Sharks Locker Room: Finally Learning To Play With a Lead?

When you’re in last place, you look for small-but-real victories, examples of progress as a team.

For the San Jose Sharks, maybe they’re learning to play with leads better?

On Mar. 1, they lost 5-3 at the Ottawa Senators after blowing yet another third period lead.

At that point, the Sharks had an NHL-worst .450 Winning % Leading After Two Periods, which would be the worst mark in the salary cap era, just below the 2005-06 St. Louis Blues’ .500.

Since then, however, San Jose has won three-straight games leading after two periods, Mar. 4 at the Buffalo Sabres, Mar. 13 versus the Chicago Blackhawks, and Thursday versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, raising that gruesome .450 to a less-abominable .522.

Yes, the Sharks blew a 5-3 lead to the Leafs, giving up two last-minute goals with Toronto’s goalie pulled. They needed the shootout to come away with the win.

But before those desperation Toronto goals — San Jose will have to learn from that — the Sharks actually played a solid final frame. Per Natural Stat Trick, they outattempted the Leafs 14-9, outchanced them 7-4, and were even up 5-5 shots at 5-on-5.

“Loved our third period,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “I thought we were actually staying on the attack.”

It goes back to something that two-time Stanley Cup champion Barclay Goodrow said at the beginning of the season, about what a winning team does with a third period lead.

“You just need to keep playing the same way that got you that lead,” he said in October. “You have to stay aggressive instead of worrying about protecting a lead.”

And all this speaks to a San Jose Sharks squad that has really found its footing over the last two months.

Since Feb. 1, the Sharks have played consistently competitive hockey. They’re just 5-9-3, but in 14 of these 17 games, they’ve entered the third period leading, tied, or trailing by one goal. Their 5-on-5 goal differential in this stretch is -7, far from the worst in the league, the Blackhawks’ -20. Granted, Chicago has played three more games than San Jose in this period of time.

Regardless, the big word here is consistency, which had evaded the Sharks through a rough December and January, especially after they traded goalie Mackenzie Blackwood on Dec. 9.

The Sharks still have 11 games remaining this season, but this bodes well for next season: Macklin Celebrini and company, just maybe, are learning to win.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on Timothy Liljegren’s strong performance:

We need to have him have the mind-set we’re playing Toronto every night.

Warsofsky, on getting Smith some experience in a new situation:

Will Smith was out in the [5-on-6]. That’s good for him. That was a good experience for him.

Warsofsky, on switching Smith and Wennberg on the power play:

That power play, we just can’t make that next play, and we’re seeing some heavy pressure. And it’s nothing against Smitty. It’s just something that he’s trying to work on and get better at. But in certain situations, and we just thought it was that power play was a little slow, so we would make adjustment on it.

Warsofsky, on Lucas Carlsson:

I thought he was very solid again. You can see his experience when he plays. He’s played in this league, he’s played against heavy teams, he’s played against skilled teams. He’s not overwhelmed by a moment.

Yeah, the penalties, obviously, we can’t take those types of penalties against this type of team. But I thought he was, again, very solid.

Warsofsky, on Alexandar Georgiev’s game:

I thought he was good. There’s probably one or two you probably want to look at, but a lot of traffic in front of him. But he made some saves when we needed him to. So I thought he was solid.

Warsofsky, on Cam Lund’s NHL debut:

I thought he was good. I thought he was skating tonight. He’s smart, similar to Graf, in a sense, where he’s long, he can skate. He’s got a good stick, he’s got good details to his game. So for a first NHL game, it was impressive.

Warsofsky, on Wennberg, Graf, and Toffoli as a line, and Shakir Mukhamadullin’s game:

I thought Wenny was really good, as was Toff and Graffer, just very smart players, and so you trust them on the ice, but they’ve got some chemistry going as a line. I thought Graf was really good in the penalty kill again. He’s really coming into his own as an NHL player.

Again, I thought Mukh has another really good game, which is very positive, is we’re seeing some guys really develop.

Cam Lund

Lund, on his first NHL game and the SAP Center crowd:

To get that win on my debut and everything, it’s a great feeling.

It was great. The fans, they were all great. It’s my first time being at the rink too. So it was good to come and see the whole rink and everything.

Lund, on his “Welcome to the NHL” moment:

Just being out there with Matthews, Marner, all those guys, obviously top players in the league, so just seeing that in person, obviously, it’s unreal.

Lund, on advice that he got from San Jose Sharks teammates heading into his NHL debut:

Have fun with it. You only get this opportunity once, so just enjoy the moment.

Funny moment between Lund and Celebrini in warm-ups: "I was asking him if I should get my helmet or not. I didn't know if I had to get it halfway through warm-ups."

Dean Tait of @HockeyShots captured the moment! pic.twitter.com/2uXuJFwDyT

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 28, 2025

Alex Wennberg

Wennberg, on Graf:

I’ve been talking about this too, you see the potential, right now he’s playing with confidence and the skill just takes over. The play today, it’s a highlight-reel play. But I mean, the fact too, he’s making great plays on the PK, he’s making great plays, overall. So it’s a really good player, and it’s fun to see now, when you have the opportunity to really take advantage of it.

Tyler Toffoli

Toffoli on playing with Graf:

I think he’s playing very confident. It’s been two games, maybe three on a line with Wenny and myself, and I think we’ve just been doing a good job of keeping things relatively simple. And tonight, we got some bounces.