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After loss, San Jose Sharks will finish as NHL's last place team

Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News on

Published in Hockey

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Sharks played their final home game of the season on Saturday — and the result was a familiar one for anybody who has followed the team the last two seasons.

The Sharks allowed two goals to Kirill Kaprizov in just 47 seconds late in the second period, turning what had been a close game into just another home loss, as the Minnesota Wild earned a 6-2 win before an announced sellout crowd of 17,435 on Fan Appreciation Night at SAP Center.

Jan Rutta and Mario Ferraro scored for the Sharks, who lost at home for the 30th time in 41 home games this season — only a slight improvement from the 33 losses they had at their west downtown arena a year ago.

The one positive for the big picture crowd – the Sharks are now locked into 32nd and last place in the NHL’s overall standings, meaning they will have a 25.5% chance of winning next month’s NHL draft lottery.

The top player available is ex-Jr. Sharks star Macklin Celebrini, who won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player after a standout freshman season at Boston University.

“He’s got high skill but he’s got a heart and hardness to him that allows him to be a different type of player,” Sharks coach David Quinn said of Celebrini.

 

“When I watch him, I think of Jonathan Toews a lot. Maybe a little bit more skill. But Toews was an incredible player. I remember watching him at Shattuck when he was 15 and 30 was very similar to what Macklin does. I think the Hobey Baker voters got it right.”

The Sharks, with 47 points, trail the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks by four points with two games left to play, starting with Monday’s road date with the Edmonton Oilers.

Even if the Sharks (19-52-9) win their last two games and finish with the same number of points as the Blackhawks, they would still fall short in the first tiebreaker, regulation time wins. San Jose would have 16, while Chicago already has 17.

This is only the second time in Sharks franchise history that they’ve finished at the bottom of the NHL standings. The other time was in the organization’s first season in 1991-1992 when the NHL was a 22-team league and San Jose finished 17-58-5 for 39 points, 13 points fewer than the 21st-place Quebec Nordiques.

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