San Jose Sharks crushed by Adrian Kempe, Los Angeles Kings

The San Jose Sharks have a ton of things to figure out this summer if they want to move out of the NHL’s basement next season.

But what comes first? Tightening up a leaky defense? Adding some needed firepower? Improving their woebegone goaltending?

All of those shortcomings were on display Sunday in an 8-1 thrashing at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena, matching the Sharks’ most lopsided loss of the season. 

From Feb. 1 to March 7, the Sharks traded two of their leading forwards, Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund, their two most-used defensemen, Cody Ceci and Jake Walman, and two blue-collar forwards, Luke Kunin and Nico Sturm.

As of Sunday night, the Sharks had the fourth-youngest roster in the NHL.

In other words, the Sharks do not have much margin for error right now, and when they make as many mistakes as they did Sunday, they do not give themselves much of a chance.

Another issue is the penalties. The Sharks took five minors in the first two periods Sunday night and allowed power-play goals to Adrian Kempe and Warren Foegele.

Forward Noah Gregor was called for hooking and holding in the first period and defenseman Mario Ferraro took hooking and tripping penalties in the second. In between, rookie forward Cam Lund was also whistled for tripping, making it four stick fouls called on the Sharks in the first 40 minutes.

With Gregor serving a hooking call, Kempe scored the first of his two goals on the power play at the 15:13 mark of the opening period. With Ferraro in the box for tripping, Foegele also scored the first of his two goals on the man advantage at the 13:31 mark of the second to give Los Angeles a 4-1 lead.

On that play, Sharks goalie Georgi Romanov could not catch a shot on goal by Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, and Foegele scored after he collected the loose puck.

Kempe and Foegele each added an even-strength goal later in the second, and the Kings added two more goals in the third, as the Sharks finished March with a 5-8-0 record. They remain in 32nd and last place in the NHL’s overall standings with 49 points, two points behind the Chicago Blackhawks with nine games left in the regular season.

The Sharks also lost 8-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 5.

Lund scored for the second time in as many games, as his even-strength goal at the 4:52 mark cut the Kings’ lead to 2-1. But Trevor Moore got that back just 2:05 later, the first of four straight goals by the Kings as they broke the game wide open.

Going into their game against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the Sharks have been shorthanded 225 times in 73 games, an average of just over three times per game. That total, before Monday’s games, was the second-highest in the NHL, trailing only the Montreal Canadiens (230 times in 73 games).