The Sharks got a jump on Dia de los Muertos on
Saturday by playing like corpses at SAP Center in a 5-1 loss to the visiting
Ottawa Senators. The Spanish day of remembrance was co-mingled with Los
Tiberones Day at SAP, complete with mariachis, dia decorations and a Sharks
team that was skewered by the Senators in lop-sided loss to close out October.
The two teams traded goals in the opening period, then Ottawa exacted
their dominance in a retribution game that had them score 3 unanswered goals in
the middle period. The mismatch was another example of a Sharks team that isn't
playing with much cohesion. The attack plan is unclear and the ability to keep
pucks out of their own net is magnified by constant defensive miscues.
Ottawa dominated with 79 shot attempts in the contest (35 shots, 26 missed
shots and 18 shots blocked). Pucks finding the back of the net was inevitable.
The Senators grabbed a lead 13:25 into the contest when Dylan Cozens
potted his 4th of the season. Cozens skated around Darnell Nurse on the right
side than snapped a shot past Alex Nedeljkovic to crack the score sheet.
Michael Misa would pot the only goal of the day for San Jose less than
3 minutes later, courtesy of a juicy rebound off a Jacob Trouba attempt. Trouba
tried forcing the issue from just outside the right post, pumping a shot off
goaltender Samuel Erssons. The puck kicked over to the left side where Misa was
lurking for the easy put back score.
The wheels fell off the Sharks
bus in the 2nd period.
Drake Batherson led the Senators barrage with
his 9th goal of the season 5:04 into the period. Phillip Tomasino grabbed a
puck off the right wing boards before pivoting to his left to feed Batherson
who took two strides towards the Sharks net and slid a puck that beat
Nedeljkovic to the low stick side.
Sharks killer Tim Stutzle scored
his 9th of the season 5 minutes later to push the Senators lead to 3-1. Ottawa
collapsed on the Sharks goal in an odd-man rush, which ended with Jake
Sanderson moving the puck to Stutzle on the left side. There was nothing
Nedeljkovic could do given Stutzle's speed and quick shot.
San Jose had an opportunity to climb back into the
game at 11:38 when the Senators were called for too many men. It was one of 3
fruitless power plays that the Sharks would have in the contest.
Rather than scoring, the Sharks helped the Senators to another goal. San Jose
coughed up the puck in the offensive zone, then Will Smith allowed Ridly Greig
to skate past him, collect a Shane Pinto feed and deposit it past Nedeljkovic
for the short-handed tally.
San Jose did little to push back in the
3rd period. An odd pair of simultaneous penalties were called on Sam Dickinson
and Jacob Trouba early in the frame to take any wind out of the Sharks sails.
Ottawa would not score on the full 5-on-3, but it helped them to
out-shoot San Jose 15-7 in the final period.
Ryan Warsofsky elected to
pull Nedeljkovic with 4 minutes left in regulation to attempt some form of
implausible comeback, but that simply allowed Pinto to pad his personal stats
with an empty-net goal at 17:30 to cap the game's scoring.
Game
Notes: * Macklin Celebrini was held with a goal for the 5th
consecutive game. Opposing teams are keying on the Sharks captain defensively.
The Sharks could defend against the special attention that Celebrini is drawing
by having other Sharks score, but that's not happening.
* Jake
Sanderson finished the game with a +4 plus/minus.
* The game marked
the 7th consecutive contest where San Jose was out-shot by an opponent. They
are 3-4-0 in that span,
* Defensemen Jacob Trouba and Michael
Kesselring led all Sharks skaters with 4 shots each.
* San Jose
finished the month of October with a 7-7-1 record, which is a step up from last
season, when they compiled a 3-6-2 record in the first month of the season.
