San Jose Sharks: Time Is Now For Turnaround
The San Jose Sharks have been a curious team to figure out during the 2015-16 season. They have displayed the ability to rattle off extended winning streaks and showed they can win on the road consistently.
On the flip side, San Jose has also been a team that has faltered at home all season long and is susceptible to long losing streaks as well. Thus, after 37 games, the Sharks find themselves in fifth place in the Pacific Division with many thinking this group will miss the playoffs once more.
So, the question moving forward as San Jose approaches the halfway point of their season is which way will this team go?
If the Sharks are going to turn things around, it starts now as San Jose faces a key stretch. The Sharks have two more games at home this week and they will have had plenty of rest as they will have played just one time in an eight-day span.
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In the understatement of the year, San Jose must improve their play on home ice to have any shot of even thinking of the playoffs. The Sharks are the worst home team in the NHL with a 5-11-0 record and many of their losses aren’t even close. Case in point, San Jose dropped their latest home game by a 4-1 margin against Winnipeg.
They have two teams in the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs coming into SAP Center over the course of the next two games whom they have already posted victories over this year. Getting back on track at home is step one for this Sharks team.
Furthermore, San Jose has little margin for error with the second half of the season approaching. While the Sharks are still in the thick of the division race just two points out of second place, they are also only three points out of last place. San Jose has played the fewest games of any teams in the Pacific but they haven’t been able to generate any sort of momentum to sustain a charge in the standings.
After posting a huge victory over the Los Angeles Kings right before the Christmas break, the Sharks were six points behind the Kings for first place and found themselves in second place. Now, San Jose is in fifth while Los Angeles has opened up a 14-point gap between themselves and the Sharks. Pretty staggering and eye-opening.
For the Sharks turn around to begin, it must begin in their own end of the ice. San Jose ranks 24th in goals against and their team save percentage stands at .899, good for 26th in the league per Pro Hockey Talk. If those numbers continue, the Sharks will only find themselves sliding further down the standings.
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The good news for San Jose is they still have time to turn things around as the Pacific has been mired in mediocrity all season long.
The bigger question for the Sharks remains whether they can put all the pieces together and sustain a consistent level of play because their hole will only grow larger if things continue as it stands now.