Sharks Locker Room: Karlsson Not Excited by 700th Point, Hertl Admits to ‘Terrible’ Penalty

Erik Karlsson scored his 700th career point, but once again, the San Jose Sharks couldn’t get out of their way once again, and the Calgary Flames scorched them 5-2.

Karlsson talked about the stark difference playing LA and Calgary as opposed to Anaheim and Arizona, and his thoughts about his career milestone.

Tomas Hertl explains what happened on his pivotal high sticking penalty on Elias Lindhom – the Flames would score on the ensuing power play to make it 3-1.

Kaapo Kahkonen talks about how he felt good about his individual game, despite giving up five goals on 25 shots in his first appearance since Dec. 7.

Erik Karlsson, on where the San Jose Sharks’ puck management went:

No disrespect, but playing LA and Calgary is different than playing Anaheim and Arizona. If we want to compare ourselves to other teams around the league, these are the guys that we should. Today we didn’t play up to par.

Karlsson, on his 700th point:

It is what it is. I’m gonna have plenty of time by the time that I’m done with this game to reflect upon things like this. I’m just living in the moment. I’m very fortunate to be in this league for a long time to get to where I’m at.

Karlsson, on importance of guarding against getting used to losing:

We know the situation that we’re in. We have a long way to go to where we want to get. But think that the motivation and the spirit in this room has grown tremendously over the course of the first few months here. I feel like everybody is excited about where we’re going, even though we know it’s going to be a long haul and we got a lot of work to do. We’re going to come back to the rink tomorrow and not feel sorry for ourselves. Try and move forward even though today wasn’t the best day.

Tomas Hertl, on high sticking Elias Lindholm:

I got cross-checked three times to the shoulder. I tried to slash his stick, but the stick flew a little high. It’s a terrible penalty.

It looks bad, but it’s a mistake by me. You can’t do that. You never try to hit a guy high, but it happened.

Hertl, on what David Quinn said when he called a timeout after the Flames scored three goals in 1:54 to take a 5-1 lead.

He just said this is past. We can’t do anything [about that]. We got 18 minutes to go and you never know in hockey.

Kahkonen, on his game in his first start since Dec. 7:

I felt great all game. I thought I was able to execute those things I’ve been working on. The whole game, I saw the puck pretty well.

Kahkonen, on what happened on the fifth goal allowed.

I was trying to cover it, obviously. They tried to flip it on net and hope that happens. Or you know, get up almost like that that happened. Those are tough to handle sometimes.

David Quinn, on where San Jose Sharks’ puck management has gone over the last two games:

I don’t think we were as mentally as sharp as we were physically earlier. It comes back to forcing plays and it’s not going to change overnight. We took a couple of steps forward, we took a step back tonight. Bad habits are hard to break. So keep chipping away and working on it.

Quinn, on his message to the San Jose Sharks.

There’s more in us…is what I’d like to keep looking at from our end of it. We just got to keep fighting our way towards it and keep getting there.

Quinn, on Kahkonen’s performance:

I feel bad for him. I thought he had a good night. He looked like himself. Obviously, like to have the fifth one back, but I thought he played well.