Eight teams in hockey have less points than games played, and it’s not exactly a role call of Cup contenders. The San Jose Sharks are on the cusp of joining that group with 24 points in 24 games. Over their past eight games they’ve racked up losses to Florida, Columbus, Buffalo, Florida again, Arizona and Calgary. Their coach is on the proverbial hot seat. They’re off to a crummy, dreadful, lousy start.

The good news is, they’re not really this bad, and it’s very possible they’re just succumbing to good ‘ol human nature: nobody gives a damn if we kill ourselves to win in the regular season, so we might as well save up for playoffs.

By “saving up for playoffs” I’m not suggesting the Sharks are a team not trying hard on the ice, which they most certainly are. I’m suggesting the core of this team has been through playoff failures that have come to define them, and they know there’s little to be gained (aside from playoff seeding, which will certainly snap them to attention sooner than later) by putting in the extra preparation time to win in the regular season.

It’s a lot of work to properly prepare for a hockey game. It takes commitment to get to bed early, to do your proper rehab work in the morning, to focus in morning skate, to stretch, watch video, and visualize. It takes commitment to eat a proper pre-game meal at the right time, to have a full nap, to get to the rink early and talk to your linemates, study the opposition, and go through your team’s systems.

The Sharks’ losses to bad teams coupled with numerous wins against good opponents highlights a team playing to their opponent’s level, which implies either a lack of pre-game prep or a general lack of mental effort. It seems as though they believe themselves to be what they likely are - an above average hockey team that will get in the playoffs - so they get complacent and think that reality alone will be enough to earn them W’s against lesser opponents.

Todd McLellan can yell at them all he wants, but it’s the players who have to put in the work - the core of this team knows that, of course - and that gets awfully monotonous over 82 contests. If you take a day or two without going through the whole routine, and go with “suit up and see what happens,” is it really a big deal? Maybe you’ll get a bounce and score, then who would be any the wiser?

On the other hand, maybe you’ll lose to the Sabres.

A new coach might act as a temporary roster defibrillator, as players put it in overdrive to curry favor with the new holder of the carrot-and-stick that is ice time, but a new guy is unlikely to be that much better than Todd McLellan as to make much of a difference come playoffs.

If you look over the past handful of years, some teams who’ve had great success weren’t exactly sitting pretty at this point. On this date during the 2011-12 season, the Los Angeles Kings - a team widely recognized as a good one, as the Sharks are now - was at 26 points in 23 games, while their eventually Cup Final opponent, New Jersey, sat at 25 in 23. The New York Rangers sat at 24 points through 24 games, as the Sharks do now, just this past season. It’s not a lost year for San Jose, not yet.

There’s as much silver lining as there is cloud for the Sharks, provided they don’t sack their coach and mess with what’s been a pretty tasty recipe. They’re a top-10 puck possession team and a bottom-10 PDO team, meaning they’re controlling the bulk of the play and getting crappy luck. They’ve still got game-breaking talent and reliable, prime-aged stars. They’re going to be just fine.

The trick for now is not overreacting in the short term and firing a guy 20-plus teams would take over their own coach. The poor start should act as wake-up call enough. Teams have a certain window to succeed, and the Sharks would be wise to see theirs through without making any drastic changes.