Sharks gaffe inauspicious start to new season

Highlights of San Jose Sharks netminder Alex Nedeljkovic’s ghastly gaffe against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night have made the rounds by now.

The play was one amid a late-game meltdown by the Sharks as they looked to net their first win of the season. The mind-boggling sequence began with San Jose failing to lock the game down in the dying seconds of the third period.

Here’s a look at the missed empty-netter and Vegas’ tying goal:

 All right, so weird things can happen in any sport. Whatever the sport, an unexpected, fluke occurrence can happen.

But Nedeljkovic’s unspeakable blunder in overtime, a few minutes later, left Sharks fans speechless:

Conspiracy theories aside, the grisly mistake is an inauspicious start to the Sharks’ season. Yes, they salvaged a point against one of the top clubs in the Western Conference. But that’s not the argument here.

The issue is that the Sharks could have skated away with a victory and two points. Most importantly, the Sharks didn’t lose the game by fighting off a late surge from Vegas. They seemingly gave the game away.

Sharks facing growing pains this season

The Sharks are a young team for the most part. However, the Sharks have gone out of their way to assemble a serviceable core of veteran players who can stabilize the Sharks’ emerging stars.

As such, some growing pains are expected. That was on display in the missed empty-netter. William Eklund failed to lock down the game following Tyler Toffoli’s pass. You would think that an established NHLer would have sealed the victory there.

But that didn’t happen. So, fine, chalk that botched empty-net goal to youth and inexperience.

Nedeljkovic, however, is no rookie. He’s been around the league for some time. If anything, he was the Sharks’ attempt to provide a solid starting netminder for this young club. His gaffe, while understandable to a certain extent, paints a concerning image of how this Sharks season could play out.

There’s still plenty of time to sort things out. But things must turn around on a dime lest the Sharks end up vying for another lottery pick this season.