The San Jose Sharks will try to bounce back from a devastating season-opening loss when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
The Sharks missed two empty-net chances with just under two minutes remaining against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday in Las Vegas, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic then gave up a long-distance game-tying goal with 1:36 remaining that allowed the game to go to overtime.
Nedeljkovic then made another mistake in overtime, coming out nearly to his own blue line to play the puck, but he turned it over and the Golden Knights had a tap-in game-winner for the 4-3 victory.
“Got to find a way to move on somehow,” Nedeljkovic said. “Get back at it (Friday), work on fielding pop flies, and whatnot, like that in practice.”
Nedeljkovic’s teammates were quick to defend him, saying the Golden Knights would have had a 2-on-0 breakaway in overtime if Nedeljkovic hadn’t left his crease.
“He’s going to be, probably, not feeling great, but I think he’s old enough, he’s been around long enough, he’s confident in his abilities, and we’re confident in him too,” Sharks forward Jeff Skinner said. “He handles the puck better than almost any other goalie in the league, I would say. That’s a treat as a player to play with a guy that handles the puck that well.”
Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky was also satisfied with his team’s overall performance.
“We were skating. Playing with good structure, for the most part,” Warsofsky said. “Obviously, a couple of things we’ve got to clean up, but I liked our game. Our guys competed.”
The Ducks also dropped their season opener, losing 3-1 at the Seattle Kraken on Thursday in the debut of coach Joel Quenneville.
“There were, for the most part, a lot of positives,” Quenneville said. “You’ve got to look to change some things, and you get better for next game.”
Beckett Sennecke, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, scored the lone goal for Anaheim in his NHL debut.
“It’s pretty awesome to get that one to finally go in. I’ve been thinking about that one for a while now, so it was definitely nice to see,” Sennecke said. “It’s something that you kind of dream of growing up, and to have my family there makes it that much more special.”
Ducks forward Ryan Strome did not play because of an upper-body injury, causing Mikael Granlund to move from second-line wing to third-line center in his team debut. That opened up a second-line spot for Sennecke, who was penciled in to play on the fourth line during the preseason.
“I think he had the puck a lot,” Quenneville said of Sennecke. “Strong on the puck areas and sustained some possession, and I still think there’s some good things that he’s going to bring to our team game and he can enhance and we can use him in a lot of different ways in different areas as a game progresses. So it was a good start for him.”
