, and roofed a shot past Askarov.<\/p>\n

Three minutes later, the Sharks turned it over in their own zone. Michael Misa, in the corner to the right of the Sharks\u2019 net, got a puck ahead to Tyler Toffoli, who could not clear the puck. Pavel Mintyukov then sent the puck to Mikael Granlund, who backhanded a pass to Carlson for a one-timer that got past a screened Askarov for a 2-0 Ducks lead.<\/p>\n

The Sharks did not get a shot on net until there was 6:48 left in the first period, as a clearing attempt by Barclay Goodrow from 150 feet away had to be stopped by Dostal.<\/p>\n

The Sharks also didn\u2019t get the first shot on goal in the second period until there was 8:12 left, when Mario Ferraro hit the net.<\/p>\n

The Sharks made significant lineup changes Thursday after their loss to the Oilers on Wednesday at SAP Center. Forwards Pavol Regenda and Dellandrea entered the lineup, and Igor Chernyshov and Adam Gaudette were scratched. Mukhamadullin also replaced John Klingberg in the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks\u2019 playoff hopes were hanging by a thread even before they played the Anaheim Ducks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,404,98,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-262781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262781","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=262781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}