The San Jose Sharks were steamrolled in the first 12 minutes of Thursday’s first period and, despite a late rally, never fully recovered in a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, marking their eighth-straight defeat to start the regular season.
Continuing a near-season-long trend, the Sharks struggled early, allowing three even-strength goals in the first 11:36, with Jordan Spence collecting one and Warren Foegele adding two.
Mikael Granlund scored power-play goals midway through the second period and with a minute left in the third as the Sharks cut the Kings’ lead to one. But the Sharks (0-6-2) couldn’t find the equalizer as they went without an even-strength goal for the third straight game.
“We need a lot of guys to step up and be more consistent night after night,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky told reporters, “and we’re just not getting that, at all. A lot of passengers.”
The Sharks are still the last winless team in the NHL and have lost 18 straight games in October, a streak that dates back to 2022.
The Sharks are the second team in NHL history to go winless through eight games in back-to-back seasons, joining the 1960-61 and 1961-62 Bruins.
“I just want to win a game,” Sharks forward Fabian Zetterlund told reporters afterward. “Doesn’t matter how it looks or how we do it. We have to win.”
Granlund, on his two goals, took passes from Jack Thompson and beat Kings goalie David Rittich both times as he now has three goals on the man advantage in two games.
Alexander Wennberg also assisted on Granlund’s first goal for his first point with the Sharks after he signed a two-year, $10 million contract with the Sharks as a free agent on July 1.
But a slow start doomed the Sharks in Los Angeles.
The Sharks had run out of patience after losing seven straight games to open the season, including four straight in regulation time. But they were facing a ornery Kings team that was not only playing its first home game, but was coming off a 6-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
The Sharks were hit like a freight train in the first 12 minutes of the first period, as Spence scored once at the 4:31 mark and Foegele added goals at 8:47 and 11:36 as Los Angeles took a 3-0 lead.
Spence’s goal came on a Kings rush after a Tyler Toffoli turnover in the Los Angeles zone, and Foegele’s first goal came after the Kings won a battle for the puck behind the Sharks net.
The Sharks have now been outscored 12-4 in the first period this season, including 11-2 in the last five games when they’ve allowed the first goal.
In all, Mackenzie Blackwood and the Sharks allowed three goals on 17 shots as the Kings swarmed the puck, creating headaches San Jose couldn’t handle.
