Three encouraging signs for San Jose Sharks at quarter-pole

SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks are already near the season’s quarter-pole, and they’re playing like a much different team right now than they did through the first two-plus weeks of the year.

After much tinkering, the Sharks finally have some chemistry with their forward lines. Their younger players have taken positive steps in their development, and their goaltending has been solid. 

There’s still a lot of work to be done, especially considering that the Sharks (6-10-4) remain near the bottom of the NHL standings. This is hardly a finished product. The analytics show that.

But since starting the season 0-7-2, the Sharks, after their 5-4 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday, have a 6-3-2 record and have flashed some encouraging signs as the next stage of the season gets underway.

Indeed, they’ll go into Wednesday’s game in Dallas against the Stars on a high after Macklin Celebrini scored the first overtime game-winner of his career, beating Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot just 44 seconds into the extra session.

“It’s fun to win one in overtime. We’ve been on the wrong side of it a couple of times, so it was nice to get that one,” Celebrini said. “It was a great play by Granlund. He kind of set a pick there and I just found myself with a lot of space, and I just tried to go low glove. I felt like he was cheating a little bit.”

Clearly, the mood is a lot better now than it was this time last season when Celebrini was a freshman at Boston University. At the 20-game mark, the Sharks were 3-15-2, and there was little left to play for the rest of the way.

“We’re starting to find how we need to play, with our identity, with the puck, without the puck,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “What type of team we have, that blue-collar work ethic that we’re going to have to play with each and every night.”

Here are three signs of improvement for the Sharks as they prepare to play the Dallas Stars on Wednesday to start a two-game road trip that ends Thursday against the St. Louis Blues.

YOUNG CHEMISTRY: Celebrini and Will Smith experienced a handful of teachable moments in Monday’s game.

In particular, Smith turned the puck twice near the end of the first period, leading to scoring chances for the Wings. Celebrini also had the puck poked off his stick near the offensive blue line in the second period, leading to a Red Wings breakaway.

Officially, the two teenage rookies gave the puck away a combined six times against the Red Wings, and through 20 games, both players have experienced their share of adversity. Smith has had some extended offensive dry spells and Celebrini missed 12 games with a hip injury.

But Celebrini and Smith’s youthful miscues haven’t overshadowed the chemistry they seem to be building together as linemates. Monday, with Barclay Goodrow joining the two for a second straight game, they created a handful of scoring chances together at even strength.

Celebrini and Smith will face more ups and downs, but their work together so far has been encouraging.

“They want to play together every moment they can,” Warsofsky said of Smith and Celebrini. “They’ve been good with the puck; they make things happen in the offensive zone. You can see it’s usually a shift or two a period where they’re in the offensive zone, and they get some really good looks.

“I need them to be a little bit responsible without the puck at times, but they’re going to learn, and they’re going to develop those foundational winning habits that we’ve talked about.”

FORMING AN IDENTITY: The Sharks know how they must play to succeed. They can be a competitive team if they can break the puck out clean, avoid turnovers at the offensive and defensive blue lines, and establish a consistent forecheck.

Too often, though, the Sharks have only been able to play to their identity in bits and pieces and not for extended periods. They can play a brilliant 20 minutes, but only before – or after – some ghastly gaffes.

Monday’s win, though, might have been the Sharks’ most complete effort of the season, as the Sharks got contributions from all four lines.

William Eklund scored twice, and Fabian Zetterlund and Mikael Granlund continued to produce. The Alexander Wennberg line with Tyler Toffoli and Ty Dellandrea has been effective, and Luke Kunin has filled in nicely as the Sharks’ fourth-line center in the last two games with Nico Sturm injured.

For the first time in a while, the Sharks seem to be able to roll out four effective lines. Now, they need to get out of their own way more often.

“We do some really good things at times,” Warsofsky said. “At times, we’re going to continue to learn, and we’re going to continue to get better individually and collectively.”

SOLID GOALTENDING: Mackenzie Blackwood gave up four goals on 20 shots Monday, but at least three of Detroit’s goals resulted from errors made by the skaters in front of him.

But even with Monday’s result, Blackwood still has a .911 save percentage this season, a testament to how well he’s played up until this point despite a sometimes-leaky defense.

Good goaltending gives the forwards and defensemen confidence, which the Sharks have lacked in recent years.

Among the 40 NHL goalies who have played at least eight games this season, Blackwood is 10th in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (.496), and Vitek Vanecek is 22nd (-0.011).

With Vanecek injured right now, we’ll see who starts Wednesday in Dallas: Blackwood or hyped-up rookie Yaroslav Askarov. Either way, goaltending has largely been a strength for the Sharks during this recent resurgence.