SAN JOSE – Seeing goalie Alex Stalock start for the Sharks at SAP Center seemed preposterous only a few months ago.
It was equally unthinkable as of last week.
But roughly 14 months after he was diagnosed with a heart condition that threatened to derail his professional career, and just a few days after he was acquired by the Sharks in a minor trade, Stalock got the nod for San Jose on Saturday against the Nashville Predators.
But what could have been a feel-good night turned into one of the uglier home games in franchise history as the Predators flattened the Sharks 8-0 before a mostly frustrated announced crowd of 13,936.
Nashville scored six times on Stalock on 28 shots before he was mercifully removed at the 6:07 mark of the third period.
“We had a good talk in the room after the game. It’s pretty evident that’s not good enough,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. “Offensively we didn’t get anything and it got out of hand at the end.”
The Predators then tacked on two more goals on Zach Sawchenko, handing the Sharks their most lopsided home loss since Dec. 5, 1991, when they were spanked 8-0 by Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Cow Palace. The Sharks, also in that inaugural season, lost 9-0 to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 26, 1991.
“We’re pissed and embarrassed,” Couture said. “You lose by that kind of a margin and no one is feeling good about themselves.”
Stalock and the injury-ravaged Sharks allowed four even-strength goals in the first two periods, then Nashville added two goals in the third period, thanks to some lackluster defensive play by San Jose in its own zone, bringing out the boo birds inside the downtown arena.
“Very disappointing,” Sharks forward Nick Bonino said. “I thought we actually came out pretty good. We got down 3-0 with some pretty crap goals. They had a good net-front, but they were just slinging shots at the net that were going in. That fourth goal seemed to break us and it went from there.”
Michael McCarron, Matt Uff and Maty Duschene each had two goals for the Predators, and the Sharks were shut out at the other end by Predators goalie Juuse Saros, who made 20 saves.
Stalock, 34, was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday for future considerations and practiced with the team on Thursday and Friday. With their two other experienced goalies hurt, coach Bob Boughner gave Stalock his first start as a Sharks goalie since Feb. 11, 2016.
Stalock was drafted by the Sharks in the fourth round in 2005 and spent six-plus seasons with the organization, playing 62 NHL games from 2011 to 2016 before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a deal that brought James Reimer to San Jose.
Oddly enough, it was injuries to Reimer and Adin Hill that brought Stalock back to San Jose. Both Sharks goalies are dealing with lower-body injuries, with Reimer considered week-to-week and Hill slowly progressing from his own malady, which has kept him out of action for close to six weeks.
Stalock’s last NHL game was Aug. 7, 2020, as he started all four games for the Minnesota Wild in their play-in series with the Vancouver Canucks inside the bubble at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
With Wild rookie goalie Kaapo Kahkonen emerging as a capable backup to Cam Talbot early last season, Stalock was placed on waivers by Minnesota on Feb. 28, 2021, and claimed by the Oilers the next day. He never played a game for Edmonton as he was out with what was described then as an upper-body injury.
Turns out, Stalock had been diagnosed with myocarditis in November 2020 after he tested positive for COVID-19. The expectation then became that Stalock would have to miss the 2021-2022 season as well with the COVID-related heart condition.
“When I first got diagnosed, the first couple weeks were scary,” Stalock said this week. “You get told to not get your heart rate up, and you know how hard that is when you’ve got kids, like, can you keep up with them?”
But in December, Stalock did a genetic test that determined he did not carry the gene for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), allowing him to resume training at a more intense level in his home state of Minnesota. He went to Bakersfield and his first game with the Condors was on Jan. 23 in San Jose against the Barracuda.
Couture went to see Stalock when he played that game in January at SAP Center.
“Happy to just be around hockey, I think,” Couture said of Stalock. “After what he’s been through, he said those 18 months were very difficult, not knowing which direction his career was going to go and his life was going to go. There are so many things probably going through his head.
“But to be back and competing and practicing every day, it seems like he’s where he should be.”
Stalock’s most recent AHL game was in Bakersfield against Stockton on Feb. 20, when he allowed five goals on 14 shots. In five AHL games, Stalock was 3-1-0 with an. .862 save percentage.
“Extremely excited, obviously,” Stalock said of his return. “It’s a place I feel comfortable with and there’s still (some) guys that are here that I was fortunate to play with my first time here. I knew this was a big opportunity and I was excited. It was fun to be back in San Jose.”
Boughner, the Sharks’ coach since Dec. 2019, said before Saturday’s game that Sawchenko would likely start for the Sharks on Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks. Sawchenko has appeared in three Sharks games since early January and has a .930 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against average.
Sawchenko, 24, played the final two periods of the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday after Reimer was injured.
NOTES: Rudolfs Balcers returned to the Sharks’ lineup Saturday after he missed the last four games with an upper-body injury. With Balcers back, the Sharks placed Jonathan Dahlen (upper body) on injured reserve. … Before “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed before the start of the game, the Ukrainian national anthem was played with a message on the video board that read, “We stand with Ukraine.”
