Winning Play: Are Sharks bad in early games?

The hockey maxim is that early games are tough, especially on the visiting teams.

That was easy to believe yesterday afternoon, watching the San Jose Sharks sleepwalk through a 4-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Especially concerning, for Sharks fans, was the prospect of a West Coast squad playing an early game in an East Coast arena.

I mean, to be fair, he kind of looks like that all the time?

But yeah, the early eastern timezone games kill us every time.— sylk (@sylk) February 23, 2019

Yesterday afternoon marked San Jose’s fourth straight morning/afternoon loss in the East Coast this season — in Brooklyn and New Jersey in October, and in Ottawa in December.