San Jose Sharks face Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks desperate for a win

SAN JOSE – Nick Leddy’s first NHL playoff experience came in 2011 when he was 20 years old and a rookie on the Chicago Blackhawks’ roster. He had spent the first part of that season in the AHL but was promoted after two months and played all seven games of a first-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.

Two years later, Leddy, now 35 and the San Jose Sharks’ most experienced player with 1,070 career NHL games, was a Stanley Cup champion.

“It was huge,” Leddy said of getting that NHL postseason experience near the start of his professional career. “Getting a taste of playoff hockey early, there’s no better time of the year. I look forward to it every year.”

The Sharks (36-32-7) are leaning a lot on rookies and younger players right now as they try to secure their first playoff appearance since 2019. The hope is that the experience those players are gaining will benefit them down the road, as it did for Leddy.

Still, the Sharks are balancing the development of their young guys with the lineup that gives them the best chance to win. With some veterans available, it’ll be interesting to see what lineup changes are made for their critical home game against the Blackhawks (28-35-14) on Monday after a disappointing 6-3 loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Sharks allowed the first three goals in an error-prone first period Saturday before they rallied to tie the game early in the third. But the Sharks just made too many mistakes from that point on, and failed to capitalize on some chances, as their four-game winning streak came to an end.

The Sharks have 10 players, 24 years old or younger, who have never been to the NHL playoffs, and coach Ryan Warsofsky said, “It’s their first time going through this type of hockey.

“This is not even close to the playoffs, and that was pretty close to the playoffs as far as a regular season game,” Warsofsky added after Saturday’s loss. “So, a lot of teaching moments that we’ll use to move forward. Some of our players who have done it need to help our young players understand.”

The Sharks enter Monday in 10th place in the still ultra-tight race for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Saturday’s loss dropped the Sharks two points behind both the Los Angeles Kings and the Predators, who have 81 points each. Nashville holds the final playoff spot due to a tiebreaker.

The Sharks have seven games left, and the Kings and Predators each have six. The Winnipeg Jets, St. Louis Blues, and Seattle Kraken are also still lurking, but face a more difficult path.

Asked what the Sharks’ younger players can learn from these games going forward, Leddy said, “It’s just experience. experiencing being in them, figuring out how to play in them, doing what you can throughout the game, and knowing the time of the game.”

One such experience happened Saturday, midway through the third period, with the game tied 3-3.

Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin, from inside the Predators’ blue line, put a shot toward the net that was intercepted by Tyson Jost, and quickly transitioned the other way. Predators center Ryan O’Reilly took a pass from Jost and carried the puck into the Sharks’ zone with Mukhamadullin in front of him.

O’Reilly sent the puck below the goal line to Luke Evangelista, skated toward the Sharks net, and with no one covering him — Mukhamadullin, Michael Misa, and Tyler Toffoli included — took a return pass from Evangelista and fired a puck past rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov for a 4-3 Predators lead.

“It starts when we don’t get a shot through on the point, it comes back on a 2-on-2,” Warsofsky said. “It’s really a nothing play. (O’Reilly) actually kind of puts it (deep) to get off the ice and sees (Evangelista) get the puck back. It’s an easy cover for us.”

The Sharks were on the power play, pressing for the equalizer, late in the third, when Erik Haula beat Askarov with a back-breaking shorthanded goal.

After the Sharks lost control of the puck in the Predators’ end, Jost sent it into the Sharks’ zone off the end boards. Haula outraced Dmitry Orlov for the loose puck and one-timed a shot past Askarov for a 5-3 Nashville lead with 2:34 to go.

“Kind of a tough play,” Askarov said. “It’s not easy to go and play that puck, because that’s a hard shot to the boards, a hard bounce, too. Unfortunately for me, the puck went into the net.”

Askarov, 23, did not wish to evaluate his own performance after he stopped 28 of 33 shots in Saturday’s loss. In his last four starts, he is 2-1-1 with a .881 save percentage.

The Sharks want to keep developing Askarov by putting him in these challenging situations. But it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise to see Warsofsky go with the more experienced Alex Nedeljkovic for Monday’s game, or scratch Mukahamadullin for veteran John Klingberg. Mukhamadullin has dressed for 17 of the Sharks’ last 18 games, and Klingberg has not played since March 24, missing the last six games through a mix of healthy scratches and an injury.

Regardless, the Sharks have little room for error in what might be a must-win game, considering the Blackhawks have the NHL’s youngest roster and are next to last in the Western Conference.

“Mentally, you’ve got to be ready, number one,” Warsofsky said. “Two, physically, you’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to be physical. You’ve got to get into people you can’t play at the end of your stick. And we had some guys playing at the end of their stick tonight.”