Preview/Lines #20: Quinn Says Sharks Have Learned to Believe in Each Other

A month ago, the San Jose Sharks were licking their wounds.

The day after the New York Islanders had run roughshod over them 5-2 at UBS Arena on Oct. 19, the “fragile” 0-5-0 Sharks gathered for practice at Chelsea Piers, at a crossroads in their season.

They were preparing to take on David Quinn’s old team, the New York Rangers, the next night.

“I believe in this group, we as coaches. I said that to them,” Quinn said after that practice. “I said hopefully you guys think you’re as good as we think you are.”

Quinn Believes in Sharks, But Does Team Believe in Each Other?

What a difference a month makes. Coincidentally, the Sharks are playing the Rangers again tonight, this time at SAP Center.

San Jose is 6-5-3 since the Chelsea Piers practice, including their first win of the season the next night at Madison Square Garden.

So do the Sharks believe in each other now?

“Without question. You can see it throughout our games, you can feel it. It was a high level of frustration after the other night [against Detroit] because I think our guys have raised the bar. The bar has been raised with what our expectations are,” Quinn said about Thursday night’s 7-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. “Mike [Grier] has done a good job of building up a roster to be a little bit deeper. I think there was a lot of uncertainty when the season started. And now that we’ve got a much better feel of who we are, what we can be, guys expect to win.”

Of course, you can’t forget 0-5-0, and Quinn doesn’t: “We’ve played a lot of the top teams. We haven’t ducked anybody, really. It’s been a pretty good schedule we’ve played.

“Here we are, after a 0-5-0 start, 6-10-3 and feel like we’ve played better than that. But end of the day, you are what you are.

“Our record is what it is. It’s just not good enough.”

But Quinn believes these Sharks are headed to .500 and beyond: “We don’t have far to go to get over that hump.

“We’ve touched on that, and as we showed throughout [our recent 3-1-0] road trip, we understand what we need to do.”

Let’s see if the Sharks really do “get it” tonight against the Rangers.

San Jose Sharks (6-10-3)

Quinn says that James Reimer will start once again, and it’s the same line-up. These were the lines on Thursday night:

#SJSharks lines tonight, Reimer starts, Cicek makes his Sharks’ home debut:

Meier-Hertl-Labanc
Nieto-Couture-Barabanov
Bonino-Sturm-Kunin
Lindblom-Lorentz-Svechnikov

Megna-Karlsson
Vlasic-Benning
Cicek-Ferraro

Reimer

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 18, 2022

Also, here’s the latest on Radim Simek, who looks on track to be back soon:

Simek can't be activated until Monday, so I guess #SJSharks are going with 6 d-men on the roster tonight (Harrington traveling w/ Cuda). But you figure they're fairly confident of his return (he's practicing in orange this morning once again)

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 19, 2022

New York Rangers (8-6-4)

Igor Shesterkin starts.

Looks like same lines for #NYR:

Kreider – Zib – Vesey
Panarin – Trocheck – Goodrow
Laf – Chytil – Kakko

Then Blais, Carpenter, Gauthier and Reaves all skating with the fourth. Kravtsov is rotating in on the second.

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 19, 2022

D pairs:

Miller – Touba
Lindgren – Fox
Jones – Schneider

Looks like Hajek may be coming out after 6 straight starts. #NYR

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 19, 2022

Where to Watch

The San Jose Sharks will take on the New York Rangers at 7:30 PM PST at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.