San Jose facing a busy schedule down the stretch
San Jose facing 23 games in 41 days to end regular season
TheSharks,afteradismal weekend in Arizona, are on pace to have backto-back sub-.500 seasons for the first time in more than 20 years.
Avoiding that ignominious mark won’t be easy, considering how busy their schedule is over the next six weeks.
The Sharks will try to bounce back with two games against both the Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings this week, but fighting off fatigue will be something they’ll have to deal with the rest of the season.
Tonight’s game at SAP Center against the Wild will be San Jose’s fifth in eight days and ninth in 15 days. After today, the Sharks will have 17 games in 31 days. The one saving grace, perhaps, is nine of the games in April will be at home.
In all, starting tonight, the Sharks will play 23 games in 41 days until the end of the regular season on May 8.
Other teams in the West Division will be just as busy. Those teams, though, aren’t trying to claw their way back from seventh place into a playoff position.
“There’s no time to think,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said last week. “You’re playing, you have a day, then you’re playing again, and you have a day, then you have two games, and you’re off. So it’s basically just wake up, figure out if it’s a game day or a practice day, and then go from there.”
The month of March will conclude with the Sharks playing 17 times, and it looks like the schedule is catching up with them.
The Sharks (13-16-4) have scored two or fewer goals in five of their past six games, including their 5-2 and 4-0 losses to Arizona on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
The Sharks, who had a .450 points percentage last season, are at .455 this season. The last time they were below .500 for two straight years was in 1998 (.476) and 1999 (.488).
“Even coming in here (Saturday) and getting a split, it would have been three out of four (wins for the week) and you feel good about yourself going home,” Sharks coach Boughner said Saturday.
“But there’s a lot of work that remains, a lot of games. Yeah, it’s a little bit of a blow, but there’s nothing we can change now. We’ve got to go home and concentrate on trying to win a couple of home games against a pretty good hockey club.”
The Sharks looked both physically and mentally fatigued in their series opener Friday. They were more energetic Saturday, but couldn’t muster any offense in the shutout loss.
“Guys are definitely gripping their sticks a little too tight,” Sharks winger Kevin Labanc said after Saturday’s game. “One way to kind of get out of that situation is to just keep working hard. ”
With the busy schedule in mind, Boughner and his staff aren’t making any plans too far in advance. They’re scheduled to practice skate Tuesday morning before they face the Wild again on Wednesday.