SAN JOSE >> The Sharks have a long list of problems right now. Most won’t be fixed this season, let alone in just one practice as they prepare to play Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins today.

But there is at least one area the Sharks can improve upon as they look to avoid a seventh straight loss and regain some confidence.

“Just compete,” defenseman Jake Walman said Saturday after the Sharks’ 7-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, who handed San Jose its worst home loss of the season. “We’ve got guys in here who know that feeling of winning, and it’s got to come from everybody.“Every single player on (the Panthers) knows what it takes, and they’re playing that way.”

In the second period against Florida, the Sharks (14-32-6) stopped competing, and some of the sellout crowd at the Shark Tank that stayed to the bitter end Saturday voiced their displeasure, booing the home team as they left the ice.

“It’s embarrassing for us to do this in front of our home crowd,” Sharks rookie Will Smith said. “We have a tight group here, and we obviously want to be better for the fans and just us in general, just in this room. We want to be better for each other.”

The Sharks are obviously in a deep rebuild and will have plenty of work to do in the months ahead to address some of their roster deficiencies.

With that in mind, staying on top of their details for three periods is a real challenge for the Sharks, regardless of the opponent. Look no further than this six-game losing streak, during which they’ve been outscored 34-17 and have wavered in their commitment to their desired identity of hard, disciplined hockey.

“We get bored when maybe we don’t score goals, or maybe nothing happens,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We can’t just be OK with nothing happening, and that’s what good teams do. You grind out games. You find different ways to win games. We just think there’s one way to win a game, and that’s cheating the game at times.”

The Sharks would do well to learn from the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, both in how they’ve constructed their team and how they compete. The coaching staff and the leadership group set the tone, and it filters through the rest of the group.

The Sharks look so fragile right now, so worn down by the constant losing, that they’ve recently appeared incapable of playing a 60-minute game.

Just look at the past week.

Last Monday, the Sharks, after an encouraging first two periods, fell apart at the seams and allowed four straight goals to the Boston Bruins in a 6-3 loss.

One day later, a four-goal second-period lead turned into a 7-5 loss to the Nashville Predators, a complete and total collapse.

On Thursday, the Sharks’ dreadfully slow start against Nashville put them in a three-goal hole. While the Sharks would later show some grit and tie the score, a third-period penalty led to a Predators power-play goal, resulting in a 6-5 loss.

Saturday, the Sharks competed hard in the first period but appeared to be deflated by Aaron Ekblad’s goal, giving the Panthers a 3-2 lead with 2:52 to go before intermission.

The Sharks then trailed the Panthers by three goals by the 5:35 mark of the second period and just flat-out stopped skating on Jesper Boqvist’s goal that put the Sharks in a 6-2 hole at the 13:07 mark.

“That’s the top of the top, right there,” Warsofsky said of the Panthers, who improved to 29-18-3. “I think we think we were working hard, but we don’t even have a clue how hard you have to work to win in this league consistently.”

For most of the season, the Sharks could at least hang their hat on being a more competitive team than last season. Going into Saturday, 37 of the Sharks’ 51 games had been decided by two goals or fewer. Their worst home loss this season before Saturday was a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on New Year’s Eve.

The Penguins may offer a small reprieve as they limp into today’s game having won just three times in their last 10 games. Pittsburgh barely missed the playoffs last season, but after its 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken, it entered Sunday in 15th place in the Eastern Conference and seven points out of a playoff spot.

The Sharks can’t correct all of their ills before today, but they again have a chance to at least take a step forward and not continue to regress.

“We’ve had some nights where we haven’t been very good, but I think there are ways that we can (stop the losing),” Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli said. “And nobody’s going to do it for us. It’s within our locker room. We’ve got to show up to work (Sunday), kind of reset, and understand that we’re not going to win very many games when we give up seven goals.”

Warsofsky said the Sharks planned to work on their “rush reads, our tracking effort, (moving) quicker to transition,” among other things.

“So we can’t get to everything (Sunday),” he said, “but we’ll get to some things for sure.”

Rutta to IR >> The Sharks placed defenseman Jan Rutta (lower body) on injured reserve Sunday and recalled defenseman Jack Thompson from the Barracuda.

Rutta, 34, who has been bothered recently by the injury and did not play in Saturday’s 7-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, will have to miss today’s game against the Penguins and Thursday’s road game against the Seattle Kraken.

Rutta is eligible to return for the Sharks’ Feb. 4 game against Montreal.

Saturday’s game was the first Rutta, a pending unrestricted free agent, has missed this season.

Thompson, 22, has five points in 14 games with the Sharks this season. His most recent game came on Dec. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning before he was reassigned to the AHL. Thompson has two goals and seven assists in 17 games with the Barracuda this season.

The Sharks have six players on IR, tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the most in the league.

Also on IR are forwards Nico Sturm (lower body), Klim Kostin (lower body), Ty Dellandrea (upper body), Logan Couture (osteitis pubis), and goalie Vitek Vanecek (fractured cheekbone). Of that group, Vanecek appears closest to a return, as he has been skating with the team in recent days.

The Sharks (14-32-6) enter today on a six-game losing streak and are in last place in the NHL’s overall standings with 34 points.