Sharks Locker Room: Immaturity vs. Adversity

Ryan Warsofsky didn’t care about William Eklund getting a misconduct.

With 49 seconds to go, in the San Jose Sharks’ 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames, Eklund got himself a misconduct for abuse of officials.

What Warsofsky cared about? The slashing penalty that Eklund was called for before the young winger went off.

“Stick penalties, we just can’t have them creep back in here. It’s gonna be important in this road trip that we don’t keep doing it,” Warsofsky said.

Besides that slashing, which pretty much finished the Sharks’ chances of a late comeback, Nico Sturm took a tripping penalty and Eklund took a cross-checking.

“We can’t take like five minors tonight in this league, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Warsofsky said. “It’s 10 minutes that you’re short-handed and you have to just kill penalties.”

I saw Eklund’s misconduct and Henry Thrun’s puck over the glass penalty, both with less than three minutes left in a one-goal game, as signs of the San Jose Sharks’ immaturity in high-leverage situations.

But it’s fair to see the stick penalties the same way.

The Sharks are an immature bunch, there’s no doubt of it.

Cheap penalties, unforced errors, abuse of officials, you name it.

Sure, the Sharks got shafted by the late Ty Dellandrea holding call. What should’ve been a San Jose power play became a 4-on-4. Joel Hanley would score the game-winner with 6:32 left.

But it’s how you react to adversity, and the Sharks did not react well…again.

Two weeks off, 24 games to go, and the losing doesn’t stop.

But it’s in the little victories — more mature play — where the real victories will start.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on Alexandar Georgiev’s game:

I thought Georgie made some good saves. Looked calmer in net. Gave us a chance.

Warsofsky is not sure why #SJSharks came out even strength after Dellandrea got punched: "[Ref] says [Dellandrea] was holding [Backlund] at first…I don't understand it. Our guy gets sucker punched, then he gets called in by the spotter. And we come out even from that? It's a…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 24, 2025

Warsofsky, on Thrun and Eklund’s end-of-game penalties:

We can’t take like five minors tonight in this league, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It’s 10 minutes that you’re short-handed and you have to just kill penalties.

And stick penalties, we just can’t have them creep back in here. It’s gonna be important in this road trip that we don’t keep doing it.

The 10-minute misconduct, Eky had some choice words for Trevor, heat of the moment, frustration. I don’t care about that one.

Warsofsky said no update on Liljegren.#SJSharks play tomorrow, Vlasic is on this trip too

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 24, 2025

Watch the full interview here

Ty Dellandrea

Dellandrea, on getting called for holding and the Sharks ending up 4-on-4 even though he was punched by Connor Zary:

Just two guys changing, ran a little interference, and got punched in the head.

I didn’t get any explanation [from the officials]. You can call it many ways. Just maybe didn’t see the extent of the punch.

Watch the full interview here

Macklin Celebrini

Celebrini, on Dellandrea’s impact on the San Jose Sharks:

Ty, he’s always so good for us. He does the stuff not really anyone wants to do. He battles every night and competes for us.

He has looks in games. And even though they’re not going in for him right now, they’re going to go in soon.

I think what he brings to our team and how he works for us is just invaluable.

Tyler Toffoli

Toffoli, on how San Jose Sharks are implementing 4 Nations break defensive changes:

I thought we did a pretty good job considering it’s the first game. I was just practicing a couple times doing it, and it’s one of those things where we just have to keep working and keep getting better at it.

Toffoli, on what he might say to Henry Thrun (or William Eklund) as a veteran leader:

It’s never intentional to do that, but at the same time, we’ve got to bear down on our opportunities and make hard plays all over the ice. It’s that point of the season where we’ve all got to be held accountable, and I think he knows that he made a mistake, and it just sucks because he was having a pretty good game too.

Watch the full interview here