Imagine sitting back, not even lacing up your skates, only to find out your playoff hopes just got stomped out by a game you weren’t even in. That’s exactly what happened to the San Jose Sharks. They had scored 45 points in the season, four points behind the Chicago Blackhawks—their fate was hanging by a thread. And last night, that thread snapped. @PuckReportNHL put it plain and simple: “The #SJSharks will be eliminated from playoff contention tonight if one of #Canucks or #StlBlues gets 1 or more points from their games.” And, well, that’s exactly what went down.

All eyes were on the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues, the two teams that held the Sharks’ destiny in their hands. Utah Hockey Club had only one task which was to defeat the Canucks. Anaheim Ducks? They had to curb the Blues’ activities. And now, St. Louis Blues’ victory shuts the door on the San Jose Sharks, officially knocking them out of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The game that kept San Jose Sharks’ hopes alive!

B/R Open Ice hit up X after the game with the cold, hard truth—“San Jose Sharks have been eliminated from 2025 Stanley Cup Playoff contention.” Just like that, the dream is over, the door is slammed shut, and the playoff train has officially left without them.

And just like that, the San Jose Sharks were hanging on by a thread, their fate resting in Utah’s hands. The Utah Hockey Club was ready to hit the ice against the Vancouver Canucks and boy did they make an entrance. Logan Cooley ended his goal-scoring dry spell in style as he scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as if he had something to prove. A series of deflections put the puck in Cooley’s way, and he made sure to put the puck past Kevin Lankinen. With Utah pulling off a 3-1 win, the Sharks’ playoff hopes were still technically alive, and the Western Conference race just got spicier.

Utah’s defense was a force to be reckoned with as it limited Vancouver’s power plays and survived a crucial four-minute penalty as if it were a piece of cake. Even head coach André Tourigny praised his squad’s composure, calling it a challenge they embraced rather than feared. And with only 31 seconds remaining, Clayton Keller added an empty-netter for the final margin. But while one of the two games went in favor of the San Jose Sharks, they weren’t so lucky enough to see the other one go their way too.

St. Louis brought the ‘Blues’

St. Louis Blues decided to play spoiler in brutal fashion. Dylan Holloway and Jake Neighbours both scored a goal and assisted as the Blues dominated the Anaheim Ducks 7-2. Jordan Kyrou dished out three sweet assists, while Jordan Binnington stood tall between the pipes, locking down yet another win. And guess what? The Blues themselves did not have an easy sailing. They flew in on the same day because their plane had mechanical problems; did that stop them? Not a chance.

Right from the onset of the game, St. Louis demonstrated that they were ready to handle business. It took only 41 seconds for Brayden Schenn to score the first goal of the game, because why waste time? Pavel Buchnevich added to the fun shortly after that and before the Ducks knew what was happening, Tommy Holloway scored a power play goal to make it 3-0. Anaheim attempted to charge back—Cutter Gauthier managed to get one in while tumbling—St. Louis wasn’t going to allow that. Radek Faksa and Mathieu Joseph added two more to this score before the end of the period, which left the Ducks struggling in the deep end.

Finally, in the third the Blues did not leave any doubt about the outcome by scoring to cement the victory. Neighbours and Oskar Sundqvist capitalized on power play, making this a shutout game officially. When the last seconds ticked down and the buzzer sounded, the score was 7-2, and the San Jose Sharks’ NHL playoff hopes? Well, they were sinking fast.