Sharks Locker Room: Quinn Unhappy With Power Play & Bad Penalties, Blackwood on Blooper Reel Goal

ANAHEIM, Calif. – I mean, at least the San Jose Sharks aren’t getting embarrassed, right?

That’s apparently the bar for this 2-12-1 squad, after the Anaheim Ducks handled the Sharks 4-1 at Honda Center. At least it wasn’t giving up 10 goals apiece to the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Those two games were just flat-out embarrassing. We had a chat amongst ourselves and that’s unacceptable,” Luke Kunin said. “I don’t think we played our best hockey against Vegas and we’re still in it going into the third in that game. Same thing tonight. You’re right there.”

Kunin scored, and until Radko Gudas’s blooper reel goal sealed it late, Mackenzie Blackwood kept San Jose in the game, stopping 40 of 44 shots.

Always great to witness baseball history at a hockey game pic.twitter.com/rHljpyOj5o

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 13, 2023

It’s up to the Sharks to raise the bar here, can they? Good – or bad – news, they’ve got 67 games to do it.

Tomas Hertl talked about upping his game recently. Kunin discussed a penalty kill that was touched up for two goals tonight. Blackwood offered a deadpan joke about the Gudas goal. Head coach David Quinn addressed the momentum-sapping power play and some bad penalties from young Sharks.

Tomas Hertl

Hertl, on if he feels that he’s playing some of his best hockey right now:

Yeah, I feel pretty good. I’m feeling confident with the puck. I had a lot of chances, could be different too if I [put in] one of these chances.

Luke Kunin

Kunin, on if San Jose Sharks have at least turned corner in terms of knowing that they’ve got to put in 60 minutes or they could get embarrassed:

Yeah, those two games [against the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins] were just flat-out embarrassing. We had a chat amongst ourselves and that’s unacceptable. I don’t think we played our best hockey against Vegas and we’re still in it going into the third in that game. Same thing tonight. You’re right there.

Mackenzie Blackwood

Blackwood, on if these losses at least feel different than the back-to-back 10-spots they gave up last week:

Yeah, for sure. Totally different games that we’ve been in lately. We’re not even thinking about that, man. Honestly, you turn the page on it. I don’t even remember those games.

Quinn, on if #SJSharks almost have to laugh about the Gudas goal, considering the way the season has gone: "Kind of the way things have gone, right?"

Blackwood deadpanned when I asked if he had ever seen a goal like that: "I didn't see it."

He said he hasn't seen the replay yet

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 13, 2023

David Quinn

Quinn, on the San Jose Sharks’ 0-for-2 power play:

The difference in the game in my mind were the two power plays, right? I thought the first period we had some great chances. It was up and down, it was an even game. I thought for a stretch, we were kind of playing at the tempo and the pace we wanted to.

Not a lot of pace, not a lot of urgency to our power play right now. You may not score, but you need to gain some momentum off your power play. That’s not happening right now.

There’s just got to be way more mental alertness and anticipation. We get a puck and it’s slow. We just don’t have a work ethic on our power play right now. They’ve got to work at it. You can’t just say, oh, we’ve got five and they’ve got four. That’s just not how this works. We’re just not getting anything out of it.

Quinn, on the Nikolai Knyzhov and Fabian Zetterlund penalties that led to Ducks goals:

Young players. You just can’t take those penalties.