Sharks Locker Room: Team Got What It Deserved in Last-Second Loss

The San Jose Sharks will have an extra night in Ottawa to think about another difficult loss.

Originally scheduled to fly to Buffalo after the loss to the Ottawa Senators, a Northeastern snowstorm has grounded the Sharks in Canada.

They’ll get to spend some more time ruminating over the last-second loss, Vladimir Tarasenko scoring a goal that was reviewed for goalie interference. The goal was good, though it looked on the replay like Tarasenko might have pushed Justin Bailey into Mackenzie Blackwood before the game-winner.

But tellingly, that wasn’t the story post-game.

Instead, it was another listless San Jose effort, outshot 41-18. So despite Anthony Duclair, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Kevin Labanc, and Filip Zadina scoring, and being just five seconds away from a not-so-hard-earned overtime point, head coach David Quinn didn’t care.

“The ending was probably fitting,” he said, bemoaning his team’s compete in all three zones. “We’re just not physical enough. It’s not about running people. It’s about being harder on the puck and not fishing for pucks, and being consistently physical. That, and you can tie that with our [poor] puck play tonight.”

The San Jose Sharks are now 10-30-3. And you can see why: Next contest after a galvanizing 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, snapping a 12-game losing streak, they couldn’t replicate their defensive intensity just two days later.

Anthony Duclair

See the full Duclair interview here

Duclair, on Mario Ferraro’s three-assist night:

He’s gotten some looks. He’s always been a guy that can skate very well, very strong stick to make some plays. Game after game, he’s building confidence. He’s on the power play now, he’s making plays. He’s obviously our leader back there. He’s taken his game to another level this year, for sure.

Justin Bailey

See the full Bailey interview here

Bailey, on whether or not Vladimir Tarasenko pushed him into Blackwood:

I was the low guy there. I came back to the net and we’re out there for a bit. Just trying to look for where my guy was. Saw him at the side of the net, kind of went there to meet him. We came together there and I got pushed into Blacky a bit.

Filip Zadina

See the full Zadina interview here

Zadina, on how his line with Tomas Hertl and Fabian Zetterlund are playing:

I can say for all of us on that line, we’ve been feeling pretty good. We’ve been hard on the forecheck those last two games and we managed you to score twice.

David Quinn

See the full Quinn interview here

Quinn, on the last-second Tarasenko goal:

We just got outmuscled at the net, really.

We had chances to clear it. We didn’t really play with [their] tenacity tonight, we didn’t match consistently enough.

The ending was probably fitting.

Quinn, on how that goal was par for course for the year:

That’s certainly part of it. I just think about the year we’ve had, we start getting a little bit deflated, regardless of the situation. Really weighs on you.

Quinn, on San Jose Sharks’ inability to make life easier for Mackenzie Blackwood:

I just thought it was our lack of compete really throughout the night. I didn’t think we got anywhere near the level we needed to go, regardless of your opponent. I thought our puck play, we really struggled. Just really weren’t many areas that we were real efficient in tonight.

Quinn, on Sharks’ lack of compete killing plays defensively:

We’re just not physical enough. It’s not about running people. It’s about being harder on the puck and not fishing for pucks and being consistently physical. That, and you can tie that with our puck play tonight.

There wasn’t a lot of anticipation in our game.