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Goaltender Alex Stalock's first start in more than a year and a half didn't go as planned.

Then again, nothing went right for the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

The Sharks lost 8-0 to Nashville, matching the most lopsided home shutout in franchise history. They were blanked by the same score in their inaugural season of 1991, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Cow Palace.

The Sharks won't have much time to shake off the defeat, as they play Sunday at Anaheim.

"We're embarrassed," said Sharks captain Logan Couture, whose team lost for the 10th time in the past 12 games (2-6-4).

"You lose by that large of a margin, no one's feeling good about themselves."

Stalock made 22 saves before being replaced by Zach Sawchenko at 6:07 of the third period after the Predators took a 6-0 lead.

Stalock, drafted by the Sharks in 2005, was acquired from Edmonton last week after James Reimer joined Adin Hill on the injured list.

Stalock didn't play last season because of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. He was diagnosed with the ailment in November 2020 after contracting COVID-19.

"Obviously, it was very exciting after going through the stuff medically," Stalock said. "It was a great opportunity. Obviously, it would have been much nicer (to have) a better result."

Sharks coach Bob Boughner tried to keep his chin up.

"This is a teachable tape for sure," Boughner said. "The good part is, we're going back to work (Sunday). We've got to put that one behind us and play an (Anaheim) team that is desperate."

The Ducks have lost three of their past four games and are just 2-3 on their season-long, six-game homestand that concludes Sunday.

The Ducks lost 5-4 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday despite goals from Jakob Silfverberg, Nicolas Deslauriers, Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry and 30 saves from John Gibson.

"A divisional game, big point of the season, so it doesn't feel great," Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler said.

The Golden Knights score four times in the second period to open up a 5-2 lead.

"We shot ourselves in the foot in the first part of the second (period)," Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. "In the third, what happened, it wasn't that we got our game going, we quit turning pucks over in the neutral zone, simple as that. ...

"I don't care who we play against, when we get into not being so smart with the puck, we end up in our zone. (Friday) they got a couple of good bounces, one off the end wall, another one they kind of flubbed the shot and it ended up getting toward our net. We had a couple of momentarily lapses of reason in our D-zone coverage on a couple of goals. But the game wasn't that we were sitting on our heels. It was that we were pressing too hard with the puck and we were too careless with it for 30 minutes."

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson is getting closer to his return. He hasn't played since Jan. 20 and subsequently had surgery to repair a small muscle tear in his left forearm.

--Field Level Media

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