SAN JOSE >> George Barata attended Patrick Marleau’s number retirement ceremony at SAP Center last weekend, and it was a reminder of the Sharks’ glory days: lots of familiar players on hand from standout teams, and another packed house at the downtown arena.

The good old days seem like a distant memory now. Some star players have been traded away, the team is among the worst in the NHL and crowds appear to be a fraction of what they once were.

With some uncertainty as to when things will improve under a new front office and coaching staff, it’s not terribly easy to be a Sharks fan right now.

“Fans just have to be patient,” Barata, 69, said before the Sharks’ 8-3 loss to the Washington Capitals. “I mean, it’s been ugly. It’s going to get uglier.”

“It’s going to be probably a few more years before (the Sharks) build it up,” said Caroline Chavez, 76, of San Jose. “They made so many bad contracts, so now they’re kind of paying for it.”

The Sharks are a week removed from trading leading goal-scorer Timo Meier to the New Jersey Devils, and eight months removed from dealing Brent Burns, the 2017 Norris Trophy winner, to the Carolina Hurricanes. Sharks fans are still getting to know some of the players on this year’s team, as eight of the 20 players who dressed Saturday weren’t with the club last season.

“I think there’s potential,” said Dave McCready, 82, of San Jose. “I’m not sure that giving away your scorers, which they seem to do, is the right way to go. But there’s also the young kids that they just brought up.”

Forward William Eklund, the top prospect in the Sharks organization, was recalled from the AHL on Friday and made his season debut in the NHL Saturday. Going forward, Eklund could be part of a talented nucleus that includes forwards Thomas Bordeleau and Filip Bystedt, and defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin, Nikita Okhotyuk and Mattias Havelid.

Still, more than one Sharks fan who spoke with this news organization Saturday said they wouldn’t mind seeing the team take on more of a rough-and-tumble personality.

“We need to get some bigger guys. We’re kind of getting beat up,” said Kenia Leon, 42, who lives in Santa Rosa. “It seems like we’ve been stuck in a transition mode for a while and losing Meier, it kind of hurts, right?

“Maybe we don’t see the bigger picture; we need strength. We need defense.”

The Sharks announced that 17,562 tickets were sold for Saturday’s game, a sellout crowd possibly bolstered by the ‘shirsey’ giveaway to fans entering the arena, an afternoon start and a high-profile opponent like the Capitals, led by captain and future hall-of-famer Alex Ovechkin. It was the Sharks’ ninth announced sellout this season. They lost 8-3.

Earlier this week, the announced number of tickets sold for Sharks games against Montreal and St. Louis were 11,470 and 12,290, respectively, although the actual number of people in attendance appeared to be far fewer.

Prior to Saturday, the Sharks, per hockey-reference.com, had averaged 13,853 tickets sold per game — the second-lowest figure in the NHL, ahead of only the 4,600 people the Arizona Coyotes average at 4,600-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe.

The Sharks’ average for their first 30 home games was 78.9 percent of capacity of the 17,562-seat arena.

“I know it sounds crazy with our record, but I would say we’ve been an entertaining team,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “Winning is more entertaining than anything. So, with a good crowd today, we owe it to our fan base to be entertaining, but in the fashion where we’re winning.”

That didn’t happen, as the Sharks suffered their second-most lopsided loss of the season. Only a 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 13 was worse.

With more victories, Quinn believes “people will show up. Absolutely. It’s the greatest marketing brand there is.”

Sharks fans seem to be willing to accept incremental improvements. Right now, with the team owning the NHL’s third-worst record at 18-33-12, that feels far off.

“We need to get to .500. That’s the goal to start,” said Barata, who lives in Monterey County. “We haven’t gotten near that yet. So, I don’t know.”

QUINN EJECTED >> Quinn was ejected from Saturday’s game, as he was given a game misconduct for abuse of officials. The ejection took place shortly after Kevin Labanc was called for clipping at the 5:45 mark of the third period.

Referee Gord Dwyer came over to the Sharks’ bench and Quinn pointed in his face and shouted multiple expletives at him. Dwyer then kicked him out of the game. Quinn then shouted some more choice words to Dwyer before he left the Sharks’ bench and walked back to the team’s dressing room.

With the ensuing faceoff in the Sharks’ zone, the Capitals scored just five seconds after the start of the Labanc penalty, with TJ Oshie scoring his 16th of the season off assists from Ovechkin and Rasmus Sandin. That gave Washington a 5-2 lead, and the Capitals had a 6-3 lead at the midway point of the third period.

“I’m embarrassed. You shouldn’t act like that as a coach and I want to apologize to our team,” Quinn said after the game. “It’s not how I certainly want to act and it’s an emotional game. These refs work hard, they do a good job and it’s something that should never happen. So I’m embarrassed by that.”