What we learned as Sharks, without injured Celebrini, shut out by Ducks

What we learned as Sharks, without injured Celebrini, shut out by Ducks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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SAN JOSE — Playing without star rookie Macklin Celebrini, the Sharks couldn’t find any sort of offensive rhythm Saturday night and were blanked 2-0 by the Pacific Division rival Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center.

Celebrini, who made an outstanding NHL debut Thursday, was placed on injured reserve hours before the game with a reported hip injury. The injury doesn’t appear too significant, although Celebrini will miss at least one week before being eligible to return.

Until he comes back, the Sharks need to do a whole lot more offensively than they did against the Ducks. They took 30 shots on goal but failed to sneak any of them past Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal.

Fabian Zetterlund appeared to score a first-period power-play goal for the Sharks, but it was waved off when the young winger was called for offside after the Ducks challenged the play. That set a frustrating tone that carried throughout the game for San Jose, which flailed on numerous chances in front of Anaheim’s net in the second and third periods.

The missed opportunities eventually came back to bite the Sharks in the fin when Isac Lundestrom fired a shot over the left shoulder of San Jose goalie Vitek Vanecek 11 minutes into the third period. The Ducks added Trevor Zegras’ empty-net goal with 1:35 left to hand the Sharks their first regulation loss of the 2024-25 NHL season.

Here are the takeaways from Saturday’s game, as San Jose fell to 0-1-1:

Goalie change in Game No. 2

Vanecek started at goalie in favor of Mackenzie Blackwood and played extremely well until the end, stopping 28 of 29 Anaheim shots.

Vanecek, acquired from the Devils in a March trade that sent Kaapo Kahkonen to New Jersey, repeatedly turned the Ducks away and made two point-blank saves in the first period. He stopped 10 shots in the opening frame, 10 more in the second and was on his way to a shutout before he gave up Lundestrom’s goal.

Blackwood started the season opener Thursday and also played fairly well until the third period, when he allowed the St. Louis Blues to score three goals, then the overtime winner.

To be fair, the Sharks’ defense looked much more clean and crisp in front of Vanecek than it was for Blackwood two days earlier.

Short-handed stops

One of the silver linings in the loss was the Sharks’ penalty-kill unit, which denied all five Ducks power-play opportunities.

That’s an encouraging sign for a team that will have to heavily rely on its defense until the offense finds itself.

The Sharks were one of the worst teams at stopping opponents’ power plays last season, allowing 62 goals on 252 attempts when they were short-handed. That 75.4 percent stop rate was sixth lowest in the NHL.

Smith still searching

The Sharks still are waiting for their other prized rookie to find his groove.

Will Smith, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, started in Celebrini’s absence and took the first shift at center, but he wasn’t much of a factor.

Smith took only one shot in 13 minutes and 5 seconds of ice time against the Ducks, committed a second-period hooking penalty and remains without a point as a pro. He was 0-for-2 on shots in 13:41 of ice time Thursday against the Blues.

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