Sharks Locker Room: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

TORONTO – Hello darkness, my old friend.

The San Jose Sharks feel like they’re at rock-bottom again, playing their worst as the losses mount.

Tonight, it was a 7-1 humiliation at Scotiabank Arena at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs, their 12th-straight loss. This was paired with a “lack of effort” 4-1 loss to these same Leafs at SAP Center on Saturday.

Sharks Locker Room: Quinn ‘Pissed Off’ About Team’s Lack of Consistent Effort

Quinn thought tonight was San Jose’s worst performance this season, even if it wasn’t their most lopsided defeat: “Arguably our worst game of the year, from start to finish. Every facet of the game, really. Not one guy really had their game tonight.”

He added, sardonically, later, “We could barely carry the puck over the blueline.”

Playing your worst when you’re at your worst is echoes of the San Jose Sharks’ 0-10-1 start, which ended with history-making back-to-back losses, 10-1 to the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 2 and 10-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 4. That was the first time since the 1965-66 Boston Bruins that a team has given up double-digit goals in back-to-back contests.

It’s neither here nor there, but Quinn argued that even both those routs had more flashes of positive play than tonight.

Anyway, what do those two 10-spot defeats and the home-and-home Toronto tumult appear to have in common? They’re a team giving in when the losses seem like they just won’t end.

“Boy, is losing f’ing hard. It wears on you. Unless you’re going through it, it’s really difficult to explain to anybody,” Quinn said. “When you f’ing lose, it’s hard. It wears on you, day and night. 24/7.”

And on top of that? There’s a despair in knowing that even when you play your best, you’re probably going to lose.

For the 0-10-1 Sharks, that might’ve been Loss No. 9, a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, which I thought was their best game up to that point in October.

For these Sharks, it was Loss No. 9, a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings where they honestly dominated the opposition, and Loss No. 10, a 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets where they bounced back from a slow start to go toe-to-toe against the team with the best record in the NHL.

Alternate captain Mario Ferraro spoke candidly about where the San Jose Sharks might be mentally right now: “I don’t know, maybe we got to figure something out, away from the rink to stay positive and do it for our mental health too. Because obviously it’s not easy going through this. Starts off the ice with our mentality, feeling good. We gotta figure out a way to do that for each other.”

Meanwhile, Quinn wants his team to remember what they can do: “People that have watched us over the last month and a half, we played some pretty good hockey games, believe it or not, against some really good teams.

“We’ve got to get that back. We’ve got to dig deep and look back into those situations and kind of remind ourselves what we’re capable of doing and that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.”

But that’s hard, right? When your best isn’t good enough.

David Quinn

Quinn: "Arguably our worst game of the year, from start to finish. Every facet of the game, really. Not one guy really had their game tonight. It certainly showed…we didn't do anything well, we could barely carry the puck over the blueline."

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 10, 2024

Quinn, on how hard the losing is:

Boy, is losing f—–g hard. It wears on you. Unless you’re going through it, it’s really difficult to explain to anybody…When you f—–g lose, it’s hard. It wears on you, day and night. 24/7.

I get that you got to ask the questions you do, but it’s hard. It takes a special mindset to get out of what we’re in and we’re gonna get out of it.

Quinn, on how this home-and-home set isn’t who the San Jose Sharks really are:

We are nowhere near as bad as we looked tonight. Anybody who’s never seen us before, must really shake their head at what you saw tonight.

People that have watched us over the last month and a half, we played some pretty good hockey games, believe it or not, against some really good teams. Have won games against good teams, deserve to win against good teams, and have lost against good teams, probably deserved the win.

We’ve got to get that back. We’ve got to dig deep and look back into those situations and kind of remind ourselves what we’re capable of doing and that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.

Mario Ferraro

Ferraro, on how disappointing it is to lose like this in his hometown:

It didn’t feel good, for sure. You said it, it’s disappointing.

Team comes first obviously, that’s the reason why we play. If I can step up, play a good game that contributes to the next guy next to me playing a better game. Goes down the bench and so on.

We didn’t have it tonight. It wasn’t there. I know I can be better.

It’s disappointing, it sucks. I still got a lot of family here that made the effort to come out.

[Hopefully] next year will be a better result.

Ferraro, on what the San Jose Sharks leadership has to do to keep this season on the rails:

That’s a good question. I wish I knew the answer to that right now. We wouldn’t have made it to this point.

I don’t know, maybe we got to figure something out, away from the rink to stay positive and do it for our mental health too. Because obviously it’s not easy going through this. Starts off the ice with our mentality, feeling good. We gotta figure out a way to do that for each other.

Ferraro, on how losing can snowball:

Yeah, for sure. When teams are rolling, they’re usually feeling pretty good. They get in a groove.

You can see with us right now, obviously feel a little bit less confident. Tight games, gripping the stick a little tighter. We know how bad we need to win.

Tomas Hertl

Hertl, on how disappointing a response this game was after Saturday’s poor-played loss to Toronto:

We played really bad tonight. They outplayed us, outskated us. Everything. If you lose, we have to at least battle hard and do something. We ended up doing nothing. We don’t hit their skill, they’re just flying around and just having a good time in our D-zone.