At times Thursday night, the San Jose Sharks looked like a team that couldn’t wait to get back home.
The Sharks allowed three goals in the first period and three more in the third in a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.
Tomas Hertl scored twice and Martin Jones, making his third start in four games, stopped just 20 of the first 26 shots he faced through two-plus periods as the Sharks once again this season were unable to win consecutive games. The Sharks are now 0-4-1 this year in games immediately after a victory.
The Sharks, after 12 straight road games, now return to San Jose to play their first of the season at SAP Center on Saturday afternoon against the Vegas Golden Knights. They come home with a 5-6-1 record and are now tied for seventh place in the West Division with the Kings with 11 points each.
The Sharks trailed 3-0 after the first 12:42 of the first period. Anze Kopitar scored a power play goal at the 2:47 mark followed by even strength goals by Carl Grundstrom and Austin Wagner.
Wagner’s goal came right after a failed Sharks power play, as he came of the penalty box, took a pass from Tobias Bjornfot and beat Jones on a breakaway for his second goal of the season as the Kings scored three times on their first six shots.
The Sharks had two shots on goal with the man advantage and Patrick Marleau hit a post with another shot. But San Jose, after the missed chance, were just 1-for-30 on the power play over the last eight-plus games. Hertl’s second goal in the second period came with the man advantage.
The game was the Sharks 12th and last of a road trip that started Jan. 14 with a game at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona against the Coyotes. The Sharks played eight games from Jan. 14 to 28, going 3-5-0, and were set to return to Glendale to play the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 1 and 3. But the Golden Knights had COVID-19 issues, the games in Arizona were rescheduled, and the Sharks were allowed to return to San Jose for a few days at the start of the month.
Now, after the four-game swing through Southern California, the Sharks will play nine of their next 11 games on home ice, starting with Saturday’s matinee against the Golden Knights.
“I think we’re starting to find our identity,” Sharks forward Kevin Labanc said Thursday morning. “It’s nothing fancy, there’s no you know special potion. You’ve just got to work. That’s what it comes down to. Chipping the puck in, forechecking, being hard on other teams’ defense, making sure you’re not turning the puck over.
“If we do all those things right, that’s basically our game, we don’t have a Connor McDavid on our team that can score goals or get assists or points at will. We’ve got to make sure that we’re doing everything we can as a committee, and that’s how we get better as a team.”
Alexei Melnichuk relieved Jones with 9:11 left in the third period, making him the fifth Sharks player to make his NHL debut this season. Forwards John Leonard, Sasha Chmelevski and Fredrik Handemark and defenseman Nicolas Meloche are the others.
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