San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: Runaway Train?

The San Jose Sharks tried to stop the runaway train.
The Sharks gave up four goals to the Seattle Kraken in 5:49 in the second period, turning a 1-1 first period into a 5-1 deficit.
San Jose would lose 6-2, their goals from Carl Grundstrom and Tyler Toffoli.
2:03 into the second, Oliver Bjorkstrand got a fortunate bounce to give the Kraken a 2-1 lead. 51 seconds later, Brandon Montour took advantage of a Walker Duehr turnover and rifled a shot past Yaroslav Askarov.
But for San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, that wasn’t where the game went off the rails.
The Sharks actually received a power play, and for two minutes, the top unit had possession. They failed to score though.
That’s when Warsofsky felt the air go out of the bench: “Probably after the power play, when the guy comes out of the box, gets the breakaway.”
That was Jaden Schwartz, making it 4-1.
Warsofsky pulled Yaroslav Askarov: “Didn’t want to leave a young kid out there, get peppered and shelled all night. I don’t think that was fair for him.”
Two shifts later, alternate captain Luke Kunin got into it with Montour, showing literal pushback after Montour gave him a shot.
In the fracas, Henry Thrun and Vince Dunn got into a fight, and Nikolai Kovalenko got an extra for roughing Kaapo Kakko.
Kunin got called for a phantom tripping on Chandler Stephenson, and up two men, Montour made it 5-1 past Alexandar Georgiev.
Game, set, match.
There was still 12:08 left in the middle frame, but the Sharks looked done. The rest of the second period was marked by Keystone Cops play.
“We’re having trouble getting back on track when we do go off-script,” Mario Ferraro said. “Every team does it. They have five minutes of a hockey game where they let off the gas or they’re struggling, but good teams find a way to collect themselves and get back to what they’re supposed to do.”
These are the moments that separate bad or average or good teams.
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on the game-opening Chandler Stephenson goal:
We were slow all night, from the first goal against, we’re late on a pinch. We don’t get above the center. Something you learn in training camp.
Warsofsky, on pulling Yaroslav Askarov:
Didn’t want to leave a young kid out there, get peppered and shelled all night. I don’t think that was fair for him.
Warsofsky, on how disappointing it was to end the dad’s trip with this type of effort:
Extremely disappointing. Downright embarrassing.
Warsofsky had no Kovalenko update
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 31, 2025
Watch the full interview here
Henry Thrun
Thrun, on when the momentum shifted on the San Jose Sharks bench in the second period:
Unfortunately, this year, it’s felt like we almost blink and all of a sudden, we’re kind of scrapping to even be in the game anymore.
I don’t point it to any moment in particular.
You hit the nail on the head there, seems that there’s a flurry of chances and shots, and all of a sudden, we’re down two, three goals, and it’s tough against any team in the league to come back against that. That’s happened too much this year.
Watch the full interview here
Mario Ferraro
Ferraro, on San Jose Sharks’ inability to calm their game down when things go awry:
We’re having trouble getting back on track when we do go off-script. Sometimes it’s going to happen. Every team does it. They have five minutes of a hockey game where they let off the gas or they’re struggling, but good teams find a way to collect themselves and get back to what they’re supposed to do.
Ferraro, on his mentor Rob, who was joined the dads’ trip:
It’s my cousin Rob.
He’s been a big supporter of not only the Sharks, but my career in general, he’s followed me for a very long time. My dad wasn’t able to make it this year.
I was very excited to be able to have Rob out here, who I look up to a lot, just for the continuous support that he gives me.
Even on nights where I don’t think I’m very good or I think I struggle or I’m struggling to find my skill, he’s always built me up. It’s my family that really holds me together and allows me to believe in myself.
He’s very special. He’s a very special person in my life.
Watch the full interview here
In November, things looked so promising. Now we are back to last year’s Sharks…even with Askarov who people said is better than Blackwood.
I wonder what it would take to actually improve next year.
Better D, who can hit to separate puck from the player. Better coach who can change strategies within games when things don’t go according to plan. Forwards who can finish plays. When skill does not work, play with grit. This team never plays with grit, the only song MG sings is that his team will be hard to play against. The entire league is rolling the sharks since Blackwood trade.
Such a bad take, we are led by several literal kids who are learning the league on the fly. Our defense is all playing one pairing above their pay grade. We’ve got multiple injuries and AHL lifers playing on the fourth line. The coach is trying to implement a simple structure where they can trust each other to make smart plays and get out of their zone and through the neutral zone cleanly – they clearly don’t have it dialed in yet. There’s plenty of grit as you can see with all the recent fighting. This last stretch has had… Read more »
Well said, Gusch
🤗🫠🙏
Thank you. Your comment is the single most honest evaluation of the Sharks. I only would add hiring psychologist as Sharks have in the past, and it helped the team. Lots of it is mental, players are human are with no success once in a while, seeing everything turning against you, they have enough of it. Seattle does not have better players except better D that’s the Sharks Achilles spot .I’ve been Sharks fan since DA1 and never saw misery like this. I did understand last year but expected better results this year. I stopped watching that misery last year… Read more »
Hahaha shit dude way to give up on the team! But sincerely, I hope your health improves, and you’re able to hang in there long enough to see our San Jose Sharks win the Cup!!
Pescadito’s got the aura! I wonder who is the Jumbo of this group that keeps the boys loose?
I do not want a coaching carousel here. I think Warfs has earned more time.
It seems like something is sucking the life out of the room, they are not this bad. Not just talking about wins and losses, they have veterans and are not an extremely young team like everyone says, almost 28 years old avg.. Something is just off with their aura.
I’m curious what you expected from them this season. After the slight improvements to the roster this past off-season, I figured we’d see a slight improvement to their game this season… and I think they have shown a slight improvement. I still assumed they’d finish anywhere in the bottom 4.
I thought they would be within a 5-6 game winning steak of breaking.500 towards the end of the season with all the free agents and serviceable goaltending and a fresh new phenom head coach, basically where the ducks are at.
I feel the break can’t come quick enough for the team, they’ve played a lot of hockey, a lot for the old vets, and a lot for the teenagers who aren’t used to this schedule. I feel they will recharge and be a little better down the stretch.
Ryan is saying all the right things as a head coach; this team just doesn’t look like it plays for each other. The whole chemistry is off, and the team lacks any kind of real grit or sandpaper. Sharks play one of the softest brands of hockey in the show.
Lots of talk about the Blackwood trade being the defining moment this season, but I think Jake Walman’s regression to the mean has been a much bigger issue. He was playing like an honest to god 1/1b defender for the first 30 or so games of the year, but hasn’t been anywhere near as dependable since coming back from his second injury layoff. The Sharks are so bad on defense that it’s a huge, huge blow. Not his fault at all, but he deserves credit for how much more competitive this team looked early on.
Not sure that Walman’s issue is bigger than Blackwood, but agree its a meaningful issue, He was doing some very heavy lifting prior to the injury and maybe he really is regressing to the mean. Also think Liljegren has also regressed from his promising early games. But perhaps as importantly, no one seems to have taken a step up. I know some people have seen improvement from Thrun, and maybe there’s a bit to that. But its ‘a bit’, not nearly the sort of step you’d hope to see. Mukh wasn’t quite ready for the NHL, though he’s close. Kovalenko… Read more »
I’m on the opposite side with Liljgren. He’s been paired consistently with Ferraro and I believe is playing against tougher competition now. He’s gotten better but that’s all without looking at the data.
Kovalenko played his first 3 games with Celebrini and Toffoli. Lately it’s been Goodrow and Kunin or Grundstrom and Dellandrea. I like his game.
That’s a great point!
Hopefully Walman is just playing through something and can get back to his early season form after the 4-Nations break.
They just need better defense and become a forechecking team. Too bad the league is a high skillset league. Sharks have players that have low skillset and horrible undefined defense. Other than Pickles game, I don’t know what type of game the rest of the defenseman has. Just forecheck the heck out of the other team. That’s what Darryl Sutter did when he took over. And they never missed the playoffs under him.