The San Jose Sharks don’t have a scoring problem.

I know that sounds ridiculous after being shut out on Tuesday, but hear me out:

The Sharks‘ real problem is on the blueline.

And it’s a very expensive problem at that.

Sharks general manager Mike Grier spent the last calendar year chucking sacks of cash and prime draft capital at veteran defensemen like an anxious prepper stockpiling canned beans in a bunker. The result is a sluggish, $20 million defense that fundamentally doesn’t affect winning.

San Jose’s promising rebuild is choking on static hockey. And that brings us to the uncomfortable question hovering over SAP Center: Can you trust the general manager who spent a fortune assembling this blue line to fix it?

Don’t get me wrong. I like Michael Kesselring.

And Jacob Trouba brings legitimate veteran punch. Nolan Allan has looked sharp when he’s in the lineup (why that’s not every night is beyond me), and 19-year-old Sam Dickinson keeps flashing strong traits when he takes the body instead of using his stick.

This isn’t about them. This is about two guys eating up gargantuan minutes and are currently offering zero return: Darnell Nurse and Dmitry Orlov.

Tuesday night’s 2-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres was a grueling watch.

The Sharks were blanked, mustered an anemic 23 shots and wandered through a 10-minute wasteland in the third period without putting a single rubber disc on net. Buffalo netminder Colten Ellis was stellar, but Yaroslav Askarov was just as brilliant at the other end.

The forwards aren’t the culprit for the loss, either.

The forward lines make sense right now. Michael Misa and Will Smith look electric together, and Kiefer Sherwood buzzes around like an over-caffeinated wrecking ball creating nightly havoc on the third line.

It’s the guys standing behind them who are killing the operation. San Jose can’t generate anything at 5-on-5 because their defensemen couldn’t orchestrate a clean breakout with a GPS and a five-minute head start.

Let’s start with Orlov. To borrow an immortal line from Office Space: What would you say you do here?

He doesn’t defend, he’s a black hole atop the first power-play unit, and his primary skill appears to be coughing up pucks under zero duress — he had two bad giveaways and caused a few more Tuesday.

And Buffalo’s dagger in the closing minute was peak Orlov. With the goalie pulled and San Jose down 1-0, Orlov stood flat-footed at the blue line and watched the puck hang five feet in front of him.

Instead of making an easy pinch to maintain zone time, he froze. When he finally made a move, it was the worst thing he could have done. He gifted Buffalo an effortless tap-out, lost a feeble footrace and watched an empty-netter seal the game.

That isn’t an anomaly. It’s a nightly feature.

Orlov anchors the top power play almost by default, yet he has generated exactly one power-play assist this season. Meanwhile, Luca Cagnoni — the Sharks’ supposed power-play quarterback — sits buried on the second unit.

Why is Cagnoni — who is a power-play specialist, even if he hasn’t looked that special at it— even dressed if he’s only getting 50 seconds of man-advantage time while Orlov logs 3:20 of pure cardio?

And why on earth are they paired together for 5-on-5 play? That isn’t player development; it’s cruel and unusual punishment.

Then there’s Nurse, who arrived with a monstrous $9.25 million annual cap hit through 2030 and Edmonton’s collective sigh of relief.

Nurse wasn’t an outright disaster Tuesday, but he didn’t solve a thing. In 24 minutes of ice time, he was merely large.

Between Nurse and Trouba ($8.25 million), Grier paid top-dollar retail for veteran muscle that delivers heavy hits and marginal, at best, offense. When Kesselring is your only blue-liner capable of pushing the pace through the neutral zone, as he was Tuesday, your roster construction is cracked.

Look across the ice at Buffalo. Olen Zellweger was the slickest skater in the building against the Sharks.

He slices through traps, snaps crisp tape-to-tape outlet passes and runs the umbrella like a maestro. Buffalo stole him last year for a second-round pick; wouldn’t he look great in teal?

Grier may have future answers simmering in Keaton Verhoeff, Ryan Lin or AHL playmaker Eric Pohlcamp. But they’re years away, and the big-league roster is sinking right now.

Orlov is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Move him, bench him or buy him a plane ticket — but you can’t justify playing him anymore.

Because treading water in October sounds harmless until you remember that nobody magically sprouts gills. Eventually, you just drown.

Grier nailed the forward core and locked down a legit top netminder option in Askarov. But his defensive blueprint is suffocating this franchise, and if he doesn’t right his wrongs in short order, San Jose will miss the playoffs for an eighth straight year.