By Nick Orozco (@nickorozco03) – Executive Editor
Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood looking at his team during the team’s final home game and letting up six goals on Saturday night. | Photo by Christian Vieyra – The Spear
The San Jose Sharks were unable to handle the offensive onslaught from the Minnesota Wild losing 6-2 on Saturday.
With the Sharks now clinching last in the league standings, their last aspirations are now the future of the team and building a competitive roster for next season.
The draft lottery is now all in favor for San Jose with a 25.5% chance of the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft.
Yet, the draft isn’t everything on their mind.
“We’re in a much better situation to move forward than we were two years ago,” head coach David Quinn said. “We’ve got draft capital, we’ve got prospects and we have cap space.”
The ability to rebuild is a power that the team has but the question is, will they?
It is inevitable.
The lack of big defenders was clear. Half of those goals came from goalie Mackenzie Blackwood being distracted or unable to recover from a shot with no help in goal.
One of them even being an own goal by Blackwood on a puck that snuck by him.
The team acknowledges that size is a necessity this upcoming offseason.
To amass more size, defenseman Jan Rutta said, “Eat more burgers and be heavy in the corners and in front of the net.”
This lack of size was clear as many of the goals had defenseman and Blackwood distracted by pushing and shoving one another in goal.
Rutta scored the first goal for the Sharks shortly after the Wild initially scored, tying the game 1-1.
San Jose only scored their second and last goal after Minnesota scored two more goals.
The goal came off the stick of Ferraro assisted by Mikael Granlund and William Eklund.
The Wild went on to take advantage of the Sharks struggling to put themselves back together and tallied on three more and make the final score 6-2.
“What makes this place special in a lot of ways is our fan base and how passionate they are about our teams and how they stuck by us,” Quinn said after the last game at SAP Center this season. “No more difficult times in this year.”
The San Jose Sharks will next play on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Edmonton to take on the Oilers.