The most exciting team in Bay Area sports right now isn’t the Warriors or the 49ers. It’s not Cal football or even Tony V’s new-approach Giants.
No, it’s the San Jose Sharks.
And it’s not even particularly close.
The change has been so swift, so decisive, that the baby Sharks have overtaken Bluey as the nightly viewing of choice in the Kurtenbach living room.
Yes, the fever is catching, and it’s not coming from day care. I asked my three-year-old Tuesday night in the afterglow of Collin Graf’s incredible game-winning overtime goal against the Wild, “How good are these kids?”
The answer, delivered with swift confidence: ”So good!”
And if a three-year-old who is indulging her father to delay bedtime knows it, the rest of the NHL certainly has taken note.
It is on, folks. That clattering you hear is the rest of the NHL shaking in their skates.
The Sharks aren’t just one of the hottest teams in hockey, winners of four straight and six of their last seven going into Thursday’s game with the Flames — they’ve jumped over a long-standing hump amid their half-decade rebuild.
This team is now finding ways to win after years of figuring out every way to lose.
It suits them, too.
This is the moment Sharks fans have been waiting for since general manager Mike Grier arrived. This is a moment the rest of the NHL hoped would never come.
Because as anyone in the league would have told you, the Sharks were loading up something special in recent years. And with all this accumulated talent (Elite Prospects said the Sharks’ prospect pool “may be the best…we’ve ever seen”), the only hope for the league’s 31 other teams was that they’d fumble the bag.
Which, to be fair, was a viable option. Ask the Sabres: Talent doesn’t have to actualize and rebuilds don’t come with an expiration date.
The Sharks are not complying with their peers’ request, though. In fact, they’re ahead of schedule in manifesting their bright future into reality.
This current hot run won’t continue forever, but to see that it exists — for victories to validate optimism and vision — is what matters.
Tuesday night’s win over the Wild in Minnesota was a perfect example of how things have changed for San Jose.
Not only did goalie Yaroslav Askarov steal a game (a rarity that could well become rather commonplace, as he is playing like a true No. 1), but the Sharks’ young stars on their top line — Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and now Graf (as a big Graf head, I approve) — found two goals, one on a perfect tic-tac-toe play, the other on a 3-on-3 overtime breakout, to take a game where they were outshot 29 to 18.
Just a few weeks ago, the Sharks would have lost a game the other team put 46 percent more shots on goal. San Jose could score, but couldn’t defend.
Well, they can defend now.
A lot of that has to do with improved goalie play (Askarov is 4-0-0 in November with a 1.23 goals against average and .963 save percentage), but also a newfound cohesion amid the blue liners in front of the netminders (rookie Sam Dickinson, a 2024 first-round pick, has a chance to be elite) and a switch to a 2-1-2 forecheck that allows the team to play with more pace.
Simple things have brought a dramatic shift. The Sharks’ 4-3 loss to the Kings on Oct. 28 was the last time this team allowed three goals in a game. After giving up two to the Devils, Avalanche, and Red Wings respectively in the next three games (two wins and a shootout loss), the Sharks have allowed one goal in each of their last four games.
As the goals allowed have trended down, the Sharks’ stock has rocketed upwards.
While this kind of winning clip isn’t going to continue in perpetuity, don’t confuse it with a fluke. The Sharks no longer have to outscore their defensive deficiencies. In fact, their defense can cover for their offense when they’re having a tough night. Let the last three games, capped with that win in St. Paul, serve as notice.
As such, the Sharks aren’t just in the hunt for a playoff spot these days; they hold one.
And that might be the case for a long time yet.
San Jose has a superstar in Celebrini, multiple All-Star-caliber players around him (William Eklund, Smith, Michael Misa, Dickinson), a top goalie (Askarov, once the No. 1 goalie prospect in hockey), the role players needed to win (Graf, sparkplug Philipp Kurashev, penalty killer Vincent Desharnais), and, lest we forget, the coach (Ryan Warsofsky, fresh off leading the USA to gold at the World Championships, has to be the front runner for the Jack Adams award).
That’s the formula for a team that will be feisty in the present and a force in the future.
Which is why the Kurtenbach girls are being taught the finer points of this incredible game after dinner.
The decade of the Warriors is over. The 49ers’ half-decade of success (that’s all you really get in the NFL without one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time) probably is, too. The Giants might be starting something fun, but we’ll have to wait and see — we’ve been burned here before.
All the while, the Sharks’ decade of dominance is just getting started.
So brush up on your Canadian slang, find something teal to wear, and start warming up the vocal cords to chant “Askyyyyyy” at the Tank. The Sharks are an absolute wagon right now, and this might be your last chance to jump aboard for what could be the ride of a lifetime.