Sharks Locker Room: No Easy Answers or Quick Fixes

NASHVILLE — If only it was just one thing or even a handful of things to fix.

When an entire team collapses, like the San Jose Sharks did blowing a 5-1 lead to the Nashville Predators, what do you do?

Would calling a timeout have stopped the bleeding? The Sharks basically had a timeout after Roman Josi tied the game 5-5 on the power play, when there was a minutes-long review on an overturned Luke Schenn delay of game.

That certainly didn’t stop Nick Blankenburg from punching home the game-winner minutes later.

I’m not saying that Warsofsky shouldn’t have used his timeout…but that doesn’t feel like the reason why the Sharks lost.

Would benching Luke Kunin for his errant clear — he emphasized to San Jose Hockey Now that he wasn’t going for the breakaway pass to Barclay Goodrow — that led to the Josi power play goal, have won the game for the Sharks? Would benching Will Smith for losing Justin Barron on the goal that made it 5-3 have won the game for the Sharks? Would pulling Alexandar Georgiev after the Jonathan Marchessault and Josi goals that tied the game in the third period — neither which were really Georgiev’s fault — have won the game for the Sharks?

Sometimes you bench a skater for a stretch, when he’s really hurting you on the ice — but this was a game, genuinely, where you could say, when things were going right and the Sharks built their lead, that every player was doing something right — and when things were going wrong, every player was doing something wrong.

You can’t bench your entire team. Trying to single out a player or players or coach in a historic collapse like this is a fool’s errand.

I know everybody wants easy answers and quick fixes. There are none in a game like this…or, big picture, in a rebuild.

The San Jose Sharks aren’t one player more or less away from a Stanley Cup or the playoffs or even out of mediocrity.

So instead?

For the team, let’s see how they react, next game and for the rest of the season. There are going to be more ups and downs. It’s a marathon and not a sprint back to respectability. I know the Sharks are five years and counting out of the playoffs, but really, the rebuild didn’t start until they traded Timo Meier in Feb. 2023.

So will we see improvement this season, or even next, so third period collapses happen less?

Another note: #SJSharks are the 10th team since 1979-80 to record 8 regulation losses after leading in the 3rd period. The only team with more than 8 was the 1979-80 Red Wings, who had 9.

— Dan Rusanowsky (@DanRusanowsky) January 22, 2025

For the fans, enjoy the small victories, for example, Smith’s overall resurgent play and Macklin Celebrini’s brilliant at times 200-foot work that gave the Sharks a 5-1 lead. These building blocks, if all goes according to GM Mike Grier’s plan, will be the foundation for long-term Stanley Cup contention.

What I can say, the San Jose Sharks are better than they were last year, a lot better. They’re still far from good, but they’re taking real steps. Just look at Goal Differential, this year versus last.

Last year’s Sharks wouldn’t have even had third period leads to blow.

So far, Year 2 of the rebuild looks like a minor success, no matter what happened tonight.

Ryan Warsofsky

SP: Where do you guys go from here?

Ryan Warsofsky: We go back to San Jose.

SP: In terms of emotionally and play on the ice?

RW: I mean, look, it sucks. The feeling's not going to be good on the ride home. It's frustrating. We're all extremely frustrated.

We have to learn &…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 22, 2025

Warsofsky, on if San Jose Sharks had it too easy to start, and didn’t know how to react when things got hard:

I don’t know.

I think we had a good start. We did things that we wanted to do. And then we got immature with our game again and we got soft with puck plays, especially, some bad reads.

Started in the offensive zone, trying to make a cross-ice pass when the puck should be delivered to the net. We don’t put enough pucks to the net to create some chaos offensively and then it ends up back in our own end and then we get soft with the puck play again and then they get the power play going and the whole game just shifted.

Warsofsky said Sturm is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Saw him walking around with a small right boot, no crutches, we'll see how long he's out

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 22, 2025

Alexandar Georgiev

Georgiev, on what he saw on the Blankenburg game-winner:

He was coming in with a defensive screen, so I committed a bit too early to the shot, but then I saw him moving short side. I tried to shuffle with him on the ice and be big and be square.

I felt like I tracked the puck well. I felt my focus was great. I felt the stick save there.

I don’t know how that happened, if it bounced off the stick, out of the blocker, or something. I don’t know what really happened there.

Georgiev, on being a goalie who has to shake things off, if he has similar advice for his team:

I don’t have any advice. It’s pretty disappointing.

Pretty mad about the game. I just have nothing to say right now.

Luke Kunin

Kunin, on if he was trying to hit Barclay Goodrow with a breakaway pass, which led to Josi’s game-tying goal:

No, I wasn’t looking [for that]. I trying to clear the puck, that’s why you try to do on the penalty kill. Didn’t get out, they score.

Kunin, on if this is the worst loss that he’s experienced as a Shark:

Every loss to me sucks.

Mikael Granlund

Granlund, on what happened to the San Jose Sharks after they got a 5-1 lead:

We just couldn’t get out of our D-zone anymore.

In the third period, we got stuck there. When we can’t break out the puck, when we can’t stop the puck in the D-zone, we get under so much pressure. If you let seven goals against, that’s not a recipe to win hockey games.