SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini stood inside the San Jose Sharks dressing room and seemed to be in disbelief that he and his teammates were going through this again. Outside the room, coach Ryan Warsofsky, who has now been through four straight agonizingly slow starts with the team, facetiously said he’d give up one of his two young children for a win right now.

“Trust me, it sucks,” Warsofsky said Saturday night. “I keep telling myself, there’s a reason why this keeps happening.”

A Sharks season that was hoped to be a little bit better than the previous few has so far turned out to be anything but, as San Jose enters a challenging four-game road trip this week as the NHL’s last remaining winless team.

The Sharks fell to 0-3-2 with a 3-0 loss to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night at SAP Center. Responding after poor performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and Utah Mammoth earlier in the week, the Sharks were the better team for the final two periods as they established a forecheck, outchanced the Penguins, and kept Pittsburgh’s shots on goal to a minimum.

Still, the Sharks were unable to beat Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry, who made 31 saves, as they were shut out for the first time this season. Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 18 saves in a frenetic first period, but Crosby scored a second-period goal on a tipped shot, and Anthony Mantha and Evgeni Malkin both scored in the third, with Malkin’s being an empty-netter, to hand San Jose its third straight regulation-time loss.

“The only way we’re going to get those bounces is if we keep working for them. They’re not just going to happen,” Nedeljkovic said. “We have to earn those bounces. And if we play like we did tonight, more times than not, coming up, we’ll start getting some.”

While the goaltending took a step forward Saturday, the Sharks have still managed just two even-strength goals in their last three games.

“I think we have a really tight group, and it’s just hard,” Celebrini said, “especially when you play some good games, do some good things, and it just feels like it hasn’t really kind of connected yet.”

The Sharks begin a four-game road trip on Tuesday against Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NHL Draft, and the New York Islanders. That’s followed by games against the New York Rangers on Thursday, the New Jersey Devils on Friday, and the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

The Sharks were 0-5-0 to begin the 2022-23 season, started 0-10-1 in 2023-24, and 0-7-2 last year. Warsofsky has unfortunately been a part of every dismal start, as he was an assistant under David Quinn from 2022 to 2024 before he was named the Sharks’ head coach.

This year’s team is believed to be better than any of the previous three. Now’s the time to show proof.

“We’re not going to quit,” Warsofsky said. “We’re five games into this thing. What’s happened has happened, and we’ve got to work. I’ve got to get this team to improve and individuals to improve. It’s on me.”

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CAGNONI RECALLED

The Sharks on Sunday placed Shakir Mukhamadullin (upper body) on injured reserve and recalled fellow defenseman Luca Cagnoni from the Barracuda. Mukhamadullin, 23, has missed the previous two games after he was injured during practice last week, and it’s unclear when he might be able to return.

The 20-year-old Cagnoni, a second-year pro, had an impressive camp with the Sharks and scored in the Barracuda’s season-opening game against Bakersfield on Oct. 11. Cagnoni had 52 points in 64 games with the Barracuda last season and two assists in six games with the Sharks.

Warsofsky said Saturday that injured defensemen Timothy Liljegren (upper body) and John Klingberg (lower body) would be on  Sunday’s flight to New York. However, it was unclear when either would be healthy enough to play. Both were injured in the Sharks’ Oct. 14 game against Carolina. Liljegren is on IR and is eligible to return for Thursday’s game.