Skidding Sharks look to change course against Canadiens

Coming off a loss at Seattle on Wednesday that head coach David Quinn called "embarrassing," the San Jose Sharks open a three-game homestand Friday afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Sharks enter the contest with the fewest points (seven) and wins (three) in the NHL, and their minus-55 goal differential is easily the worst in the league. The low point of the season that began with a 0-10-1 start was back-to-back losses to Vancouver and Pittsburgh that saw San Jose allow 10 goals in each game on Nov. 2 and 4.

General Manager Mike Grier told the team that kind of performance was unacceptable. The Sharks responded with back-to-back wins over Philadelphia (2-1) and Edmonton (3-2) on Nov. 7 and 9.

Before departing on a two-game trip to the Pacific Northwest that began with a 3-1 loss to the Canucks on Monday, the Sharks played arguably their best game of the season, a 5-1 victory over St. Louis on Nov. 16. But Wednesday's 7-1 loss to the Kraken was a big step back.

San Jose fell behind 4-0 in the first period, with Quinn calling timeout after just five minutes to berate his team. The Sharks finished with just 14 shots on goal, including eight through the first two periods, and had just one shot in the second period.

Quinn didn't mince words afterward.

"We weren't ready to play," Quinn said. "Two breakaways in the first minute and a half, just absolutely freaking embarrassing. We lost every single battle. Got beat off the walls. Every time there was a 50-50 puck battle, we're fishing for pucks. Get on the wrong side of it. One guy would get beat one-on-one and the other guy would dive in. It was embarrassing."

Quinn was asked about his team's fragility after its latest clunker.

"I don't want to hear no frickin' fragile, OK? It's the National freakin' Hockey League, and you better show up ready to play every freaking night. I don't care about fragile.

"Sometimes you don't have it. I get it. But you want to show up and play with the right freakin' intentions and we didn't do it. You're going to come here and show up to play with the right freakin' intentions, and not many guys did it."

Mike Hoffman scored with 4:28 left to spoil the shutout. It was just the 28th goal in 19 games this season for the Sharks, who also fell to 0-9-0 on the road this season.

Montreal, playing the third game of a five-game road trip, comes in off a 4-3 victory at Anaheim on Wednesday that snapped a four-game losing streak. Alex Newhook scored two goals, including the game-winner with 3:20 remaining.

Sam Montembeault finished with 30 saves for the Canadiens, who snapped a seven-game losing streak at the Honda Center (0-6-1) in Anaheim with their first regulation win since defeating Buffalo 3-1 on Oct. 23.

"I loved our compete level and wanting to get on top of them," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "It showed early in the game. There were a lot of positives in this game. We found a way to win it. Could it have gone the other way? Absolutely. This team needed a win tonight and we found a way."

"It wasn't perfect, but to find a way to win was huge for us," Newhook added. "We've got to carry it with us into the next few games. ... We have to keep it rolling."

--Field Level Media