The Sharks kicked off November with a back-to-back this weekend against two of the league's top teams early this season. And looked strong, picking up 3 of a possible 4 points, beating the Avalanche in overtime 3-2, before falling to the Wings a day later, 3-2 in a shootout.
After a 0-4-2 start, the Sharks are 4-2-1 over their last seven games, and are playing strong hockey against some of the best teams in the first month of the season. They ended October with a 5-2 win over the Devils, and before that, dominated the Kings despite losing 4-3, thanks in large part to stellar play from Kuemper and poor play from Askarov.
Predictably, over this stretch, Macklin Celebrini has been a big reason for the Sharks' success. He had a 7-game point streak snapped against the Wings last night, but they have been getting key contributions from other parts of the lineup, too.
Phillipe Kurashev has been on a heater over the last four games, scoring 7 points, and has added some much-needed scoring depth to the Sharks' top 6. His line with Eklund and Wennberg has been a legitimate threat in the offensive zone, something the Sharks lacked outside of Celebrini earlier in the season. And his emergence has been a big reason for what has started to look like a dangerous offense for the Sharks. Kurashev scored the game-winner against the Avalanche and also had his chances to end the game against the Red Wings the following night. He earned the NHL 3rd star of the week for his efforts.
The goaltending has also been excellent over the last three games. Nedeljkovic and Askarov have not given up more than two goals in regulation play, something neither has accomplished before this stretch, with the only 3-goal game coming in the shootout loss to Detroit. The Sharks have no issue scoring goals, but they have struggled keeping the puck out; if they manage to keep the puck out, they can win a lot of games. The defense wasn’t perfect by any means this weekend, but both goaltenders made key stops in critical moments and kept the Sharks in games.
The defense has still been a work in progress for the Sharks; they have moments of strong play, but have still struggled with consistency. This will likely not be an easy fix overnight. The Sharks have some good defenders in Orlov, Ferraro, and Liljegren, but overall, the defensive unit is not up to NHL quality. Dickinson and Muhkhamadullin have shown flashes of potential but are still developing and can't be expected to carry the unit. Klingberg, Desharnais, and Leddy have not looked like NHL-caliber defenders to this point; it's particularly disappointing regarding Klingberg, who was expected to be a veteran leader on the back end, but he has struggled mightily early in the season.
In other news, Sam Dickinson’s contract has officially kicked in after he played his 10th game of the season against Detroit. He also scored his first career goal, a game-tying goal in the 3rd period that got the Sharks to the extra frame. Dickinson was also given extra shifts in the 3 on 3 extra frame. It was a nice reward for what was probably his best game of the season. Hopefully, there is a weight off his shoulders now that he is no longer in the 9-game limbo and officially with the Sharks for the season. The attention will now turn to Michael Misa, who has two games remaining before a decision has to be made on his future this season. The Sharks will need to clear a contract from the 50-contract limit to roster Misa past nine games.
The Sharks will look to carry their momentum this coming Wednesday when they take on the Kraken in Seattle.