SAN JOSE – The Sharks’ dismal season on home ice reached another level of frustration Monday.
Just moments away from an impressive, yet all-too-rare victory at SAP Center this season, the Sharks instead suffered another crushing defeat, as the New Jersey Devils tied the game late in regulation time and scored the only goal in the shootout to earn a 4-3 win before an announced crowd of 13,293 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
After the Devils pulled their goalie to create a 6-on-5, Jack Hughes scored with 8.6 seconds left in regulation, as his shot from near the half-wall went off Erik Karlsson’s stick and past goalie James Reimer to tie the game 3-3.
After a wild but scoreless overtime, Devils forward Tomas Tatar scored the only goal in the shootout as the Sharks (13-23-9) lost for the eighth time in 10 games since the Christmas break.
Close losses, blowout losses, overtime losses, shootout losses. The Sharks have endured them all multiple times inside their own building so far this season, as their record at the once-formidable Tank fell to 4-12-7, easily the worst home mark for any NHL team this season.
“You look at our home record, I don’t think we’ve played any different at home than we have on the road,” Sharks coach David Quinn, whose team owns a 9-11-2 mark away from San Jose. “Everyone looks at our record, but it is what it is. That’s our record at home.
“We seem to lose these games more so at home than we do on the road, and that’s really frustrating.”
The 15 points the Sharks have accrued in 23 home games so far puts them on pace for 27 points, their lowest total since the 1995-96 team went 12-26-3 at what was then San Jose Arena.
The Sharks finish their three-game homestand Wednesday against the Dallas Stars, who are led by Joe Pavelski, their former captain, and Pete DeBoer, who coached in San Jose from 2015 to 2019.
“We deserve better from a results-driven standpoint,” Quinn said. “But I think our fans appreciate the effort we give and the way we play. We’ve got to win hockey games.”
Nick Bonino’s goal with 14:04 left in the third period had looked like it was going to be the winner for the Sharks, who were coming off their most lopsided loss of the season.
After newcomer Mikey Eyssimont put a shot on the Devils’ net, Bonino grabbed the loose puck and slid it past goalie Vitek Vanecek for his sixth goal of the season, breaking a 2-2 tie just after a high sticking penalty to Hughes had expired.
Karlsson and Timo Meier each had a goal and an assist, Eyssimont had two assists and Reimer finished with 34 saves in regulation time for the Sharks, who bounced back to some degree after their 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday.
“Just showing up and putting our equipment on would have been a huge step from the last game we played,” Quinn said. “I was proud of a lot of things we did. I thought we really came to play tonight. Just disappointed with the way it started because I really liked the first two periods.”
The Sharks allowed a goal by Ryan Graves on an odd-man rush 29 seconds into the first period. But Eyssimont earned his first point with his new team with 3:16 left in the opening frame, as he did some heavy lifting on the forecheck before he fed Meier for a tap-in goal that tied the game 1-1.
Eyssimont, claimed off waivers by the Sharks on Jan. 6, played on the top line with Meier and Tomas Hertl, taking Kevin Labanc’s spot on the right wing. Labanc was a healthy scratch.
Besides his two assists, Eyssimont was credited with three shots and four hits as he finished with a career-best 17:36 of ice time in 24 career NHL games.
“I think I can kind of try to create some space,” for Meier and Hertl, Eyssimont said. “I think we’re still a ways away from where we want to be as a line. If we get an opportunity to stay together, we’re going to continue to communicate and work with each other in between periods before games just so we can get a better idea of where we’re going to be.”
The Sharks are now 5-6-9 in one-goal games.
“It’s happened 25 times now, so it’s getting pretty old,” Bonino said of the close losses. “We’re doing everything we can to win. Whether it’s a bad bounce on the first shift of the game and then we’re chasing it a bit or a deflection with eight seconds left off our guy’s stick.
“It sucks. We don’t think we should be here but the reality is we are in the spot we’re in and you’ll go crazy if you don’t take positives.”
Noah Gregor, who had been a healthy scratch for eight straight games before Monday, was inserted into the lineup as coach Quinn played him on a line with Bonino and Nico Sturm. Gregor played 15:21 and nearly scored on a breakaway.
Quinn scratched Labanc for just the second time this season, feeling the winger hadn’t played enough complete games of late.
“Just need him to be a little bit more consistent overall, in a lot of aspects,” Quinn said before Monday’s game. “When he’s on his game, there’s a swagger to him, there’s an edge to him. Makes life hard on the other team, makes good decisions, and I just think he’s lost his way just a little bit.”
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