Sharks Keep it Cool, Calm and Collected as They Return to the Ice

Brimming with new talent, the team hopes to prove the doubters wrong this season

The San Jose Sharks are in the midst of a bit of an identity crisis. The franchise has yet to truly realize they are in a rebuilding phase, a far cry from the team’s glory found in the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoffs in the 2018-2019 season.

The last two seasons, San Jose have been bottomfeeders in the NHL. Older core players like Joe Thornton and Antti Niemi are gone, and others like Brent Burns and Logan Couture are on the last legs of their careers.

In the 2019-2020 NHL season, the Sharks finished dead last in the Western Conference, a sharp contrast from the glamour of finishing 2nd in the West just a season earlier.. Even in the abbreviated 2021 season, the Sharks finished in 7th place out of eight teams in the reconstructed West Division.

It certainly did not help that the Sharks were barred from even playing at the SAP Center in San Jose due to Santa Clara County COVID-19 guidelines for contact sports, something that the 49ers, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University had to endure as well.

However, these last few months for the Sharks have begun to return to normal, first by getting the go-ahead to play in San Jose back in March and have fans back for the first time in October. The Sharks’ notoriously supportive fanbase is certain to bring morale back around in more ways than one, unleashing game noise that players haven’t heard since March of 2020.

Hopefully the 2021-2022 season will bear more fruit for the Sharks. They are already off to a solid start, upending the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 in San Jose for the first win of the season on October 16th and demolishing the Montreal Canadiens 5-0 on October 19th.

However, it doesn’t help that right after the game concluded Left Winger Evander Kane was caught submitting a fake COVID-19 vaccine card to the NHL, resulting in a 21-game suspension.

The Sharks are currently facing a challenging road trip across Canada to play Montreal, whom they beat 5-0, Ottawa who they beat 2-1, and Toronto. Followed by a small East Coast trip to Boston and Nashville, the team does not return home to the Shark Tank until Thursday Oct. 28

Then, the Sharks will play only their second home game of the season against the Montreal Canadiens,, where fans will finally get to see how well the Sharks play in successive matches. After playing the Canadiens, the Sharks will hope to garner some rhythm within home-ice advantage with four more preceding home games. The homestand will be the first string of games at SAP allowing fans in a year and a half.

Looking towards the future of the San Jose Sharks, it is pertinent to note some of the younger players that will look to make a mark on the franchise for years to come. These include rookie 4th round pick Jasper Weatherby, who had a goal and an assist in his NHL debut on Oct. 16 vs the Jets.

Other promising prospects for the Sharks’ future include Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl, both of which received rave reviews from Coach Bob Boughner.

“We played to our identity as best as we could.” Boughner relayed to his squad after the first week.“I think everyone knows that there were some nerves in the beginning, especially for some of the younger guys,” he said.

The Sharks will definitely have a lot of bumps in the road on their ascent toward a playoff spot. There will be a lot of ups and downs throughout the rebuilding process, but one constant thing is that the energy of the Shark Tank will be right behind the team every step of the way.