SAN JOSE -- Players aren't necessarily looking at the standings 18 games into the NHL season. Every team is battling for points and trying to improve.
“We have a lot of things we need to fix in our game, so that’s what we’re concentrating on,” Sharks winger Joonas Donskoi told NBC Sports California over the weekend when asked how closely the team was keeping tabs on their opponents’ standings position.
That isn’t to say San Jose is unaware of the tough competition around them, particularly as this tough six-game homestand rolls on.
With our All Access Daily newsletter, stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams!
SIGN UP HERE “It’s just about us, nobody else, but we also have to be ready,” forward Tomas Hertl said. “Because the teams that are coming, they play really good hockey.”
The Sharks got their first dose of that Sunday night when the Calgary Flames visited the South Bay. San Jose picked up a 3-1 win, grinding on both ends of the ice to defeat a Pacific Division rival. Looking around, that’s exactly what the Sharks will have to continue doing.
The Pacific has been rather unpredictable at this early point in the season, and with three of their next six contests occurring against division rivals, the Sharks’ push to play a better all-around game will have to remain constant.
The division has looked odd since the season got underway, with unexpected teams doing surprisingly well. The Vancouver Canucks, whom the Sharks will host the day after Thanksgiving, have shocked the league with their impressive start. In their first campaign of the post-Sedins era, the Canucks have roared out to a 10-6-2 record, with two separate three-win streaks in the mix. Keep in mind, though, that the Canucks have just a 2-2-0 record against the rest of the division and they’re yet to face the Sharks, Anaheim Ducks or Los Angeles Kings.
San Jose Sharks
Find the latest San Jose Sharks news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
Speaking of, the Kings currently occupy the bottom rung of the division ladder. Since losing to the Sharks in their season opener on Oct. 5, L.A. has won just five of 16 games on the season. Battling through early season injuries and getting a new head coach in Willie Desjardins doesn’t appear to be doing much to invigorate the group, either, which has looked uninspired through the first month of the season.
[RELATED: Kings fire coach John Stevens, name ex-Shark Marco Sturm assistant]
Shocking still is that the Vegas Golden Knights have only a few more points than the Kings at this point. Critics and spectators alike kept waiting for the Knights to come down to earth during their unprecedented inaugural season. Then the 2018-19 campaign got underway, and Vegas has had to deal with injuries to top players such as Nate Schmidt, Eric Haula and Paul Stastny. That has put a lot of pressure between the pipes, and Marc-Andre Fleury simply can’t carry the team on his own. It’s anyone’s guess how Vegas will look when San Jose travels to Sin City on Nov. 24.
The rest of the division around the Sharks is even harder to figure out. The Edmonton Oilers, whom the Sharks will host before Turkey Day, have put together a lopsided campaign thus far -- including their current four-game losing streak -- and have yet to face a Pacific Division team. Down in the O.C., the Ducks overcame early season injuries to jump out to a raucous start, then took a tumble and lost seven in a row.
The Arizona Coyotes, whom the Sharks have not played, are finding amazing success on special teams with a sneaky power play and the only penalty kill in the league that’s better than San Jose’s. Finally, there’s the Flames, who have run into the issue of not playing a strong enough defensive game in front of their goalie -- an issue with which the Sharks recently became acquainted.
The Sharks tightened up their game against those same Flames on Sunday night, but that’s just the start of their fight against the rest of the Pacific. They'll have to bash through three more games on their current homestand, as it turns out, before dueling an unpredictable Oilers team on Nov. 20.
