How a San Jose Sharks’ team meeting set the stage for a successful road trip (so far)

The Sharks had mixed feelings about where they stood after the first 20 games of the season. They were doing enough good things to earn 10 wins but were also aware that they couldn’t hover around a .500 points percentage for much longer and still hope to remain in the playoff hunt.

Clearly, they knew the importance of the five-game road trip they were about to begin — and they’ve responded in kind.

The Sharks have won three of four games this week and sat in a playoff position before the start of Saturday’s NHL games. The Sharks (13-10-1) finish the trip Sunday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets with a chance to maintain this momentum before they begin a seven-game homestand next week.

“We had a quarter-way through the season kind of team meeting to discuss where we’re at and where we needed to be going into the Christmas break if we’re going to give ourselves a chance to make a run in the second half,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said.

“Putting ourselves in that position was an important thing and we knew we had to come out of this road trip and not come back with one or two wins. We had to get our fair share of points.”

The Sharks knew what their immediate schedule looked like after they completed a four-game homestand on Nov. 26. They had five road games in eight days, followed by three games in five days at SAP Center.

But after their Dec. 11 home game against Joe Pavelski and the Dallas Stars, the Sharks also saw that their schedule lightens up a bit, with just four games over the following 12 days before Christmas.

Getting out of the busy two-week stretch with their heads still above water was going to be critical – and they had some work to do. The Sharks were two points out of a playoff spot and in 11th place in the conference after their 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 26.

Before Saturday’s games, they owned the first wild card spot in the Western Conference and were three points back of third place in the Pacific Division.

“We talked about it before the road trip, how we want to not stay around .500 anymore,” Sharks goalie Adin Hill said. “You see how tight the standings are. Every point is huge right now.”

The Sharks’ 3-1-0 mark on the road trip allowed them – at least temporarily – to move past Vegas, Colorado, Nashville and Dallas, and put a bit of distance between themselves and Los Angeles.

The Sharks are now 8-6-0 away from home. They haven’t had a winning road record since the 2018-19 season when they went 21-16-4.

“The guys that have been through it and stuck around here, you’re sick of losing and you’re trying to find new ways to evolve,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said, “and then turn into the team that you want to be.”

The biggest reasons why the Sharks have had success away from home this week are goaltending and team defense.

So far on this trip, the Sharks have allowed four goals in four games. From Nov. 28 to the end of Friday’s games, only the New York Rangers allowed fewer goals on average (one in two games).

Adin Hill and James Reimer have combined for a stellar .965 save percentage.

The Sharks have limited opponents to less than 29 shots on goal per game on average – fifth-best in the NHL this week. Per Natural Stat Trick, they gave up 15 high danger chances to the Rangers in a 1-0 loss at Madison Square Garden on Friday but allowed a combined 25 high danger chances in wins over Chicago, New Jersey, and the New York Islanders.

Throw in some terrific performances from Timo Meier (four goals, two assists) and Logan Couture (four assists) and two points each from Karlsson, Noah Gregor, Rudolfs Balcers, and Alexander Barabanov, and the ingredients are there for a successful road trip.

“It’s going to be nice once we get home here for December,” Karlsson said. “We’ve cleared out some big road trips and we’ve done well on them as well.

“It’s been challenging, but at the same time, we’re taking it the right way and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.”

This is the Sharks’ last five-game road trip of the season, as they’ll have three four-game road trips left after Sunday. The Sharks would like to finish it the right way after losing the finale of their previous two five-game trips.

“We’ll either go 4-1 or 3-2,” Couture said, “so it’s a big swing game for us.”