Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Still waiting for that ‘big bounce-back’ by the Sharks

Anaheim Ducks v San Jose Sharks

SAN JOSE, CA - OCTOBER 10: Head coach Peter DeBoer talks to his team during their game against the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center on October 10, 2015 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The San Jose Sharks didn’t make our mid-season list of the five most disappointing teams in the NHL.

Maybe that was on oversight on our part, because the Sharks -- even after getting Logan Couture back -- just cannot seem to pull it together.

They lost against last night, falling 2-1 at home to Detroit. They’re 1-3-0 on their current five-game home stand. They’re 5-10-2 in their last 17. And most damning of all, they’re three points back of a playoff spot in the awful Pacific Division.

We’d give the Sharks credit for the two or three games in hand they hold on most of the other teams in the Pacific, but you have to win those games for that to be a factor.

“Frustrating we didn’t get points, but I liked our effort, I liked our response after last game,” coach Pete DeBoer told CSN Bay Area said last night. “Two great chances to go ahead 2-1 just before they scored. That’s the way things are going right now. We’ve got to be resilient and know that if we play that way, that over the long term we’ll be alright.”

And to be fair, DeBoer had a point. If not for Petr Mrazek’s brilliant save, maybe the Sharks end up winning last night. San Jose did outshoot Detroit, 36-25.

But Joe Pavelski was also right: “We’ve got to find ways to win...that’s the bottom line.”

Remember, when DeBoer was hired in May, he predicted a “big bounce-back” for the Sharks.

“You’ve got a lot of proud people here that aren’t too happy about where they were sitting at the end of last season,” he said. “My history with that is, if you’ve got character and you’ve been through that, you’re ready to push back. And I think we’re going to see that.”

There’s still plenty of time for that prediction to come true, but 18-18-2 after 38 games certainly does not qualify.

The Sharks host the Leafs Saturday.