It’s fair to say that we, the fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have been collectively terrified for DAYS as today approached. The Penguins kick off the always dreaded west coast road trip tonight with a visit to San Jose to take on the Sharks.

There’s an extra amount of dread for tonight’s game, however, as the 3-6-0 Penguins take on the…wait for it…0-9-1 San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks are one of just few teams the Penguins are ahead of in terms of entire league standings. Pittsburgh is in the basement of their own division, 8th in the Metropolitan, and are dead last in the entire Eastern Conference.

But for as bad as the Penguins have been, San Jose is much worse. The Sharks have lost every game they have played this season, and at 10 games into the year, they are entering the conversation as potentially the worst team of the century, and perhaps even beyond. Granted, it’s very early into the season and that’s a premature notion, but you know things are god awful when there’s even the ability to have that conversation.

In fairness to San Jose, they have not had an easy schedule to open the year. Their first six games of the season were as follows:

Vegas Golden Knights (Stanley Cup winners)

Colorado Avalanche (Central Division winners)

Carolina Hurricanes (Metropolitan Division winners)

Boston Bruins (Presidents Trophy winners)

Nashville Predators (a competitive team)

Florida Panthers (Stanley Cup Finalist)

But despite a strong schedule to start the year, the Sharks have amounted to just a single point in the standings, taking the Avalanche to a shootout back on October 14th.

The Sharks have a negative -35 goal differential, and are coming off a 10-1 thrashing at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks.

And for all of their stats this season that show how bad they are, this might be the worst one: The Canucks scored 6 even strength goals against San Jose on Thursday, meanwhile the Sharks have 6 even strength goals all season.

The Sharks have one player with 5 points (Tomas Hertl), and one guy with 4 points (Fabian Zetterlund). No one else on the roster has more than 2.

So naturally, this is the kind of game the Penguins lose, don’t they?

There’s tension far and wide as Pittsburgh enters a game they should win convincingly with their roster, but will likely struggle in given their underwhelming performances so far this season.

Perhaps, and it’s a definite possibility, Erik Karlsson can light a spark for this team coming into the game tonight. Karlsson will be returning to the city where he played the previous five years of his NHL career. Maybe a homecoming of sorts will help elevate Karlsson’s play for a Penguins team that desperately needs it.

Karlsson has 2 goals and 4 assists from the blue line in 9 games to start the season this year.

But he won’t be the only one seeing his former team tonight. Forward Matt Nieto will also visit his former team, and on the other end of the ice, defenseman Jan Rutta will see his old team, as well as potentially Mikael Granlund, who has played in only 3 games so far this season.

This is the type of game that should define the future of this team’s coaching staff. If Mike Sullivan’s team loses tonight, there is a very real chance that he is fired as a result.

Regardless of how much of the team’s early failures is his fault (and that’s a very debatable topic amongst the fan base), losses like that often mean the team needs an entire reset, and the most common way to do that is to fire the coach(es).

If not that route, and they may opt to avoid that because they still have faith in Sullivan, some sort of trade or roster move needs to be made. It’s rumored that the Penguins will be playing recent call-up Vinnie Hinostroza in Jeff Carter’s spot tonight, but that will not be nearly enough to turn things around with this team.

A lot of eyes will be on Tristan Jarry as well, as they should be. After giving up a shorthanded goal with 11 seconds left on Tuesday to allow the Anaheim Ducks to win 4-3, his play continued to be criticized by fans and media.

Despite co-leading the NHL in shutouts, Jarry is garnering an .893 save percentage in 7 starts this year, evident of a very inconsistent goalie. All signs point t him being the starter tonight, and he is going to need a massive bounce back game against a team that is averaging just a single goal per game.

The start to this season has been absolutely unacceptable, and the fact that we are legitimately worried that the team might lose this game tells you everything you need to know about the state of the Pittsburgh Penguins right now.

If the Penguins give San Jose their first win of the season, on November 4th, Kyle Dubas will be on the clock to do something.

(Featured photo by Gene J. Puskar)