Sharks Locker Room: 3 Fights in 4 Seconds

Both things can be true.

Luke Kunin and Barclay Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea’s back-to-back-to-back fights, the San Jose Sharks down 3-0 just 6:53 into the game, did spark the team’s spirited comeback.

The Sharks would lose 6-5 to the Nashville Predators, despite goals from Walker Duehr, Mario Ferraro, Henry Thrun, Fabian Zetterlund, and Macklin Celebrini.

That’s one of many things that Kunin, Goodrow, and Dellandrea bring to the roster.

“They have fight. They’re competitors. They’re gonna do whatever it takes to help the hockey team,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Goody’s done that his whole career. You have seen that before when he was here. Delly’s done that his whole career. As has Kunny.”

This was missing, in large part, from the San Jose roster last year, and it’s a big reason why the Sharks are far more competitive this season.

How much pushback was last year’s squad going to offer being down 3-0 in six minutes?

On the other hand, that line had a really tough night otherwise.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Goodrow-Kunin-Dellandrea had one shot attempt for versus 15 against at 5-on-5 in 6:42 together, a 6.25 Corsi For %. No other regular Sharks line was below 47.83.

Obviously, the stat isn’t independent of their defensemen, who didn’t necessarily help them tonight. But this forward group also, eye test, missed connecting passes and failed to establish much of a forecheck.

They’re not a line that you expect to drive much play, that’s fine if they don’t, but they also shouldn’t be this extreme an outlier either.

To that point though, they had the most difficult deployment among Sharks forwards. Just for example, center Kunin had one offensive zone faceoff compared to 15 neutral/defensive zone draws at 5-on-5. In contrast, center Celebrini had eight OZ faceoffs versus eight NZ/DZ draws.

Of course, you want Celebrini to start in the OZ over your fourth line, point is, there’s critical context when examining their disparity in shot attempts.

If Warsofsky continues with this line — Dellandrea left the game at the end of the second period because of a high Cole Smith hit — they’ll need to be execute better when exiting the zone and establishing a meaningful forecheck.

This season, Warsofsky has leaned toward his fourth line for non-OZ faceoffs — the recently-injured Nico Sturm has the lowest percentage of OZ Faceoffs among Sharks centers. Also, Goodrow leads the team in DZ Faceoffs Per 60 usage.

So they’re tasked with a disproportionate amount of San Jose’s toughest minutes, a thankless job.

But it was also a rough night for that line, after their literal fight dragged the team into the game.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky had no update on Dellandrea post-game.

Thought the refs made the right call giving Cole Smith the match penalty, didn't have much more to say about the hit.

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 24, 2025

Warsofsky, on Yaroslav Askarov’s performance:

I think the kid battled. I think he made some saves, some big saves, to keep us in the game, especially in the third there. I’m sure there’s some goals he’d probably want back, but it’s a young goaltender in this league, learning the pace of the game and how fast it is, and there’s some sharpshooters, and he’s learning that.

Warsofsky, on Mikael Granlund’s three-assist night:

He was really good. He’s been really good the last two games. He’s skating more. He’s making plays. I like that line. I thought Mack’s line was pretty solid.

Granny impacts the games in a lot of different ways. Power play, penalty kill, competitiveness, defense, match-up wise, he can make plays with the puck. Wants the puck on the stick.

Warsofsky, on Will Smith’s game:

Another good one for Will tonight. You can see he’s getting more comfortable on the ice, making more plays. Another step in the right direction for him.

Warsfosky, on Duehr’s San Jose Sharks debut:

He was good. Went to the net, scores a goal, something we talked about this morning. I thought he competed hard on walls, on pucks. Big guy that can skate.

Warsofsky, on the leadership and inspiration that off-season acquisitions Goodrow and Dellandrea bring to the roster:

They have fight. They’re competitors. They’re gonna do whatever it takes to help the hockey team. Goody’s done that his whole career. You have seen that before when he was here. Delly’s done that his whole career. As has Kunny.

Walker Duehr

Duehr, on the three fights:

It’s pretty awesome to see. Out of those three guys, it’s not an easy thing to do, and then for all them to do it, I think it really shifted the momentum. We kind of took over there.

Kind of just a wake-up call. Those guys wanted to create some momentum.

Luke Kunin

Kunin, on the thinking behind the series of fights:

You want to try to bring something, do something.

Kunin, on if he was surprised that his linemates followed his fight with back-to-back fights:

They’re competitive players. I go to battle with those two guys any day of the week. I don’t think I was that surprised.

Barclay Goodrow

Goodrow, on following Kunin with his own fight:

To be honest, I didn’t even know Kunny was about to fight. I was trying to do the same thing. Not something we talked about. I think we all just had that mindset that it was, the team needed that at that time, everyone responded great to it.

Goodrow, on his cross-checking penalty that led to the Svechkov game-winner:

It’s a bad penalty to take at that time of the game.