The San Jose Sharks have a ton of things to figure out this summer if they want to move out of the NHL’s basement next season.
Areas that need to be addressed include tightening up a porous defense, adding some needed firepower, and improving their woebegone goaltending.
All of those shortcomings were on display Sunday in an 8-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena, a result that matched the Sharks’ most lopsided loss of the season.
Another issue are the amount of penalties the Sharks take.
The Sharks took five minor penalties in the first two periods Sunday night, and the result was predictable: The Kings scored two power-play goals against the exhausted-looking Sharks penalty killers, ruining any chance to stay competitive against the playoff-bound Kings.
Forward Noah Gregor was called for hooking and holding in the first period and defenseman Mario Ferraro took hooking and tripping penalties in the second. In between, rookie forward Cam Lund was also whistled for tripping, making it four stick fouls called on the Sharks in the first 40 minutes.
In other words, San Jose never gave itself a chance.
With Gregor serving a hooking call, Kings forward Adrian Kempe scored the first of his two goals on the power play at the 15:13 mark of the opening period. With Ferraro in the box for tripping, Warren Foegele also scored the first of his two goals on the man advantage at the 13:31 mark of the second to give Los Angeles a 4-1 lead.
On that play, Sharks goalie Georgi Romanov could not catch a shot on goal by Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, and Foegele scored after he collected the loose puck.
Kempe and Foegele each added an even-strength goal later in the second, and the Kings added two more goals in the third, as the Sharks finished March with a 5-8-0 record. They remain in 32nd and last place in the NHL’s overall standings with 49 points, two points behind the Chicago Blackhawks with nine games left in the regular season.
The result matched the Sharks’ most lopsided loss of the season, as they also lost 8-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 5.
Lund scored for the second time in as many games, as his even-strength goal at the 4:52 mark cut the Kings’ lead to 2-1. But Trevor Moore got that back just 2:05 later, the first of four straight goals by the Kings as they broke the game wide open.
Going into their game against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the Sharks have been shorthanded 225 times in 73 games, an average of just over three times per game. That total, before Monday’s games, was the second-highest in the NHL, trailing only the Montreal Canadiens (230 times in 73 games).
The Sharks were shorthanded 252 times last season, 12th most in the NHL, and had the 28th-ranked penalty kill at 75.4%. The Sharks’ penalty kill came into Sunday ranked 27th in the NHL at 74.6%.
The Sharks also had issues on the power play Sunday, going 0-for-3 with the man advantage without a shot on net. Down 1-0 in the first period, the Sharks had a two-man advantage for 1:4, but a Macklin Celebrini shot from the point off the post was as close as San Jose came to scoring.
The Sharks were coming off a 6-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
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