Sheng Peng
Are the San Jose Sharks circling their next and last game this season against Utah Hockey Club?
Ryan Warsofsky smiled, when asked the question about that Jan. 10 showdown, and responded, “We’re really focused on our game tomorrow against Winnipeg.”
What that smile means, it’s hard to say, but the answer was fitting for a new head coach who’s plastered the slogan “Today” in the hallway of the Sharks Ice locker room. It’s actually the last thing that the players see when they open the door from the locker room to practice.
Personally though, I’m curious to see if the San Jose Sharks send more of a message to Kevin Stenlund, for his uncalled board of Macklin Celebrini, and perhaps to the rest of Utah for their borderline physicality in Sunday’s 4-3 loss.
Warsofsky did give a slightly different answer than he did on Saturday about the Sharks’ response to Stenlund.
Cody Ceci did respond, in a more measured way than some might have wanted, but understandable for a veteran who’s won a lot of hockey games, and in a 1-1 contest.
“You gotta have a feel for what’s going on in the game and what’s the right response,” Warsofsky said on Monday. “We thought we handled it alright. I thought our guys stuck together in scrums and we were in there all together, and it’s part of the game.”
But everything, understandably, is heightened when it involves the future of the San Jose Sharks, their 2024 first-overall pick. That’s just the fact of the matter.
The bench boss did concede today that the Sharks could’ve arguably done more, though he still seem satisfied by the response. He called the response “good” right after the game on Saturday, so “alright” appears to be a downgrade.
Besides Ceci, Ty Dellandrea went after Stenlund later in the game.
“Do we want probably a better response? We can argue that,” Warsofsky said on Monday. “I don’t think he’s trying to injure Macklin by any means or Will [Smith] or any of our young guys.”
For what it’s worth, I agree with Warsofsky on that point. Stenlund is trying to make a defensive hockey play on Celebrini, the initial slash and then the hit, it just so happens to be close to what’s now considered a high-danger area by the boards. Truthfully too, Stenlund could’ve put more might into the hit too, and he didn’t.
It’s a missed two-minute call, it was a dangerous hit, it was slightly reckless, but in short, it was nothing egregious in the big picture of the sport.
But again, and as it should be…everything is heightened when it comes to Celebrini.
So how will the San Jose Sharks respond on Jan. 10 in Utah, if at all? That’ll tell you if the Sharks think they should’ve done more on Saturday night for Celebrini.