from David Pollak of the Mercury News,
So what went wrong? How did a team that finished with 111 points last season -- tied for fourth best in the NHL -- fall so far?
"We can't look at a single faction of our team, whether it's the youth or the older players or the leadership or the coach or the coaching staff," coach Todd McLellan said this week. "Whatever it might be, we're team-deep as far as where we've put ourselves in the standings."
There is no shortage of things you can point to by looking at stats.
Patrick Marleau is a minus-16 and, with only 17 goals, is having his poorest season offensively since 2007-08. A year ago, Marleau had 33 goals and was even when it came to plus-minus.
Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto, two of the young players around whom the Sharks constructed their rebuild, did not show the improvement that was expected after their rookie seasons. Hertl, in fact, went backward. He has 12 goals in 74 games; last season, he had 15 goals in 37 games. Rookie defenseman Mirco Mueller also struggled at times as he tried to make the jump from junior hockey.
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