Michael Misa recorded the first point of his young National Hockey League career on Tuesday night — but it wasn't enough to get the San Jose Sharks in the win column for the first time this season.
The Sharks suffered their sixth consecutive defeat at the hands of the New York Islanders at UBS Arena, dropping Ryan Warsofsky's club to an abysmal 0-4-2. San Jose is the only remaining NHL team without a win in 2025-26.
“It feels good to get the first point, but it'd be better if we won,” Misa said after the 4-3 loss, per San Jose Hockey Now's Sheng Peng. “It sucks. We know it's gonna come, so just got to keep working.”
Misa is the fifth-youngest player in Sharks history to record his first NHL point, but it's clear that that is secondary to the 18-year-old.
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft set up Adam Gaudette's second goal of the year late in the first period. That tied the score at 2-2, although the Isles scored twice more before the end of the middle frame — and that's all they would need.
“It was a good play by [Collin] Graf to find me with a no-look pass,” Misa said of the goal, per NHL.com's Stefen Rosner. “And then I saw Gaudette coming down for a one-time so fed it over and, yeah, it was a good play.”
It's nice to see the rookie make an impact in just his third game in the National, but that doesn't change what has been a brutal start to yet another campaign for the Sharks.
Sharks just cannot buy a win in 2025-26
This kind of futility is not new to the Sharks in 2025-26. Two seasons ago, it took the club a full 12 games to get its first victory, with the campaign culminating in just 19 wins.
It was the same story last year, with San Jose needing 10 games to secure a victory in a 2024-25 season that saw the team finish with just 20 W's.
Although this squad is still rebuilding and not expected to contend for a playoff spot this year, the hope was that the roster would at least take a small step forward — and that hasn't been the case in the early going.
Warsofsky lamented yet another crucial mistake that led to star New York rookie Matthew Schaefer scoring the eventual game-winning goal in the second period.
“The big mistake was the fourth goal, a line change, and that's what's going on right now,” the bench boss said, per Rosner. “We're making one drastic mistake in the back of the net, and that's ultimately costing us the game.
“I thought this was probably our most complete game of the year. I liked our effort. We had some scoring, good scoring chances. I think we only had them for nine chances against 5-on-5. Those are wins more times than not, so it's got to keep plugging away.”
The Sharks will again look to win their first game of the season at Madison Square Garden on Thursday against a New York Rangers team that is 0-4 on home ice.
Something will have to give when puck drops between the cross-conference foes just past 7:00 p.m. ET.
