The Sharks have spent hours — on the ice and in the video room — trying to squeeze some more production out of their often lifeless power play, which had become one of the least effective units in the NHL.

The Sharks made strides in that area Tuesday against Florida, but their penalty kill was once again problematic, allowing two goals in what became a 5-3 loss to the Panthers before another sparse mid-week crowd at SAP Center.

Tomas Hertl and Luke Kunin scored third-period goals 70 seconds apart, one on a power play and the other on a delayed penalty, to take a 4-3 lead with 12:39 left in regulation time.

But a Marc-Edouard Vlasic tripping penalty preceded a Carter Verhaeghe power-play goal with 9:54 left in regulation time. Kevin Stenlund then scored just 63 seconds later at even strength on a shot from the point as the Panthers took the lead for good.

“A bad penalty and a penalty kill really changed the whole thing,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “Our penalty kill wasn’t able to deliver tonight and then the fourth goal really was a backbreaker. Just loose coverage on the net front. Simple shot from the point, we don’t pick up a stick, that ends up in the back of the net.”

The Sharks also allowed a second-period power-play goal to Sam Reinhart after a roughing call on Givani Smith that Quinn didn’t agree with. Now, going into Thursday’s game with the St. Louis Blues, San Jose is just 4-for-8 on the penalty kill in their last two games, having also allowed two power-play goals to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday in a 4-1 loss.

Quinn said the Sharks made some adjustments to their penalty kill from last season. It remains a work in progress.

“The PK, we’ve got to clean a lot of things up there,” Sharks defenseman Jan Rutta said.

OFF THE SCHNIED: Mike Hoffman scored a first-period goal, his first in 15 games for the Sharks. Rutta had the assist, his first point in 16 games.

Hoffman has 219 goals and 466 points in 12-plus seasons in the NHL but has struggled mightily to find the scoresheet in San Jose. Normally a volume shooter, Hoffman, a pending unrestricted free agent, had just 12 shots on net before Tuesday, and now has 15 for the season.

“As an offensive guy, you don’t want to be going too long without seeing the puck go in the back of the net,” Hoffman said. “So it was a good feeling.”

TUESDAY NIGHT SPECIAL: As has become the norm for Tuesday nights, another noticeably small crowd was on hand to watch the Sharks.

The Sharks announced a crowd of 10,108 for what was their ninth home game of the season, although arena officials estimated that actual attendance would be around 7,500. Still, that’s the second-smallest announced crowd of the season, and only 49 more than the smallest all-time at the arena since it opened in 1993.

The smallest all-time is 10,059 for a Nov. 3, 2021 game against the Buffalo Sabres. The seating capacity at SAP Center after recent renovations is 17,435, and there have been three sellouts this season.

When there have not been capacity restrictions at the arena, the Sharks have never announced a crowd for a Sharks game of less than 10,000. The smallest announced crowd this season was 10,074 last Tuesday when the Sharks beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 to earn their first win.

The two other smallest crowds this year came on Oct. 17, a Tuesday, when the Sharks announced 10,378 for what became a 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, and Nov. 2, when 10,719 were announced for a 10-1 San Jose loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

This season, the Sharks, coming off a 29th-place finish in the NHL standings and an offseason in which they traded Erik Karlsson, the Sharks only sold about 8,200 full-season equivalent ticket packages.

Clearly, Tuesdays are an issue, with it being a school night. Also, having less foot traffic around downtown San Jose, with several businesses still allowing employees to work from home, is also believed to be a reason for smaller weekday crowds.

The Sharks game is one of five this season that will be shown exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu. The remaining ones are Dec. 19 and April 4 vs. the Los Angeles Kings, and Dec. 21 vs. the Arizona Coyotes.

Tuesday’s game starts at 7:30 (PST).

John Buccigross is doing play-by-play with AJ Mleczko as the analyst and Blake Bolden as the on-site reporter.

All other Sharks games this regular season are being telecast on NBC Sports California. Every game can be heard on the online-only Sharks Audio Network.

A subscription to ESPN+ costs $10.99 per month.

The Sharks (2-12-1) are hoping to get back on track after consecutive losses to the Vegas Golden Knights (5-0) and Anaheim Ducks (4-1). San Jose won its only two games of the season last week at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 and the Edmonton Oilers 3-2.

Florida enters Tuesday on a four-game win streak and in second place in the Atlantic Division with a 9-4-1 record. The Panthers are 9-0-0 against the Sharks since the start of the 2018-2019 season. San Jose’s last win over Florida came on Nov. 16, 2017, a 2-0 victory at the Shark Tank.

The Sharks are starting Mackenzie Blackwood in net and the Panthers are expected to go with Anthony Stolarz, who has a 9-1-0 record and a .934 save percentage in 12 career games against San Jose.

After Tuesday, the Sharks host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Now the question is which individual synonymous with the Sharks will be the next to get a Hall call. Turns out, Mr. Shark, Patrick Marleau, is eligible for election this summer.

Certainly, Marleau’s resume will be worthy of consideration.

Including playoffs, Marleau has 566 regular season goals, 23rd-most all-time, and is 52nd with 1,197 points. He was selected as an NHL All-Star three times and won Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in 2010 and 2014. Most notably, Marleau, now 44, is the NHL’s all-team leader in regular season games played with 1,779.

Every retired player who scored more NHL regular-season goals than Marleau is in the Hall. All but three players who have more points than Marleau – Jeremy Roenick (1,216), Bernie Nicholls (1,209), and Vincent Damphousse (1,205) – have also been elected or inducted.

Perhaps working against Marleau from being elected in his first year of eligibility is that he never won one of the NHL’s major individual awards.

After the 2009-2010 season, when he set career highs with 44 goals and 83 points, Marleau finished ninth in Hart Trophy voting as the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team. He was also a finalist for the Lady Byng Award, given to the player “adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability” in both 2006 and 2014.

“That would be that’d be pretty amazing, obviously, to be with all those great players,” Marleau said in September about potentially being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame at some point. “To have your name in there for the rest of history, it’s humbling if that were to happen, I’d be extremely excited and I don’t know what I would do, but that’d be pretty crazy.”

Marleau’s election depends on the 18 members of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee, a mixture of executives, media, and former players and coaches who gather each year and consider potential inductees under a rigid selection process.

Committee members are allowed to nominate no more than one individual in the Player Category, the Builder Category, and the Referee or Linesman Category.

Those nominations must be filed with the Chair of the Board of Directors or Selection Committee by a certain date each year. From that pool, the committee can select a maximum of four male players, two female players, and either two builders or one builder and one referee or linesman. All nominated candidates needed to receive at least 14 votes (75%) to get in.

Other male players who could get consideration this year are goalie Ryan Miller, forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Mogilny, Keith Tkachuk, Roenick, and defenseman Shea Weber.

There is no limit to how many times a player can be considered.

Joe Thornton, who recently announced his retirement, is eligible for consideration in 2025.

To be eligible, individuals must have not played in a professional or international hockey game during any of the three playing seasons prior to his or her election.

Rusanowsky will call Tuesday’s game between the Sharks and Florida Panthers at SAP Center. Marleau now works in the Sharks’ front office as a player development coach and hockey operations advisor.

DECISION TIME NEARS: Defenseman Matt Benning, on injured reserve, skated again Tuesday morning and is getting closer to a return to the lineup, Sharks coach Quinn said. When Benning does come back, the Sharks will have a roster decision to make, assuming every other defenseman stays healthy in the meantime.

The Sharks are carrying eight defensemen on their 23-man active roster and all of them would require waivers to be sent to the AHL. But if the Sharks do not go down to 12 forwards, a defenseman would, from all appearances, have to be waived.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen between now and when he’s activated, so I don’t look that far ahead,” Quinn said of Benning. “But if everybody stays healthy, then there’s going to have to be some decisions.”

Nikolai Knyzhov, 25, had been a healthy scratch in five of the last seven Sharks games before Tuesday, and it was immediately clear whether he would play against Florida. Knyzhov is in the first year of a two-year, $2.5 million contract extension he signed with the Sharks in March.

The Sharks were in a similar numbers game before the season began last month and placed Radim Simek on waivers. Simek cleared, is now with the Barracuda, and the Sharks are having to keep $1.1 million of his $2.25 million cap hit on their books as a result.

The Sharks took a tangible step to try to address at least one of those weaknesses Monday, recalling their AHL affiliate’s leading scorer, forward Danil Gushchin.

The Sharks lost 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, marking the 11th time in 15 games this season they’ve scored one goal or less. San Jose also lost 5-0 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, halting any momentum they might have created by beating the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers earlier in the week.

Going into Tuesday’s home game against the Florida Panthers, the Sharks (2-12-1) are averaging just 1.20 goals per game, over a goal less than the 31st-place team in that category, the Washington Capitals (2.30).

Gushchin, 21, was leading the San Jose Barracuda with nine assists and 13 points in 11 games this season. In two games with the Sharks last season, Gushchin had a goal and an assist.

“He’s played a more complete game. He’s obviously producing offensively,” Sharks coach David Quinn said of Gushchin. “We liked him when he was here last year and liked him in camp. So this was his opportunity.”

“A lot of offense, a lot of skill and creativity,” Sharks forward William Eklund said of Gushchin. “He’s a great player.”

The Sharks need sources of offense wherever they can find them.

Already without injured top-six forwards Logan Couture and Alexander Barabanov, the Sharks also played without Anthony Duclair the last two games as he was out with an unspecified, non-COVID illness.

Duclair did not practice with the Sharks on Monday but was at the facility and watched the end of the team’s skate in workout gear. It wasn’t immediately known whether he would be available to play Tuesday against his former team at SAP Center.

Other Sharks forwards have barely dented the scoresheet in recent weeks. Mike Hoffman is scoreless in 12 games, Filip Zadina has one point, a goal, in his last 12 games and Mikael Granlund has one point in seven games since his return from injury.

Gushchin, a third-round draft pick by San Jose in 2020, likely will not solve all of the Sharks’ offensive woes, but perhaps he can provide a spark to those around him, as he practiced Monday on a line with Granlund and Luke Kunin.

Gushchin had two assists in two preseason games for the Sharks in training camp this year before he was returned to the AHL.

“He’s a guy that creates offense and he can be dynamic. Those are the things he can add to a line,” Quinn said of Gushchin, who had 45 points in 67 games for the Barracuda last season.

“Just try my best,” the Russian-born Gushchin said. “If they need me in the defensive zone to block shots or just score goals, I’ll do my best.”

Gushchin also figures to help with the Sharks’ power play, which ranked 25th in the NHL at 15.2 percent as of Monday.

Quinn lamented the special teams play after the loss in Anaheim, as San Jose went 0-for-2 with the man advantage and allowed two power-play goals to the Ducks.

Monday, Gushchin was on the second unit with Hoffman, Zadina, Kevin Labanc, and defenseman Ty Emberson.

The Sharks are 1-for-13 with the man advantage over their last four games, as they’ve struggled to play with any tempo or pace in terms of their skating and puck movement.

The Sharks had a power play late in the second period when they trailed 2-1. But they managed just one shot in those minutes, then gave up a power play goal to the Ducks early in the third to fall behind 3-1.

“It’s amazing what a power play can do,” Quinn said. “They get theirs and they go, ‘whoa.’ We get ours and I don’t know what happened, so the mental dynamic changes during the course of the period. That’s just how it works.

“We had chances to make it 2-2 at the end of the second period, or at least build momentum and we didn’t do it. So, the power play has to get going and it’s certainly something we worked on today. I liked what I saw, and we’ve got to carry those characteristics in our game (Tuesday).”

Cutting back on shots allowed wouldn’t hurt San Jose’s cause, either. The Sharks are allowing a staggering 38.4 shots per game so far this season, 3.6 shots more than the next worst team, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Over the course of a full season, the only team since 1991 to allow more than 37 shots per game was the Ducks last season, at 39.1.

“When you turn the puck over, you’re going one way, you turn it over, (the other team is getting) three shots off of that because you’re not in structure,” Quinn said. “You give up fewer shots when you’re always in a good spot, and if you chip a puck in and they break it out, at least you always have a chance to stay above it. But when you have turned pucks over in your end, it’s hard to recover.”

NOTE: The Sharks initially announced Monday that they had returned forward Oskar Lindblom to the Barracuda, but later discovered that he has a lower-body injury, so he was placed on injured reserve. Lindblom was originally recalled on Nov. 8 and played against Vegas.

Logan Couture has been out since before training camp began with a lower-body injury. Alexander Barabanov has a broken finger and hasn’t played in three weeks. Now, Anthony Duclair has missed two games with an unspecified illness with no clear indication as to when he’ll return.

That’s three skilled players who would normally be playing alongside Hertl in the top-six forward group. Predictably, without them, the offense continues to sputter.

Hertl picked up his team-high 10th point of the season Sunday, assisting on Luke Kunin’s first-period goal. But that was all the scoring the Sharks could muster in a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

The game marked the 11th time San Jose has scored one goal or less in a game. Their four goals in their first seven road games, all losses in regulation time, are tied for the second-fewest in NHL history.

Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood made 40 saves in the loss.

“We have to score more goals,” Hertl said. “We can’t just be waiting for Blackie to save everything and we only score one goal.”

The Sharks were building momentum toward the end of the first period in a 1-1 game before defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov took an interference penalty on Max Jones.

Forward Frank Vatrano then scored the second of his two goals on the ensuing power play, giving the Ducks the lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Sharks could not take advantage of two power-play chances of their own and are now 1-for-13 with the man advantage over their last four games.

“Our power play has to be better,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “The difference in the game in my mind was the two power plays. In the first period, we had some great chances, it was an even game, and for a stretch, we were kind of playing at the tempo and the pace we wanted.

“Then they get the power play goal late in the first, make it 2-1, and then we get our power plays and it just really deflated us. Not a lot of pace and not a lot of urgency to our power play right now. If you’re gonna score, we need to get some momentum off our power play. That’s not happening right now.”

The Ducks then added another power-play goal at the 1:52 mark of the third period by Mason McTavish, and an even-strength goal by Radko Gudas 49 seconds later to take a 4-1 lead. Gudas’ shot from just inside the blue line went off the stick of Mikael Granlund and floated over everyone before it landed in the Sharks’ net behind Blackwood.

The Sharks were on the penalty kill five times against the Ducks, and now have been shorthanded 26 times in their last six games.

“Special teams were not good tonight,” Quinn said. “Cost us the game.”

Blackwood, starting for the fourth time in five games, once again faced a barrage of shots, including 32 in the first two periods. Of the 18 saves he made in the second period, eight came on the penalty kill as the Sharks took three minor penalties.

Sunday marked the fourth straight game that the Sharks have allowed at least 39 shots, and they’ve allowed 38.4 shots per game in 15 games this season.

The Sharks return home to play the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Hertl came into Sunday averaging 20:51 in ice time per game, 1:34 more than he averaged in 79 games last season, and nearly a minute more than his career high of 19:56 set two years ago.

That’s a clear by-product of the Sharks not only being without Couture all season but also Granlund for seven games last month.

Sunday, Hertl had 5:45 of ice time in the first period and another 8:18 in the second period. He had a total of four shots as he started the game on a line with Kunin and William Eklund

With his point on Kunin’s goal, Hertl has now scored or assisted on five of the Sharks’ last nine goals dating back to their 10-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 4.

“I don’t think we played bad,” Hertl said. “We were right there the whole game, a pretty good start. I think the special teams have to be better, especially the power play. We have to change momentum, we have to score some goals.”

Of course, several players who have worn the Sharks uniform are in the Hall, with former San Jose goalie Mike Vernon among the Class of 2023. Former Sharks general manager and captain Doug Wilson was inducted two years ago.

But those ex-Sharks players were largely voted in because of their accomplishments with other teams. Rusanowsky has been the Sharks’ radio play-by-play voice since he and Dennis Hull broadcasted the franchise’s first game in Vancouver against the Canucks on Oct. 4, 1991.

Now, close to 2,500 games later, he’s receiving hockey broadcasting’s highest honor, the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, given in recognition of members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their careers. Award winners are selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

“I’m representing the San Jose Sharks organization,” Rusanowsky said. “What should never be lost on anyone is who you’ve worked with and the experiences that have occurred for all of those 33 years. That’s really, really special for me.”

Rusanowsky, 62, named the newest recipient of the Foster Hewitt Award in June, will receive his honor at the Hockey Hall of Fame NHL Media Awards Luncheon in Toronto on Monday. With his place in the Hall, he’ll be alongside some of his broadcasting heroes in Dan Kelly, Sal Messina, Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin.

Recipients are recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame as Media Honorees — a separate distinction from individuals inducted as Honored Members. For instance, Wilson was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020 and is an Honored Member.

Rusanowsky took a red-eye flight from Las Vegas to Toronto after the Sharks played the Golden Knights on Friday night. Now that he’s in that city for Hall of Fame weekend, everything has started to sink in. He saw his plaque inside the Hockey Hall of Fame for the first time on Sunday.

“Still shaking my head,” said Rusanowsky, a Milford, Conn. native. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Nothing like seeing your name in the Hockey Hall of Fame…

and yes… it’s spelled right pic.twitter.com/om5CxM3z0q

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) November 12, 2023

Rusanowsky said he’s always been comfortable on stage and with public speaking. As a kid, he was involved in plays and musicals but found that it wasn’t a perfect fit.

Then hockey found its way into Rusanowsky’s life. In 1971, when Rusanowsky was 10, his uncle took him to Madison Square Garden to see the New York Rangers play the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not only was he captivated by the game, but he enjoyed listening to the pre-and postgame shows and realized there was a performance side to the sport.

Not only did he begin to listen to Rangers games with Messina and Marv Albert from his home in Connecticut, but by turning the radio dial at night, he could also hear broadcasts from Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Boston, and Montreal.

“So basically, what it did was it created a whole new world for me, a sense that I was imagining what it was like in all of these NHL buildings and what it was like to see these players,” Rusanowsky said. “I think that it just captivated my imagination.

“That’s what I try to do. When I’m doing a game, I want to make sure that if there’s another young person who’s listening, it captivates their imagination. … That’s sort of what captivated me in the very beginning.”

Rusanowsky began his broadcasting career as an 18-year-old in 1979 as the voice of St. Lawrence University’s NCAA Division I hockey program and the American Hockey League’s New Haven Nighthawks. After the city of San Jose was awarded an NHL franchise in 1990, Rusanowsky was among those who applied to become the team’s radio play-by-play voice and secured the job after multiple rounds of interviews and a visit to the city.

Rusanowsky had broadcast 725 straight regular-season games and 49 consecutive playoff games when a car accident in San Jose on Nov. 25, 2000, nearly ended his life.

In the hours before a Sharks game, another vehicle ran a red light and hit the side of Rusanowsky’s car, causing numerous injuries, including a partially collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, a fractured left femur, a cracked pelvis, and cracked ribs.

Looking back, Rusanowsky said had it not been for an alert doctor spotting the ruptured diaphragm via X-ray, he might not have survived.

“What a doctor could theoretically do since the fractured femur is so serious, they don’t see (the ruptured diaphragm) then they might start on (the leg) and then it’s a waste of time because I am not going to live,” Rusanowsky said. “It was very fortunate that way.”

Rusanowsky endured an arduous rehabilitation process and the accident gave him an appreciation for what hockey players go through – both physically and mentally – as they return from their injuries.

That was one byproduct of the accident. There was another that was perhaps a bit more unexpected.

“The hardest part is how it affects your wife, your family, and everything else,” Rusanowsky said. “But I always tell people, that the natural fear of death was lessened by going through the experience. I can’t explain how or why, I can’t explain that exactly, but that was an aftereffect of it.”

Remarkably, Rusanowsky returned to play-by-play duties on Dec. 30 of that year. Now in his 33rd year with the Sharks, he’s called every huge play and heartbreaking moment in franchise history.

In that time, Rusanowsky has missed just 28 games, including Sunday. His connection to the team and its fans is something he values deeply.

“I’m very, very proud of it and it’s something I always wanted, but it’s also a big responsibility,” Rusanowsky said. “Arturs Irbe used to always say, ‘Every day that goes by is one day closer to the Sharks winning their first Stanley Cup,’ and I’m very hopeful that’s going to happen and that I’m calling the action when it does.”

But let’s be honest: the inconsistent Oilers and Flyers are not the Vegas Golden Knights, and the reigning Stanley Cup champions made that clear on Friday night and handed the Sharks a 5-0 loss at T-Mobile Arena.

The Sharks allowed goals to Alex Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez in the first 11:19 of the first period and never recovered as they fell to 0-6-0 on the road this season.

On both goals, the Sharks (2-11-1) didn’t do a good enough job of gapping up in the neutral zone, allowing the Golden Knights (12-2-1) to enter the offensive zone with too much speed.

“Right from the get-go we looked flat for sure,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “We were just half a step behind all night long, we defended way too much and weren’t able to end plays and were just for chasing the game really from the drop of the puck.”

Sharks goalie Kaapo Kahkonen looked shaky on the Pietrangelo goal just 1:00 into the first, as he got caught out of position on the left side of his net, allowing Pietrangelo to score his first of the season on a wraparound shot.

Kahkonen mostly settled down after that — at least for the opening two periods when stopped 26 of 28 shots in what was his first start since Nov. 2. That night, he allowed six goals on 19 shots in what turned into a 10-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

Kahkonen finished with 34 saves.

The Sharks had a chance to cut the Golden Knights’ lead to one after Brayden McNabb took a tripping penalty 1:09 into the third period. Instead, Vegas, put the game away with a shorthanded goal, as Jack Eichel assisted on William Karlsson’s goal at the 2:24 mark, giving the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead.

Martinez added a second goal at the 4:40 mark, beating Kahkonen over his right shoulder with a wrist shot. Brett Howden wrapped up the scoring for Vegas with a goal at the 9:34 mark of the third.

The Sharks finished with 20 shots on net and went 0-for-3 on the power play as they were shut out for the third time this season. They’ve scored two goals or less in 12 of their 14 games.

The Sharks now travel to play the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

“There’s a lot that goes into it,” Sharks center Mikael Granlund said about creating more chances. “For me it’s about battles, killing some plays defensively or making them turn the puck over.”

San Jose’s best scoring opportunities came in the first two periods, as Tomas Hertl hit the post on a first-period shot and Luke Kunin had a second-period shot from right beside the net go off the outstretched leg of Adin Hill and off the side of the net.

Hill picked up his seventh career shutout and improved to 7-2-0 in his career against the Sharks.

As has been the case throughout the season, the Sharks on Friday were badly outshot and out-chanced, managing just 12 shots in the first two periods.

The Sharks were playing their third game in four nights but Granlund didn’t want to use that as a excuse.

“It’s the NHL. We all have to play back-to-back games,” Granlund said. “It’s not an excuse. We just have to be better.”

The Sharks were outshot 41-18 on Thursday, but took advantage of the opportunities they had and managed a 3-2 win over Connor McDavid and the Oilers. San Jose began the week with a 2-1 win over Philadelphia, which snapped a season-opening 11-game losing streak.

NOTE: Forward Anthony Duclair was a late scratch from Friday’s game with an illness. Sharks coach David Quinn said he’ll know more about Duclair’s availability for Sunday’s game on Saturday. Oskar Lindblom, a recent callup from the Barracuda, took Duclair’s roster spot and had 11:01 of ice time.

Early indications are, though, that goalie Mackenzie Blackwood might be someone the Sharks can build around.

Blackwood was again solid on Thursday night, making 39 saves to help the Sharks earn a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers, giving San Jose its second victory of the season after 11 straight losses. Blackwood had 38 saves in San Jose’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

Against the Oilers, Blackwood was calm and collected as he covered up some mistakes by his teammates and helped kill off two third-period penalties as the Sharks won back-to-back games for the first time since late last season.

“He’s so confident,” San Jose center Tomas Hertl said of Blackwood. “It’s easy to play in front of him because if we make a mistake, he’s here for us. The games we lost, that wasn’t on him. He’s been right there from day one, and the last two games he’s been amazing.”

The Sharks are in full rebuild mode and general manager Mike Grier will have to decide whether it makes sense to sign some of his pending unrestricted free-agent forwards like Mike Hoffman and Anthony Duclair, who were both acquired this summer, or trade them for future assets.

Grier doesn’t have to make any such decision this season on Blackwood, who signed a two-year, $4.7 million deal with the Sharks on July 1, just days after he was acquired by the team from the New Jersey Devils for a 2023 sixth-round draft pick.

Blackwood turns 27 on Dec. 9 and is at an age when most goalies are in the prime of their careers. If he can continue his solid play, the Sharks might want him to stick around San Jose for a while — past the expiration of his current contract — considering what the organization has at the position.

Kaapo Kahkonen is slated to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and it’s unclear whether any of the goalies the Sharks have in the AHL can develop into full-time NHLers. Only one goalie, Mason Beaupit, is on the team’s reserve list.

For now, entering Friday, Blackwood was second among all NHL goalies with 303 saves in 10 games with a .899 save percentage. The Sharks have suffered some lopsided losses while he’s been in net — not all of it his fault — but he’s also given the Sharks a chance to win at least three other games. With a bit more run support, Blackwood’s record would be better than 2-6-1.

Blackwood was expected to get the night off Friday, with Kahkonen facing the Vegas Golden Knights, but could be back in net Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks.

“Kaapo and Blackwood are going to have to be in their ‘A’ game if we want to have a chance to win,” Sharks center Nico Sturm said. “Kudos to them throughout this whole ordeal that we’ve gone through the first month. They’ve kind of just done their thing stayed and stayed confident even after we got blown out twice. I give them a lot of credit for that.”

“As long as we keep doing the right things, as long as we don’t stray from what we’re doing right now and just keep building off it,” Blackwood told the Sharks’ Audio Network after Thursday’s game, “I think that’s kind of the recipe for us.”

INJURY UPDATE: Sharks captain Logan Couture is still shut down with an unspecified lower-body injury and remains out indefinitely. At the moment, the Sharks and Couture are taking a much more cautious approach with his return after he had a second setback in his recovery late last month.

“He’s gotten better and he’s pushed it and then he’s had setbacks,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “So we’ve got to let the doctors do their thing with the rehab, and hopefully he can get back out and help the group.

“We can’t say he’ll be back in a month or two months. When it’s healed, it’s healed. He can’t force it and it’s not something he can play through, either.”

The Sharks entered Friday with the lowest-scoring offense in the NHL at 1.31 goals per game, while also allowing a league-worst 4.38 goals. Couture would certainly be an asset to the Sharks in both areas if he was healthy.

“Not having him, it’s huge,” Grier said. “He’s someone that players look to when things aren’t going well because he’s got such a calm demeanor. He’s not somebody who’s going to be breaking sticks. He’s just going to go about his job and sometimes you need that when things aren’t going well. Somebody who’s just gonna go about his job and keep playing.”

DAD’S TRIP: The fathers of a handful of Sharks players started to filter into San Jose earlier this week and joined the team on its road trip through Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said his dad got into town prior to the Flyers’ game when the Sharks earned their first win.

“My girlfriend might not like this too much, but he might have to hang around a little bit longer,” Ferraro said of his dad, Robert. “He can’t leave until we lose. So we’ll see. We’ll see. They get along well. I might be the one hurting a little bit.”

Nikita Okhotiuk’s shot from just inside the blue line toward the net went off the skate of Fabian Zetterlund and right to Tomas Hertl, who was in the perfect spot — right in front of the Edmonton Oilers net – to tap the puck past Stuart Skinner for his second goal of the season.

“When you spend most of the time in (the other team’s defensive) zone, you can get any bounce,” Hertl said. “It was a little bit of a lucky bounce, but I think we deserved it.”

Hertl’s second-period goal, plus Mackenzie Blackwood’s 39 saves in another stellar performance, helped lead the Sharks to a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in a game between the NHL’s bottom two teams.

Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with 2:26 left in regulation time. But the Sharks killed a late penalty to Mikael Granlund to secure their second straight win after 11 consecutive defeats.

The Sharks were credited with 35 blocks, including 17 in the third period.

Oilers superstar and reigning Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid, who had 39 points in 27 career games against San Jose before Thursday, was held off the scoresheet. The last time he didn’t earn a point against the Sharks was on Feb. 10, 2018, before he began an 18-game point streak against San Jose.

“I thought it was maybe, in the last couple years, our best defensive game that we played,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “We did a good job just being pretty disciplined and taking away time and space against obviously a really skilled team. I’m really happy about our effort tonight.”

Zetterlund scored the Sharks’ first goal, as he was left alone right in front of the Oilers net and buried a nifty pass from Hertl at the 18:35 mark of the first period. The goal was Zetterlund’s team-leading fourth of the season, as he’s already two-thirds of the way to his total of six from last season.

Sharks coach David Quinn liked most of his players but loved what he saw from the line of Hertl, Zetterlund, and William Eklund, who combined for six shots on goal and seven scoring chances. The trio also played well on Tuesday in San Jose’s 2-1 win over Philadelphia.

The two wins come after the Sharks were blasted 10-1 by the Vancouver Canucks 10-1 and the Pittsburgh Penguins 10-2 last week.

“Tommy Hertl was the man and that line was very good,” Quinn said. “It’s going to take a little time Keep chipping away at it. This group’s been through a lot. They’ve taken a lot of emotional punches to the gut.

“Pretty proud of our group to dust themselves off and show a lot of mental fortitude and toughness to put two good games together and be better tonight than we were (Tuesday).”

“It was by far the best game of the year,” Hertl said. “I think everybody played really well. It wasn’t just one guy. … I’m really proud of the group after two tough losses.”

Filip Zadina scored an insurance goal 1:53 into the third period. Sharks center Ryan Carpenter won a puck battle near the Sharks’ blue line and got it up to Nico Sturm, who crossed the Oilers’ blue line before he passed it over to Zadina for a one-timer that beat Skinner.

“That was a ballsy play by (Carpenter),” Quinn said. “Great play by Sturm and Zadina to finish the job. It was a great example of what hard hockey does for you.”

The Sharks (2-10-1) and Oilers (2-9-1) both have five points at the bottom of the Pacific Division, with Edmonton ahead on points percentage because it has played one fewer game.

The three goals were enough offense for Blackwood, who had 23 saves through the first two periods to help the Sharks earn back-to-back victories since March 30 and April 1 of last season. He made 14 saves in the first period, including two on the penalty kill as Okhotiuk and Sturm were called for slashing and boarding, respectively.

San Jose began this season with a 0-10-1 record before Blackwood made 38 saves on Tuesday.

“He’s so confident,” Hrrtl said. “It’s easy for us to play for him because if we make a mistake, he’s there for us.”

The Sharks now begin a two-game road trip, as they travel to play the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

The Sharks game is one of five this season that will be shown exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu. The others are Nov. 14 vs. the Florida Panthers, Dec. 19 and April 4 vs. the Los Angeles Kings, and Dec. 21 vs. the Arizona Coyotes.

The game starts at 7:30 (PST).

All other Sharks games this regular season are being telecast on NBC Sports California. Every game can be heard on the online-only Sharks Audio Network.

A subscription to ESPN+ costs $10.99 per month.

Both the Sharks and Oilers are desperately searching for a victory. San Jose won its first game of the season on Tuesday, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1, and enters Tuesday with a 1-10-1 record. The Oilers, who entered the season with Stanley Cup aspirations, have lost three straight and have the second-worst record in the NHL at 2-8-1.

The Sharks are 0-5-3 against the Oilers since the start of the 2022-2023 season.

The Sharks are starting Mackenzie Blackwood in net and the Oilers are expected to go with recent callup and NHL veteran Calvin Pickard as their goalie.

After Thursday, the Sharks travel to play the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.