San Jose Sharks: Have we reached a turning point in the season?

The San Jose Sharks have now won three straight including Saturday night’s shootout victory over the Nashville Predators. Has the team reached a turning point in their season?

The San Jose Sharks may finally be starting to turn a corner after securing three victories in their last three games with the highlight coming in Saturday night’s thrilling 2-1 shootout victory over the Nashville Predators.

After starting the season 4-10-1, many were quick to cast the 2019-20 campaign off as a lost season. And it’s really difficult to blame them after what we had seen through the first 15 games.

The Sharks were an unorganized mess that was born as a result of poor defensive play, inconsistent goaltending, and an offense that struggled in the offensive zone. But more than anything, the Sharks just weren’t all there mentally.

Who knew all it took were a couple of wins against subpar opponents to jump-start their season?

Victories over Central Division bottom-feeders in the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild helped get San Jose back in the win column, but they still had their work cut out for them. For starters, they would be facing the two-time defending Central Division champs in their next game.

But instead of withering under the increased pressure against a much tougher opponent, the Sharks rose to the occasion and emerged victorious.

And as opposed to their previous two games where they simply survived against inferior opponents (after almost blowing big leads), the Sharks thrived against their superior opposition and played a clean, complete game.

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San Jose was bailed out by the stellar play of Martin Jones who — aside from a second-period Filip Forsberg goal — was perfect on the night. And that includes stopping all seven attempts in the shootout.

It was a bounceback performance for a goalie who entered the night with a save percentage south of .900.

But perhaps nothing was more impressive than the composure and perseverance the Sharks showed following Forsberg’s goal.

San Jose entered the night with a 2-9 record when allowing the first goal and an even more dreadful 0-9 record when trailing after two periods. But despite that, the Sharks rallied from behind and tied the game on a third-period goal from Tomas Hertl.

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It was Hertl’s seventh goal of the season and his fourth in five games as the young center has come alive in the past week. And in the seventh round of the shootout, Timo Meier fired a shot past Juuse Saros to give the Sharks the much-deserved extra point.

Suddenly, the Sharks find themselves at 7-10-1 on the season still towards the bottom of the Pacific Division, but increasingly building momentum.

And while a matchup with the division-leading Edmonton Oilers awaits the team on Tuesday, the Sharks now feel like they at least have a glimmer of hope.

It’s still too early to make any declarative statements about the Sharks’ season, but it’s certainly encouraging to see them string together consecutive solid performances as they have.

The Sharks are beginning to show signs of playing like the team that went to the Western Conference Finals last season.

Now, it’s all about maintaining this level of play.