PHILADELPHIA — For the first time in a decade, the Sharks are playing regular-season games that don’t matter in the standings.

Although they remain alive for the playoffs mathematically, realistically the Sharks sealed their fate with a 1-3 start to this seven-game trip that continues Saturday in Philadelphia. Their victory Thursday night in Detroit provided a feel-good moment but did little to improve the odds of San Jose reaching the postseason for an 11th consecutive year.

So what went wrong? How did a team that finished with 111 points last season — tied for fourth best in the NHL — fall so far?

“We can’t look at a single faction of our team, whether it’s the youth or the older players or the leadership or the coach or the coaching staff,” coach Todd McLellan said this week. “Whatever it might be, we’re team-deep as far as where we’ve put ourselves in the standings.”

There is no shortage of things you can point to by looking at stats.

But the reasons behind the Sharks’ collapse go beyond missed shots, muffed saves and miscalculations.

For one thing, there is the ongoing fallout from San Jose’s epic collapse in the playoffs last spring. For most of the season, everything has been kept in check. But the public spat this month between Joe Thornton and general manager Doug Wilson demonstrated that problems still exist.

And that raises the question of just how fractured this franchise is.

‘Tomorrow team’

During his decade in the job, Wilson has chosen his words carefully when speaking with the public and the media. But after San Jose became only the fourth team in Stanley Cup history to blow a three-game lead, Wilson made one statement after another that likely did not sit well in all corners of the locker room.

Wilson talked about the Sharks being a “tomorrow team” — a phrase he had used in the past to describe teams whose immediate future did not include the playoffs. And when describing what now needed to be done for the franchise to make a serious run at its first Stanley Cup, he said:

“I think to do that you have to take one step backward to be in a position to go two steps forward.”

Both Wilson and McLellan would say later that did not mean missing the playoffs altogether. But Wilson did call this a transition year as he wanted to give his next generation of players more responsibility, calling for a change in the leadership hierarchy and overall team culture.

Ultimately, that led to the decision to strip Thornton of his captaincy. And while Thornton has responded with a strong season on the ice with 48 assists that are sixth-highest in the NHL, it’s easy to see how the off-ice turmoil could be a distraction for the team despite denials from players.

There was more, starting with the suggestion that some veterans might not want to stick around for the rebuilding process — remarks widely interpreted to target Thornton and Marleau and increase the possibility they would waive their no-trade clauses. Later, Wilson would insist that was never the case.

Wilson spoke about the need to change the culture, saying he wanted “players who want to play here, not just live here.”

That triggered a response from Thornton’s brother and agent, John, who asked on Twitter: “A culture established by who again?”

Veterans speak out

The cracks in franchise unity also appeared the first day of training camp. Joe Thornton, asked about Wilson’s description of the Sharks as a “tomorrow” team, said: “That’s Doug’s opinion. I think if you’d ask anybody in here, I don’t think they have the same opinion.” Thornton also pooh-poohed the notion he could draw extra motivation to prove his general manager wrong.

“I have enough motivation,” he said. “I don’t need somebody else telling me we can’t do it.”

Marleau, too, showed he was willing to push back some. Talking about Wilson’s decision to return Brent Burns to the blue line, Marleau suggested that with Raffi Torres injured, it might be better to keep Burns at forward.

Wilson was unwavering on the matter. McLellan, not so much. “It’s a commitment for now,” the coach said, an indication the two were not in complete agreement.

All of these issues bubbled throughout a long and trying season, and then the lid blew off. Wilson, speaking to a group of season-ticket holders March 12, was asked about the decision to strip Thornton of the captaincy.

“Joe carries the weight of the team on his shoulders, and he’s got such a big heart that when stress comes on him, he lashes out at people,” Wilson said after going on at length to praise the ex-captain. “And it kind of impacts them.”

That was more detail than Wilson had disclosed before, and Thornton’s reaction the next morning — “I think Doug just needs to shut his mouth. I think that’s the bottom line” — exposed the fractious relationship to all. The locker room, both publicly and privately, has backed Thornton on this one, too.

Wilson used the backdrop of the general manager’s meetings the following week in Florida to smooth over the exchange and Thornton somewhat tepidly agreed that things were OK now after conversations with owner Hasso Plattner and the general manager.

Still, it’s hard to see Wilson and Thornton coexisting in San Jose for another two seasons. Thornton would seem to have the leverage with the no-trade contract Wilson gave him and Marleau in January 2014. There is the possibility of a buyout, of course, but that would be an expensive pill for Plattner to swallow.

Still, like hockey, office politics can be unpredictable. Especially when the office has 17,562 seats that need to be filled.

For more on the Sharks, see David Pollak’s Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/PollakOnSharks.