The San Jose Sharks are still in the early stages of rebuilding their team and are far from the days when they were contenders for the Stanley Cup.
However, they will try to create a special moment to honor their past when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
Before the game, the Sharks will retire Joe Thornton’s No. 19 jersey. During his 15 seasons with San Jose, from 2005-06 to 2019-20, the team was a regular playoff contender, only missing the postseason twice.
Today, the Sharks are focusing on building for the future, with young players like Macklin Celebrini (the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft), Will Smith (No. 4 overall in 2023), and William Eklund (No. 7 in 2021) leading the way.
The Sharks started the season with a tough nine-game losing streak (0-7-2), but they found some success, winning five of their next seven games. Although they have lost five of their last six games (1-2-3), they’ve shown determination during this stretch.
Recently, Alex Wennberg scored with just nine seconds left in regulation in a 3-2 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
“It shows character,” Wennberg said. “We never back down. We just keep going, keep going at it.”
Of the Sharks’ five losses in their recent stretch, only one has been by more than one goal.
“There’s obviously some areas in our game that need to continue to improve, but I give a lot of credit to the group to stick together,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’ve been through a lot the first 22 games, even this last 2 1/2 weeks with the travel, time change, the difference, we haven’t practiced much. So you can kind of see the execution was a little bit lower the last couple of games.”
Eklund has had a strong start to his second full NHL season and third year in North America. The 22-year-old from Sweden, who had 45 points (16 goals, 29 assists) last season, has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 21 games in 2024-25.
Meanwhile, the Sabres are visiting Northern California as they aim to complete a sweep of their three-game trip through California.
Buffalo comes off a 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, a game where they came from behind after being down by two goals, scoring twice in just 50 seconds. The Sabres began their trip with a 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
“I think that’s been our motto the whole season, can’t get down when they score a couple of goals, and we did that,” said Buffalo center Peyton Krebs. “We stuck with it and got rewarded.”
That win lifted the Sabres above the NHL’s version of .500 for the first time this season.
“There’s been a couple of chances we’ve had to do it and haven’t been able to, so hopefully now that we’re over it, we’re able to continue to get those wins and build on it,” said defenseman Owen Power.
Jason Zucker has been a strong free-agent addition for Buffalo. The veteran winger, who has scored in consecutive games, is sixth on the team with 14 points (five goals, nine assists).
