Sharks Locker Room: Quinn Praises Labanc, Suggests Granlund Return Close

It’s glass half-empty for the San Jose Sharks once again.

Of course, if you look hard enough at the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, you could convince yourself it’s half-full.

Per SPORTLOGiQ, for the first time in four games, San Jose actually had more OZ Possession Time than their opponents, 6:19 to Boston’s 5:43. Anthony Duclair scored a goal, the first Sharks veteran to do so this year. This was their best overall effort in this young season.

San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn had actual praise for his team this time around, unlike after the last game, a 6-3 drubbing at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Sharks Locker Room: Quinn Blasts Team, ‘Way too soft and way too slow’

“I thought we made a step forward with the things that we touched on after our last game,” Quinn said. “But we’ve got a long way to go, to get to where we want to get to. But you’re not going to go from A-to-Z without going through the alphabets. There was progress today.”

Progress, but the reality is, San Jose is now 0-3-1, their best not good enough to earn them that elusive “W”.

I guess, on the bright side, they’re one point ahead of last year’s 0-5-0 start?

Quinn complimented Kevin Labanc’s performance and explained why he didn’t challenge the James van Riemsdyk goal.

Kaapo Kahkonen shares what he did wrong on the Brad Marchand goal and his feelings about the van Riemsdyk goal.

Anthony Duclair and Kyle Burroughs described their roles in Duclair’s goal.

David Quinn

Quinn, on what improvements he saw from the last game:

I thought we made a step forward with the things that we touched on after our last game. I thought we spent more time in the O-zone. There was definitely more possession and forechecking. But we’ve got a long way to go, to get to where we want to get to. But you’re not going to go from A-to-Z without going through the alphabets. There was progress today.

Quinn, on what still needs to get better:

I still don’t think we’re tracking the way we need to.

From a defensive zone standpoint, I don’t think we’re closing quick enough.

We got to end more plays.

We just got to get inside more offensively. As much as we had zone time, we’ve got to be quicker. There’s got to be quicker recognition from an offensive standpoint.

Quinn, on not challenging the van Riemsdyk goal:

It was the right call. Cody [Ward] and Nick [Gialdini] said right away it’s a good goal.

We’ve already checked with the league, if we had challenged it, we would’ve lost.

Quinn, on Kevin Labanc’s performance:

As I said before, I have no clue where that [waiver report] came from. It’s never been discussed.

He had an injury in camp and didn’t come back probably the way he wanted, the way we wanted him to, but he’s worked hard and had a good night.

I thought he was skating, he was physical, he had the puck a lot. Usually when that happens, good things happen.

Quinn says Granlund will travel, Couture will not

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 20, 2023

Kaapo Kahkonen

Kahkonen, on the Brad Marchand goal:

Good shot. And yeah, I picked it up too late. I [felt] he was looking for a pass cross-seam. I kind of got back a little bit, and then, he pulled in and shot the puck. I couldn’t get square. I want to stop that, but yeah, good play, good shot.

Kahkonen, on his pad being pushed in on the James van Riemsdyk goal:

Well, I’m not saying I had to control. It was right in front of me. But also, I’m in the splits, with my pad on the goalline, and they push my pad in, as they push the puck in the net. So there’s nothing really I can do to cover that puck. That’s why I felt frustrated about it. But hopefully, we get that call [in the future]. I guess we did last game.

Kyle Burroughs

Burroughs, on tying up Marchand, which helped lead to the Anthony Duclair goal:

We had faceoff play drawn up. It’s just a scramble, trying to win a puck battle. [Marchand] is a good player in this league. Tommy came in and helped me out.

Winning one-on-one battles is the biggest thing, I think, in this league.

You see in the offensive zone, we were doing that, winning one-on-one battles, catching flesh.

Anthony Duclair

Duclair, on his goal:

I saw [Alexander Barabanov] crashing the net and I saw the D coming in, I was obviously looking for Barbie, but at the same time, things can happen when you put pucks on net.