San Jose Sharks
5 Things That Must Go Right for Sharks To Make Playoffs
It’s been seven years since the last time that the San Jose Sharks weren’t obvious Trade Deadline sellers.
That was 2019, and a loaded Sharks squad, led by Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns, all in their primes, were eyeing a run to the Stanley Cup.
The Sharks aren’t back like that, just yet.
Heading into Thursday, San Jose’s first post-Olympic break game against the Calgary Flames, the Sharks are five points out of the Western Conference’s last wild card spot.
It will be, honestly, an uphill climb for the Sharks to make the post-season: Beyond newly-minted “generational” superstar Macklin Celebrini, the roster is seriously flawed.
That said, the talent is there, besides Celebrini, for a surprise playoff berth. So what’s got to go right for the San Jose Sharks to make the post-season for the first time since 2019?
Celebrini Must Stay Healthy
There’s arguably no player in the NHL more important to his team than Celebrini.
Celebrini has 81 points, 28 goals and 53 assists, meaning that he’s been involved in 47.9 percent of the San Jose Sharks’ 169 goals. Only Connor McDavid and his 98 points, directly part of 48.3 percent of the Edmonton Oilers’ offense, has had a greater impact on his team than Celebrini.
Read the full article at NBC Sports Bay Area
What could get the power play going? “Just be a little bit more direct in what we want to do,” Warsofsky said, “and not go off script as much.” @##^@#Y#^$@#$ Or … maybe play the guy who leads the ENTIRE LEAGUE in PP goals per unit of ice time (by a huge amount). Oh that’s right, you scratched Pavol Regenda. For the record, here are the Sharks leaders in 5v4 goals per 60 min Pavol 7.48 (2nd in the league is Wyatt Johnston at 5.44) Gaudette 2.98 Chernyshov 2.97 Skinner 2.17 Smith 2.13 Toff 1.42 The top two appear to… Read more »
Wondering if Regenda is on the trade block.
Seriously. He finally gets his big break at age 25, shows he belongs. and then has a coach who won’t let him play.
If that was me and my coach was doing that, I’m not re-signing with the org.
What’s most strange is that Warso likely did not watch Slovakia-Finland for bronze. Regenda scored 2 goals and had 3-4 goals total at Olympics! And Warso scratches him! How many goals Wennberg scored or Kurashev who’s always pretending to play. Regenda, if traded, will be great on any other team. IMO< Warso ability to coach at NHL is very limited or even non-existend.This team with this coach and with Celly only goes nowhere, now or in 2 years.
I certainly hope not and would suspect he is part of the long-term plan. Maybe Warso wanted to give him a game to get some extra rest post-olympics? Regenda did have a little bit of flight trouble and got stuck in NY for a couple extra days before being able to get back home, so I hope this is the case. If not and he is truly on the trade block, I would be VERY upset unless it brought back a player that moves the needle much more!
thats Why I’ve been begging to get pucks behind the goal line whether they carry it in or chip it in the puck has to get below the goal line, I guarantee somewhere there is a stat that shows if you gain possession below the goal line you are 90% more likely to score. they have way too many one and done O zone opps because they want to score on the rush instead of working to create multiple opps, it’s no surprise they are dead last in O zone time. When is the last time you have seen the… Read more »
Well, technically if they get the puck “behind” the goal line, isn’t that a goal? Joking obviously…
I understand what you mean though. I do miss the days of seeing Joe Thornton with the puck behind the net, feeding the puck to Cheechoo or others in front of the net for a one-timer. Celebrini has the skills to do this, so maybe we start to see more of it? Time will tell.
Sorry, but not in the Warso’s system. Seems like this guy is a coach pretender, doesn’t bring any newer approach I was hopping for. I’ve been watching hockey for over 40 yrs. and haven’t seeing system like the one Warso uses with no consisancy, from game to game, shift to shift and having “favorite players (wrong). What was Reeves doing there vs. Calgary? Goodrow is way overdue as well but he’s good on PP. All that talk about playoffs is so premature and all are forgetting it’s a team game, not Celly only. I was optimistic but now losing 5… Read more »