Senators deal Sharks fourth loss in 5 games
The upanddown start to the Sharks’ season continued a downward turn Sunday.
San Jose, which opened the season with four losses, then won three in a row, was dealt a 52 road loss by the Ottawa Senators — the Sharks’ fourth loss in their past five games.
“We’re 12 games in, and there are a handful of key guys for us that haven’t played well yet,” Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s on me to get them back to the level they need to be.”
Those key guys might include goalies Martin Jones and Aaron Dell. Jones began the day on the bench, having lost his past three starts, but he was summoned for the third period after Dell allowed four goals on 22 shots.
Two of those goals were courtesy of Nick Paul, who had the first multipoint game of his 62game NHL career.
“This is what I’ve been working for,” said Paul, who has played parts of five seasons with Ottawa. “This is what I’ve been doing all summer, what I’ve been picturing, so it’s nice to finally go that way and get some confidence.”
Brady Tkachuk had a threepoint night as well with a goal and two helpers and Connor Brown and Anthony Duclair also scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 34 shots.
Evander Kane and Kevin Labanc scored for the Sharks.
Kane redirected a feed from Brent Burns past Anderson to tie the score 11 in the first period, and Labanc took a pass from
Burns and beat Anderson between his pads to trim Ottawa’s lead to 32 in the second period.
Unfortunately for the Sharks, Tkachuk scored in the final minute of the second and Duclair struck in the third.
“As a team and as individuals, I don’t think that anyone is really pleased with the way we played,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “It’s not a representation of this organization and this team, and it’s definitely not one of the better ones that we’ve had and not what we needed right now.”