Sharks Locker Room: Hertl on His Scoring Slump, Kahkonen on How He’s Changed His Game

The San Jose Sharks kept it close, but couldn’t get over the finish line once again, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Florida Panthers.

Two Eric Staal SHENG’s — short-handed empty net goals — made the score look more lopsided than it was.

Tomas Hertl was candid about his goalscoring slump, Kaapo Kahkonen broke down how he’s tinkered with his game, and David Quinn bemoans the four-minute power play that could’ve tied the game for the Sharks, but instead, resulted in two SHENG daggers.

Tomas Hertl, on his one-goal-in-his-last-16-games scoring slump:

I try and make plays sometimes. I think it’s way too much. I have to stop looking for other guys.

Even one play today, it was 2-on-1, but the guy let me go and I still tried to find Timo because he’s on fire and he’s a goalscorer. Sometimes, I have to just shoot more like I did last year.

But I think my game is a little better, [I’m] doing fine.

Faceoffs lately have been pretty good.

In the O-zone, start maybe moving sometimes. But I feel pretty good about our line. We’re scoring a decent amount of goals.
But for sure, I got a couple of great chances tonight.

See Kaapo Kahkonen’s interview here

Kaapo Kahkonen, on if he’s trying to play more aggressively:

I guess you could put it that way.

I think myself, I’m trying to take a step back and kind of read the play a little more.

But obviously, in certain situations, you see a player shooting the puck, you do want to challenge the shooter and try to take his time and space away.

Kahkonen, on if he’s worked on his rebound control:

Yeah, you can always work on that one. You want to smother as many pucks or deflect them to the corner. I think I’ve done a decent job of that.

See David Quinn’s interview here

David Quinn, on the San Jose Sharks not being able to capitalize on a four-minute power play at the end of the game that would’ve tied a 2-1 tilt:

I thought early on, we had some chances, we looked good. And then, just got a little sloppy.

Quinn, on goalscorer Alexander Barabanov’s overall performance tonight:

He played very well. I thought Barbie had a really good night. That line was good again. Barbie’s had a really good year for us and he had a good night tonight.

Camera seemed to catch Karlsson after 2nd Staal empty-netter maybe leaving the bench…camera cut away though, so I'm not sure.

I double-checked with Quinn to make sure that Karlsson didn't leave because of injury, Quinn says he did not

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 10, 2023