Sharks Locker Room: Taking Care of Business

VANCOUVER — The San Jose Sharks did what good teams do, what playoff teams do, in a dominating 5-2 win over the last-place Vancouver Canucks.

The few times that the hapless Canucks pushed back — Vancouver scored the opening goal, had a brief second period surge of play, and potted a late power play strike — the Sharks answered back.

“We just had good pushback every time they had some good shifts, we came out with a few more,” alternate captain Mario Ferraro said. “We’re just maturing a little bit in that area.

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky agreed: “We’re starting to pick up little details, momentum shifts in games.”

Ferraro added: “We’re recognizing how important these games are. We’re recognizing that we’re on the road. Some nights we may not have our legs, or we may not have our best game, but we’re trying to manage it and doing what we can within that to play a solid hockey game as a team.”

For the Sharks, this appeared to be a lesson learned from their last game, a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers. San Jose raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, but New York probably had the run of play for the next 30 minutes or so.

“We’ve learned a little bit of a lesson there,” Warsofsky said. “As far as last game, even though you get the result, you got to keep pushing forward and getting better in some areas.”

This was a better effort from the young San Jose Sharks tonight, a mature and professional performance.

Maybe the best part of it all? A lot of the focus post-game was on how San Jose can be even better. Wins aren’t enough anymore for these hungry Sharks.

“We’re learning, we’re getting better,” Ferraro said, of the team’s game management. “There’s still areas where we need to grow and improve on closing out games a little cleaner.”

How so?

“Just managing the puck a little better, putting pucks behind them, doing the boring things that may not, aren’t so flashy in the third period, that just wear teams down,” Ferraro said. “Finishing checks, putting it behind them, forechecking hard, letting the game kind of open up and create opportunities for us, instead of us trying to chase it.”

That’s a winning attitude from a player who, really through not much fault of his own, hasn’t done a lot of winning in his career.

“Tonight was good, and just gotta build on it,” he said.

“We’re getting better in all of aspects in our game,” Yaroslav Askarov said. “[Managing momentum] is one of the aspects where we’re getting better, as well.”

Macklin Celebrini

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Celebrini leads NHL w/ 15 mid-range zone goals, per @KevinisInGoal.

Celebrini, on his success from that area: "It's a good question. I'm not sure. Analytics obviously tells a different story than actually playing the game. Sometimes, it works out. I wish I had an answer."

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 28, 2026

Mario Ferraro

Yaroslav Askarov

Askarov happy to have Desharnais back on PK: "He probably makes more saves than I do."

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 28, 2026

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky with the realness!@Real_Max_Miller: "Does your heart drop a little bit with Will Smith making those blind backhand passes to Macklin in the center?"

RW: "No, my heart drops when he turns over pucks at the blueline."

(Warsofsky is right)

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 28, 2026

Celebrini has been so good all season, there were no questions about him to Warsofsky, AFTER A 4-POINT NIGHT.

How good are you when 4-point nights become casual?

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 28, 2026