San Jose Sharks’ feel-good start could soon become a distant memory

The Sharks have been a feel-good story for most of the first four weeks of the season. They started with four straight wins, including quality victories over the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs, and came away from a six-game bout with COVID with seven of a possible 12 points.

But as was proven again Saturday, once the Sharks get away from the worker bee identity they’re trying to establish, especially against an elite team, they can run into trouble in a real hurry.

The Sharks had seven players return from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol but simply couldn’t survive numerous penalties, puck management gaffes, and bad line changes in a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.

“We turned (over) so many pucks. It was amazing how many 3-on-1s, 2-on-1s we gave up today,” Sharks center Tomas Hertl said. “It was absolutely amazing.”

Logan Couture scored the first goal at the 3:17 mark of the first period, but the Avs responded with four straight goals by Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri, Alex Newhook, and Logan O’Connor to help hand the Sharks their fourth loss in the last five games.

It doesn’t get any easier from here. The Sharks’ road trip continues with games in Minnesota and St. Louis, two teams in the top half of the Central Division, next week, and that feel-good start will be erased quite quickly without some bounce-back efforts.

“There were things that we did in the loss that are just uncharacteristic and not part of our identity,” said Sharks coach Bob Boughner, who was behind the bench for the first time since Oct. 28.

“Terrible changes tonight. Changing on the way back when it’s an odd-numbered rush, those are things that can’t seep into your game. Just trying to force plays at the wrong time, things like that.”

Boughner feels the technical areas of concern can be worked out once the team meets again for practice on Monday in Denver before they fly to the Twin Cities.

The Sharks (7-6-1) have to feel, too, that the players who returned from COVID-19 protocol after a two-week hiatus from playing will be sharper against the Wild.

The Sharks got back defensemen Jake Middleton, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Radim Simek, and Erik Karlsson, and forwards Kevin Labanc, Matt Nieto, and Timo Meier. The challenge of playing for the first time since late last month was exacerbated by facing one of the NHL’s top teams, not to mention playing at a high altitude in Denver.

Boughner was concerned about each players’ timing after such a long layoff, and those fears were realized.

“You would like to have a little spike when you get some veterans back in the lineup,” Boughner said. “I thought that those guys all played OK for the first few shifts. But as the game went on, you could tell that they were fatigued.”

“Just got to keep it simple when you’re not playing for that long time,” Meier said. “Maybe don’t try to get fancy, try to put pucks in good places, and play an easy game. We didn’t do a good enough job and myself, I could have made better plays and kept it more simple.”

Hertl’s line with Alexander Barabanov and Rudolfs Balcers had a tough night against the Avalanche, analytically and otherwise. Nick Bonino’s line with Matt Nieto and Kevin Labanc created some chances but was held off the scoresheet.

Barabanov’s third-period power-play goal was assisted by Hertl, but the line had a miserable time trying to exit the defensive zone just past the midway point of the second period with at least two failed clearing attempts.

That ultimately led to a goal by Alex Newhook, who gave Colorado a 3-1 lead just minutes after a missed scoring chance at the other end for the Sharks.

“You always want to try and score. Especially me and (Balcers), we have way too many chances,” Hertl said.

“You want to help the team the best you can and you always try because my line is supposed to score goals. I think we have to score more and we need everybody to step it up because we are a team, we have plenty of guys. Today wasn’t good enough.”

Nazem Kadri got behind the Sharks defense after a bad line change by the visitors in the first period. He took a pass from Valeri Nichushkin and was able to stickhandle around Sharks goalie Adin Hill and beat him with a backhand shot at the 13:55 mark of the first period for a 2-1 Colorado lead.

The first two Colorado goals came after the Sharks outshot the home team 8-0 in the five minutes of the game. But the Sharks took four minor penalties in the first period to quell any momentum.

“Then you start putting your big boys out there and you’re killing penalties,” Boughner said, “and you lose the flow of your game, and we could never get it back.”

The Wild and the Blues have a combined home record of 7-2-1, and the Sharks now need to show that their fast start wasn’t a mirage.

“We’ve got to get back a little more to our identity and it can’t be just for 10, 15 minutes at a time,” Boughner said. “We have to grind out wins and to grind out wins, you have to play the majority of the way to your identity.”

NOTE: Forward Lane Pederson has a lower-body injury and could miss the next two weeks, Boughner said. Pederson was hurt by a check from Winnipeg Jets defenseman Logan Stanley on Tuesday. Nick Merkley played in his place on the fourth line.