San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: Despite 8-Game Skid, San Jose in Good Place, Really
The San Jose Sharks are in a good place right now.
Really.
Rock-bottom for the Sharks was last year, when they were the second-worst team of the salary cap era with a .287 Points %. Their -150 Goal Differential was the worst since the 1993-94 Ottawa Senators’ -196.
The 2024-25 Sharks weren’t going to turn into the Florida Panthers overnight.
A rebuild, after all, is incremental, and San Jose is getting incrementally better, even after a flat 4-0 loss on New Year’s Eve to the Philadelphia Flyers, their eighth-straight loss.
Compare where the Sharks are this year to last season at this time:
Sharks at New Year's Eve
| Record | Points % | GF | GA | Goal Differential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 11—23—6 | 0.35 | 105 | 142 | -37 |
| 2023-24 | 9—25—3 | 0.284 | 75 | 150 | -75 |
San Jose has gone from being a historically bad team to just a standard bad outfit.
Underscoring that, their -37 Goal Differential is worst in the NHL, but it’s right behind second-to-last Chicago Blackhawks’ -34. Last season, the Sharks’ -75 Goal Differential at New Year’s Eve was -26 behind the second-to-last Blackhawks’ -49.
In the last 365 days, the Sharks have added a No. 1 center of the future in Macklin Celebrini and a No. 1 goalie of the future in Yaroslav Askarov.
Young wingers William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund, among the few bright spots last year, are continuing to improve and show that they’re legitimate NHL forwards.
Prospects Will Smith, Shakir Mukhamadullin, Nikolai Kovalenko, and Henry Thrun have been more up and down, but they’ve shown flashes of being part of the long-term solution.
This isn’t even mentioning a much-improved San Jose Barracuda squad that’s solidly entrenched in the playoffs, and their cadre of intriguing prospects.
There’s a lot of reason to believe that the Sharks will be better next New Year’s Eve than they are today.
All this is, surely, cold comfort to a San Jose Sharks squad that really needs a win right now.
But you don’t build a Stanley Cup winner in a day.
Now this isn’t to say that tonight’s “no desperation” effort against the Flyers isn’t a concern. This kind of effort hasn’t been the norm for a Sharks squad that’s been pretty competitive all season and even during this losing streak — in five of these eight-straight defeats, San Jose had third period leads.
The Sharks, already hard-pressed to keep games close, will be further challenged to do that as the Trade Deadline approaches, and if pending UFAs and line-up regulars Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, Cody Ceci, and Jan Rutta are moved.
Granlund has been arguably San Jose’s best player this season, the gritty Kunin is scoring at a 20-goal pace, Ceci is the team’s No. 2 defenseman, while Sturm and Rutta have been consistently hard to play against.
They’re not likely to be replaced, one for one, by any of the prospects in the Sharks’ system right now, at least if we’re talking about attention to detail and the little things that coaches care most about.
Sure, a rebuilding Sharks organization, just like they did in the recent Mackenzie Blackwood trade, needs to keep adding prospects and draft picks. But this isn’t last year’s teardown either — they need to keep a competitive group around Celebrini and Smith and company after the Trade Deadline, and in the coming years.
So there’s a balance between getting what you can for your UFAs — and possibly keeping a couple of them too, to help keep the rebuild on an upward trend.
All this is to say, I like where the Sharks are right now, eight-game losing streak be damned. But there’s still plenty of hockey and trades, for better or for worse, left this season.
Immediately, let’s see how San Jose gets up off the mat from this dismal effort. It certainly doesn’t get easier with consecutive games against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, New Jersey Devils on Saturday, and then, the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 7.
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on if he needs more from Georgiev:
No.
Warsofsky, on if there’s anything positive to take from tonight:
No.
Warsofsky, on if it’s discouraging that the Sharks, at least tonight, are getting worse on this losing streak and not better:
It’s very disappointing. No desperation. And now you’re seeing teams find their identity in this league. Earlier on, I think we were probably catching teams by surprise. Now teams, this is full go. We’re into almost January now. It’s every night, it’s going to be a dog fight. Every night, it’s going to be, we’re going to get teams’ best because they’re fighting for playoff spots. They’re fighting for spots in their division standings, wherever it might be. And we have to realize that.
Warsofsky, on if he wants more desperation from the San Jose Sharks:
Oh yeah, big time.
"No desperation," is one way that Warsofsky described #SJSharks' effort tonight.
"We've obviously tried some things throughout the season to keep getting that desperation & understanding the competitiveness that you need to play with…we're in a little bit of a lull right now…
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 1, 2025
Mario Ferraro
Ferraro’s takeaways from tonight:
I don’t think we brought it from the get-go. We were a little slow. We just looked behind for most of the night, and I think we just kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit, especially when they extended the lead.
Alexandar Georgiev
Georgiev, on the Nick Seeler goal:
Just a tough, tough bounce. I was trying to be in the post and be solid, but somehow the puck just hit me on the hand and managed to get in. Probably need to check the review there, replay. Bad goal, unlucky goal.
Georgiev, on where he thinks his game is at:
I don’t know, I think there are a lot of good things. They had a lot of good opportunities there, and I felt confident. I felt in position, and making a lot of good saves. If you don’t give up those two bad bounces [on the Seeler and Egor Zamula goals], it’s a different game.
You’re just trying to find positivity and go from there.
Georgiev, on if he feels close to getting his game where he wants:
I definitely feel like that.
Mikael Granlund
Granlund, on what the San Jose Sharks need to improve:
We gotta do better job playing with the puck. Break out some pucks, and we need to be able to win some more battles too in the D-zone and get to the offensive zone. But there’s a lot of things we should do better, and we got to work on that.
I love the even keel attitude you take with your articles. It’s not nearly as bad as it could be and no where close to as great as things may seem. It’s a very pragmatic approach that keeps it all in a proper perspective considering it’s been 5 years of futility and disappointment. I also like where this organization is at now but this is also a critical time for GMMG and his management team to both be disciplined in their approach and emphatic with acquiring talent. Last year the saying was “we can only go up from here”. This… Read more »
Well said. Sheng is a freaking treasure, and we’re lucky to have him covering the Sharks. I remember being so starved for Sharks media growing up. It was a blessing to find the old FeartheFin and now SJHN!
Totally agree. I hope there are enough of us paying the subscription (at least) to help Sheng.
Thank you, Michael! Appreciate all you do for my travel too!
Thanks!
Couldn’t agree more. The podcast with Keegan is excellent too.
worth keeping in mind that although its 5 years of futility and disappointment, its really just 2 years of rebuild. Before that was a lot of fence-sitting.
Thanks! One thing I hope that came across with what I wrote is that Grier’s work isn’t near done. It’s great the Celebrini and Askarov are in the fold, but like you said, it can go either way, even if those two prove to be foundational elements. So this improvement is not nearly good enough, to be sure, but let’s see if Mike can continue to add smartly, from the outside or within, to build a true contender as opposed to a first-round-and-out team
Sorta second what Zeke said about time; we have just been used to so many years of competitive teams. I can understand the feeling if not done enough, but not sure there was that much more. Many factors handicapped, even still- couture and Vlassic, but with Mack and Smith the focus needed to be forward strength. I think this year will be D focused. The main question to me, is what pieces need to remain? Some other Organizations got caught in the sell everything you can, for too many years. They never established a base of vets that could slide… Read more »
If your a team that’s not talented, not deep, can not “out skill” the opposition..
Then you have to out work, out hit , out skate, play aggressive, hard hitting –desperate hockey.
I’m not seeing this from these Sharks.
Which is disappointing.
You can’t let the opposition come into your barn….beat you…
Without leaving with some bruises.
It’s amazing how many fans don’t understand that out working, out hitting and out hustling anyone also requires talent.
They are in the top hockey league in the world.
They all have these talents.
Just a matter of the coach demanding this play
Old timer is right this is the NHL everyone is a world class skater and hockey player, the difference between being COMPETITIVE!! Not saying dominant, is simply who wants it more. Under no circumstances can you turn the puck over at the blue lines you have to get the red line and rim it in so your forwards can enter with a head a steam and establish a forecheck. They constantly suck the life out of the rush by trying to carry the puck in when it’s not an option forcing everyone to literally stop and wait for some one… Read more »
What a goofy take. Not everyone in the NHL is an elite skater by NHL standards. Of course they’re all light years better than the average person, but there’s an enormous range of competency within the NHL itself. No matter how much Barclay Goodrow “wants it” he’s still going to get torched by Nathan McKinnon sometimes. Such is life. Talent wins games. Talent + grit wins championships. Grit alone doesn’t win shit.
It’s amazing how many people suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. You seem knowledgeable on hockey though.
I’m never amazed at the number of dumb takes we get to read that ignore the realities of this team and the NHL.😜🤣🤣
Joseph if i were Warso i would put up a huge sign of your quote in the locker room for the boys to look at every night. Solid gold Bud!
I’m not the coach. I’m a fan. Coaches have to deal in platitudes, fans can speak to the reality of what’s actually going on – because our takes have absolutely no impact on the team whatsoever.
Oh, ye have little faith! ;P
After the second period they displayed stats on the cube that looked… quite surprising to me. I don’t remember it exactly, but it was something like this: Hits: 47 SJC vs 22 PHI Blocked shots:12 SJC vs 39 PHI Face-offs: 53% SJC vs 47% PHI And some other parameters were in favor of Sharks, not Flyers. Of course, not goals and actually not shots on goal. So Sharks were out hitting and even outshooting Flyers, but not in a manner that led to production. Why was it that bad then? Well, let’s look at the Sharks top lines Kostin –… Read more »
That’s some hometown score keeping bud🤣
Get puck out, get puck in, separate man from puck, converge on net, Rinse and repeat.
Well if Georgiev thinks he’s close to the best he can be… The losing streak shall continue. Sharks need to score 5 a night on any given night to win a game he is backstopping. That is a tough bill for a young, unskilled team that doesn’t have a ton of offence right now.
Not a fan of using last season as a benchmark. It was really bad, mostly by design. I think the Sharks are still in the ‘high-end talent acquisition mode’ and their record should enable a high draft pick once again. They’ might move up in the standings, but most likely, they finish bottom 4. Chicago had 1st overall pick in 2023 and 2nd in 2024, but that 2nd hasn’t played in the NHL. It takes time for high-end talent to become high-end NHL players. They’ll also get another high pick in 2025 draft. In 3-4 years, they may have 3… Read more »
while I agree with the general consensus that last night (Sharks didn’t play well vs Flyers), its also struck me that the game could have been very close.
Sharks had about 7 very high quality chances. Couple of breakaways. 2 posts where the goalie was clearly beat. Macklin had a 1v1 vs the goalie where he got stoned and another shot which got thru the goalie, but was slowed enough so it didn’t make it to the goal line.
The elements were there for stealing that game. Which is also progress. Even if it didn’t feel that way.
to be fair, Flyers had some quality chances as well, Sharks didn’t do anything for the “cherry picker” resulting in the odd man rush, and Georgiev passes to the opposite team
The Flyers had some of their good chances go in. Sharks had none. A couple of the high quality chances go in and the Sharks maybe have a chance to steal the game.
fwiw, I do like the “fly the zone” approach the Flyers use. If it works well, team gets a breakaway with a high % scoring chance. If it fails, the defense has to hold up for about 5 seconds of 5v4. Which is carries a little bit of extra risk, but not much.
This team is too soft to be competitive on a regular basis. Just like Sheng and the rest of the Bay Area hockey media. All three of them.
Exactly my point
Physical and mental toughness have been problems here for years if not decades. Look at their leaders. Doug Wilson. Patrick Marleau. Joe Thornton. The list goes on and on. Finesse guys who wreaked of softness, all of them.
Did you just Sheng soft? Not cool if you did.
Should have asked Did you just call Sheng soft? Very uncool man.
How often has Sheng called out anyone in the organ-i-nation? Like never.
Cheechoo. Long time reader, first time caller.
Here with a quick message for you:
Go fuck yourself.
Im not sold on Warsofsky as a coach, All the line juggling is making it harder to create consistent chemistry. He needs to leave the top 2 lines alone and they should be:
Eklund Granlund Zetterlung
Smith Celebrini Toffoli
He can swap in Kovalenko or Wennberg if someone on the top 2 lines gets hurt but please, for the love of God, please keep the top 2 lines intact. Also: