SAN JOSE, Calif. — Seeing goalie Alex Stalock start for the Sharks at SAP Center seemed preposterous only a few months ago.
It was equally unthinkable as of last week.
But roughly 14 months after he was diagnosed with a heart condition that threatened to derail his professional career, and just a few days after he was acquired by the Sharks in a minor trade, Stalock got the nod for San Jose on Saturday against the Nashville Predators.
But what could have been a feel-good night turned into one of the uglier games of the season, as the Predators flattened the Sharks, 8-0, before a mostly frustrated announced crowd of 13,936.
Nashville scored six times on Stalock on 28 shots before he was mercifully removed at the 6:07 mark of the third period. The Predators then tacked on two more goals on Zach Sawchenko, handing the Sharks their most lopsided loss of the coach Bob Boughner era.
Stalock and the injury-ravaged Sharks allowed four even-strength goals in the first two periods, then Nashville added two goals in the first 6:07 of the third period, bringing out the boo birds inside the downtown arena.
Michael McCarron had two goals and two assists for the Predators, and the Sharks were shut out at the other end by Predators goalie Juuse Saros, who made 20 saves.
Stalock, 34, was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday for future considerations and practiced with the team on Thursday and Friday. With their two other experienced goalies hurt, Boughner gave Stalock his first start as a Sharks goalie since Feb. 11, 2016.
Stalock was drafted by the Sharks in the fourth round in 2005 and spent six-plus seasons with the organization, playing 62 NHL games from 2011 to 2016 before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a deal that brought James Reimer to San Jose.
Oddly enough, it was injuries to Reimer and Adin Hill that brought Stalock back to San Jose. Both Sharks goalies are dealing with lower-body injuries, with Reimer considered week-to-week and Hill slowly progressing from his own malady, which has kept him out of action for close to six weeks.
Stalock’s last NHL game was Aug. 7, 2020, as he started all four games for the Minnesota Wild in their play-in series with the Vancouver Canucks inside the bubble at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
With Wild rookie goalie Kaapo Kahkonen emerging as a capable backup to Cam Talbot early last season, Stalock was placed on waivers by Minnesota on Feb. 28, 2021, and claimed by the Oilers the next day. He never played a game for Edmonton as he was out with what was described then as an upper-body injury.
Turns out, Stalock had been diagnosed with myocarditis in November 2020 after he tested positive for COVID-19. The expectation then became that Stalock would have to miss the 2021-2022 season as well with the COVID-related heart condition.
“When I first got diagnosed, the first couple weeks were scary,” Stalock said this week. “You get told to not get your heart rate up, and you know how hard that is when you’ve got kids, like, can you keep up with them?”
But in December, Stalock did a genetic test that determined he did not carry the gene for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), allowing him to resume training at a more intense level in his home state of Minnesota. He went to Bakersfield and his first game with the Condors was on Jan. 23 in San Jose against the Barracuda.
Sharks captain Logan Couture went to see Stalock when he played that game in January at SAP Center.
“Happy to just be around hockey, I think,” Couture said of Stalock. “After what he’s been through, he said those 18 months were very difficult, not knowing which direction his career was going to go and his life was going to go. There are so many things probably going through his head.
“But to be back and competing and practicing every day, it seems like he’s where he should be.”
Stalock’s most recent AHL game was in Bakersfield against Stockton on Feb. 20, when he allowed five goals on 14 shots. In five AHL games, Stalock was 3-1-0 with an. .862 save percentage.
Still, with Zach Sawchenko having not yet started an NHL game and Alexei Melnichuk struggling with the Barracuda, the Sharks wanted an experienced goalie who could easily fit in with their group and found a match in Stalock.
“It’s a pretty good story, coming back here and a team that he has some history with,” Boughner said. “He’s a well-liked guy in that dressing room and guys are going to play hard for him, and I hope they play hard for him. And it’s an opportunity for him to sort of get his career back on track at the NHL level.”
Boughner, the Sharks’ coach since Dec. 2019, said before Saturday’s game that Sawchenko would likely start for the Sharks on Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks. Sawchenko has appeared in three Sharks games since early January and has a .930 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against average.
Sawchenko, 24, played the final two periods of the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday after Reimer was injured.
