Sheng Peng
Welcome to Day 4 of San Jose Sharks’ training camp!
Today was camp’s first scrimmage — for many Sharks, their first NHL game-like action in nearly 10 months.
Joel Kellman and Mario Ferraro scored.
Before we get to today’s media availability, check out the debut of Kurtis Gabriel’s Pride Tape skates:
Great stuff! So who talked today?
Bob Boughner was, as usual, illuminating. He shared, without prompting, the possibility of Ferraro cracking the opening night top-four. He emphasized his desire that the San Jose Sharks’ “bottom-six” lines be speedy scoring threats. He also volunteered Ryan Merkley as a candidate for the Sharks’ — not the San Jose Barracuda’s — second power play unit. Finally, he offered camp’s first reports on prospects John Leonard and Sasha Chmelevski.
Later, Stefan Noesen talked about missing home, Ferraro pointed out where his game has grown, and Noah Gregor says he’s actually gotten faster.
Bob Boughner, on Mario Ferraro:
Today’s game we had, he was the best defenseman on the ice. There’s major strides in his majority, his confidence.
I wouldn’t be surprised, opening night, puck drop, that he’s not sitting in our top-four if he keeps progressing in camp.
He’s got leadership qualities. He’s a guy who people gravitate too. He brings life to every situation. The guys love having him around. I think one day, you’re going to see him wearing a letter here in San Jose.
Boughner, on if the presumed top-four — Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Radim Simek — are struggling, hence his praise for Ferraro:
I’m not necessarily saying that. It’s Day 3. As a coaching staff, we’re saying who we liked, who we didn’t like. You don’t want to jump to conclusions on the third day of camp.
You’re trying to give everyone an equal opportunity.
I thought Erik Karlsson had a great day. I thought he was jumping up into the offense when we had the power play. I thought him and Burnzie looked real good on the power play.
I’m not saying anybody’s off. I was just saying Mario, you could tell he’s one of those guys who catches your eye every shift doing something. His energy and intensity, those are the things you notice.
Boughner, on what he wants from his third and fourth lines this year:
I believe we’re going to have a third line that can contribute on the scoresheet this year. And a fourth line. We need to get offense out of our third and fourth lines. They can’t be just energy lines or just checkers or just dump-and-chase guys. We’re going to have a team this year that we’re going to generate offense on those lines.
They’re going to be faster. A quicker line to play against.
Boughner, on the San Jose Sharks playing with more speed in general:
We’ve put in a system here, both offensively and defensively, we’re going to be a lot more aggressive in all three zones. It’s going to speed our game up, the way we play.
Boughner, on Merkley’s first scrimmage:
You can tell, when he gets on the power play, what his strengths are. So he can run a power play. If we’re going to have Burns and Karlsson on the first unit, we’re going to need to find someone to complement that second unit at the top. That’s where Merks’s tools take over, keeps him in the conversation for the next little while.
Boughner, on how Merkley handled himself defensively:
I thought he handed himself pretty well. I thought there was some defensive zone coverage that we practiced yesterday that you could tell his brain was working and he was paying attention to the details, so that was good. He closed down guys. You’d like to see all those young guys get a little tighter and closing quicker. Not give the other forward so much space. But he held his own defensively.
Boughner, on John Leonard’s camp performance so far:
John Leonard had a really good day. He had a lot of chances, they didn’t go in for him. You could see — it’s easier to see in scrimmage than in practice — when you’re in traffic and you gotta make tight plays, you could tell he’s got that offense to his game. He’s got that hockey sense to his game. I was really happy with him today.
Boughner, on Sasha Chmelevski’s camp performance so far:
Sasha was good. He played a lot of penalty kill today. He did a good job of that. Another guy who’s really detailed in his game.
He’s one of those guys, if I compared his camp last year to this year, even though he had a season where he was hurt a lot last year, you could tell he’s more confident. He’s out there not afraid to make mistakes, he’s actually creating.