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TORONTO -- The San Jose Sharks have had their reality check. Now we’ll see if they’re going to do something about it in the last quarter of the season.

On autopilot for much of the season as the Pacific Division leaders, a sudden stumble that has seen the Sharks win only two of their past nine games has them sitting just four points out of the danger zone in the Western Conference.

"We’re in a fight to make the playoffs right now," captain Joe Thornton said Thursday after the morning skate at Air Canada Centre.

"We had been pretty consistent until this point," Sharks winger Ryane Clowe told ESPN.com. "We’re in a tough rut now. We’ve been leading the division pretty much the whole year but we need to realize we’re just a couple of points from the playoffs. We haven’t been playing really desperate lately, that’s for sure. But I think we have a really good grasp on our team and we feel confident we’ll finish the season strong and get on a good streak here."

The perennial Cup contenders and back-to-back Western Conference finalists could use a little goaltending, that’s for sure. Antti Niemi has really struggled of late, but you have to assume the 2010 Stanley Cup champion will shake it off at some point.

Thornton refused to blame the goaltending.

"We don’t blame anybody," the star center said. "We’ve been giving up too many Grade A chances. Both our goaltenders have been playing well all year. We’ve got to give them some support with coming down low, blocking shots and doing the little things to not let those Grade A chances happen so much."

Whether their GM will add another piece or two over the next few days remains to be seen. Doug Wilson made a nice acquisition in third-line center Dominic Moore last week and Wilson might not be done. Injury updates about star winger Martin Havlat and top-four blue-liner Douglas Murray will influence his decision ahead of Monday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. If he gets bad news on either player, my guess is he will step up his efforts to land a player for that position. If the updates are positives, maybe he stands pat.

And what about Rick Nash? The Sharks won’t admit it, but sources confirm to ESPN.com they’ve had a few chats with the Columbus Blue Jackets regarding their for-sale captain. Nash has San Jose high on his list of destinations because he played in Davos, Switzerland, with Thornton during the lockout season.

It’s believed the opening demand from the Jackets began with Sharks center Logan Couture. And that sound you heard was the Sharks hanging up the phone. There is absolutely zero chance the Sharks would trade Couture. I’m not even sure they’d want to trade Couture for Nash one-for-one, let alone make him part of a package.

And so, unless the Jackets’ demands dramatically lower over the next few days, it seems like Nash is either Broadway-bound, L.A.-bound or stuck in Columbus for the rest of the season.

The players in the Sharks' room can’t escape the trade talk, especially since they’ve been in hockey-crazed Toronto the last few days.

"I liked us picking up Dominic Moore, I think that’s going to help us," Clowe said. "Other than that, it’s hard to say what else will happen. We’re pretty confident in our team as is."

The bottom line is the Sharks need to get their game back to where it needs to be if they have any chance of making a run for the third spring in a row.

"You don’t want to limp into the playoffs," Thornton said. "You want to be playing good hockey. We’ve got 24 games left, so we have to play some good hockey to get there."

OTTAWA -- From conversations I’ve had with teams over the weekend, there’s a chance the trade season will get going for real after the All-Star break.

One name that could move as early as this week is Tuomo Ruutu, the Carolina Hurricanes forward who is slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Canes have taken lots of calls on him and may finally be ready to move him.

One player that won’t be on the move is Ryane Clowe. The San Jose Sharks winger was mentioned in a published rumor this past week, but Sharks GM Doug Wilson vehemently denied it, telling ESPN.com there was no way Clowe was going anywhere. It would not make sense at all to move him, in my mind. Clowe is a glue guy on that roster, an important blend of sand paper and skill, and the perfect compliment to center Logan Couture.

Speaking of grit, Habs winger Travis Moen is garnering some interest around the league. He’s an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and would be a decent rental pickup for a contender looking for a bit more of a physical presence on their third line. Vancouver and Detroit are among several teams that have an eye on him, although one NHL source told ESPN.com that Montreal GM Pierre Gauthier is telling teams he’s not ready to sell yet. The Canadiens play eight of their next 12 games at home and the word is Gauthier wants to see if his team can make a run before pulling the plug.

Meanwhile in Columbus, GM Scott Howson is expecting he'll be a very busy man in the next four weeks. Aside from the obvious rental players (players who will be UFAs on July 1) he’ll attempt to move, keep an eye on center Jeff Carter. Howson, we’re told, is willing to move Carter less than a year after acquiring him from the Flyers, in part because the player doesn’t want to be in Columbus. But can Howson find a taker for Carter’s contract? He’s in the first season of an 11-year, $58-million contract (cap hit $5.27 million).

There are 1,230 games in the regular season, but they don't always measure up.

But on Thursday night, two Stanley Cup contenders met at the Shark Tank in a game that could have gone either way and certainly provided full value to the paying public and television audience -- a 4-3 comeback shootout win by the San Jose Sharks over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

Even the players knew it wasn't a run-of-the-mill night.

"As the game goes on, I think you realize it's good hockey," Ryane Clowe told ESPN.com over the phone Thursday night. "It's physical, it's fast, nearly 40 shots for each team, and it was a real even game. A pretty good hockey game, I'd say."

There just aren't enough of these high-end matchups during the season.

The Sharks rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to beat the Penguins in a shootout win, and Clowe provided the winner, scoring the only goal of the shootout. Heck, for two teams that almost never play each other, there were even two scraps in the contest.

"Yeah, for sure, they're one of the top teams in the East right now, and we knew they'd be ready for us," said Clowe, who tried to spark his club with an early second-period fight. "It was a real physical game with a lot of good, clean hits."

The Sharks edged the Pens in shots 37-36 after trailing Pittsburgh 15-4 in the first period. Remember, this is a Penguins team that has posted a strong 8-3-3 record despite missing key players, including captain Sidney Crosby.

Know this: If it's a Penguins-Sharks matchup in the 2012 Stanley Cup finals, we're all winners for it.

"It would be a pretty hard-fought series," Clowe said. "I like their team. They're missing the best player in the world and they're still first the East. They're built for the playoffs. If I had to pick a team right now to come out of the East, it would be Pittsburgh."

But Thursday night's game belonged to a club selected by a number of national observers to finally get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup. The Sharks started the season 1-3-0 and worried their rabid fans, but San Jose rebounded by going 5-1-0 on its recent six-game road trip and has now won six of seven with Thursday's entertaining victory.

Last season, the Sharks floundered in the opening half and spent most of the second half digging out of the hole. They've made a point of avoiding that this season.

"We stressed needing a good start to the season all throughout training camp," Clowe said. "Our road trip came at a good time. We won five in a row. It's important; you need to make some ground early this season. Hopefully that continues."