Sharks Locker Room: In the Season of Celebrini & Smith, Don’t Forget Eklund

PHILADELPHIA — The San Jose Sharks aren’t quite ready for primetime.

That much was clear at Wells Fargo Center, despite the Sharks coming back from a 3-0 deficit to force a shootout loss, 4-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Jack Thompson, Mikael Granlund, and Barclay Goodrow scored.

From the beginning, San Jose seemed a step behind, a night after a solid 1-0 shutout victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Teams that miss the playoffs, like the Sharks are likely to do, lack consistency, and that’s what we saw. After 40 minutes of some of their best hockey of the season in New Jersey, San Jose came out flat against Philly, and it showed, if not on the scoreboard.

But besides the loser point — and let’s not forget, three out of four points to start a tough East Coast road trip is nothing to sneeze at — the Sharks can take solace in this.

“Two really good nights for Eky, who was our best player tonight,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said.

That’s William Eklund, who had two primary assists in a losing effort, and was dynamic against the Devils. Just three games ago, Eklund was demoted to the fourth line.

But in New Jersey and Philadelphia, Eklund bounced back in a big way, on top of the puck on the forecheck and dazzling with his playmaking.

In the year of Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, it’s a reminder that the Sharks have another super-talented young forward in Eklund, their 2021 seventh-overall pick.

Consistency will be Eklund and Celebrini and Smith firing on all cylinders, hopefully sooner than later for the San Jose Sharks.

But in a season of growing pains, one out of three ain’t bad.

After the game, Warsofsky discussed moving Smith to wing.

Granlund talked about his linemate Eklund, Eklund smiled about jawing with Matvei Michkov, and Goodrow discussed the Sharks’ slow start.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on moving Will Smith to wing:

Just try to get a different look. We’ve liked our three centers there with Macklin, Granny, and Wenny there. And Sturm. So try to give Will a different look on the wing.

Thought he did some things, made some plays, and at times he struggled. Got to play with a little bit more pace without the puck. But big learning curve for him against a heavy team.

Warsofsky says Eklund was #SJSharks best player tonight

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 12, 2024

Warsofsky didn’t feel great about the San Jose Sharks stealing a point:

We didn’t play good enough in any areas of our game to be competitive in the National Hockey League going forward. We’ve got to continue to learn from these instances that are happening in our games late in the third period, second period, our puck management when teams in this league transition really, really fast, it’s up to myself to figure out and teach this group how important that is.

Mikael Granlund

Granlund, on adjusting from center to wing:

They are different. Obviously, if you’ve done that a lot, like I have been, both for center and the wing, it’s not a big deal.
But obviously, if you haven’t played the other position a lot, there’s a lot of different things you gotta do. It might take some time to adjust to that.

Granlund, on Eklund:

He’s really good with his edges. That’s one big thing. He can turn fast, he can move fast, and he has the good instincts to feel where is the guy behind him. He usually turns the right direction. So those are some natural things some guys just have. And with the skating ability he has, he can get away from those little piles or whatever in the corners.

Granlund smiled about Eklund's no-look pass: "Yeah, I knew. He has a tendency to make those passes." https://t.co/smTD0qdz9S

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 12, 2024

William Eklund

Eklund, on the San Jose Sharks’ comeback:

I think that’s a big difference from last year too. This game, we might not have come back from last year, but this year, we have a group who wants to come back in games, and we do that this year.

Eklund smiled when I asked him what he was jawing with Michkov about: "No, I won't say that."

Will Smith said he didn't know why Michkov punched Celebrini.

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 12, 2024

Barclay Goodrow

Goodrow, on the San Jose Sharks’ first period struggles:

We just weren’t forechecking hard enough, turnovers, things like that.

They were capitalizing.