San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: The Many Narratives of a Losing Streak
CHICAGO — “Let’s just be where our feet are.”
That’s what both Ryan Warsofsky and Macklin Celebrini preached at the beginning of this five-game road trip.
Whatever the reason, the San Jose Sharks have failed to do that, losing back-to-back games to teams behind them in the standings, 6-3 at the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday and 3-2 at the Calgary Flames last Saturday.
The narratives are easy.
The young Sharks are still affected by the collapse at the Edmonton Oilers last Thursday, when they blew a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 in overtime, the beginning of their three-game losing streak.
“Probably has, to be honest with you, which is unfortunate,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said.
For what it’s worth, alternate captain Tyler Toffoli shot this down: “It sort of seems like that, but that’s not the feeling in the locker room.”
Maybe the overconfident Sharks have, just a little, overlooked teams that they should be beating if they want to make the playoffs?
Both Warsofsky and Toffoli put cold water on that.
Or maybe, the media darling Sharks, after an impressive 10-4-1 surge from Dec. 27 to Jan. 29, are simply experiencing a normal drop in play?
“Every team at some point in the season, we’ll kind of go through a little of a lull,” Vincent Desharnais said.
The narratives are obvious, and true or false or a little bit of both, they don’t really matter.
“The outside perspective,” Warsofsky said, “the people are talking about us, which I get it, but we got to ignore that.”
What matters is how the Sharks respond on Wednesday at NHL-best Colorado Avalanche, and after the Olympics.
Macklin Celebrini
Celebrini: "We all know what these games mean and how we need to play. It's frustrating when we're in this position, and we don't do that, but we just got to be better."
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 3, 2026
Vincent Desharnais
Desharnais: "I don't think we need to panic. There's definitely, every guy in this locker room has to look at himself in the mirror and just okay, how can I just be a little bit better? How can I help this team when we have all the answers in here, we just got to execute and do…
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 3, 2026
Desharnais, on whether the answer is in San Jose Sharks’ room:
I can’t really tell you exactly what happened or what it is, but think that, every team at some point in the season, we’ll kind of go through a little of a lull and biggest thing is just to stick together and get out of it together. We know we have the answer in here. We know we have it. We just got to stick to it. Get our confidence back. There’s one game left. You got to empty it out on Wednesday and go from there.
Desharnais, on the message to Askarov: "Can we blame him for tonight? I don't believe so. We left him out to dry a bunch of times. When you start with three kills in the first period, it's hard for a goalie to get in the game and feel confident. We gotta look at the players…
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 3, 2026
Tyler Toffoli
Toffoli, by the way, pooh-poohed idea of #SJSharks still recovering from Oilers' loss: "It sort of seems like that, but that's not the feeling in the locker room, I think. We haven't talked about it, to be honest. I think we've done a good job of moving on."
Also shot down idea…
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 3, 2026
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on the San Jose Sharks’ power play:
We’re just not making the right plays. We’re not moving the puck quick enough. There’s no pace to it. We’re slow. We got to really revamp this thing.
There’ll be some personnel changes, for sure.
Warsofsky, on if the team is still affected by the Edmonton Oilers’ loss, in some way:
Probably has, to be honest with you, which is unfortunate. But again, we’ve been punched in the mouth and in the gut right now. We got to move forward. It is what it is. There’s a lot of hockey to be played. We’ve got to learn from it. This is probably a new situation for where we are right now. I think it’s kind of getting to us, in a sense, we got one game left before the break, then we got to really zero in on the things that we need to do that have made us have success up to this point.
