Quinn’s Message With Grier Watching, Emberson Out With Week-To-Week Injury

MONTREAL – If you try to smile after a loss, some say you’re taking it too lightly. If you try not to smile after a loss, some say you’ve got to lighten up.

Point is, there’s no tried-and-true approach to getting out of a slump. There’s merit in kicking over a trash can. There’s also merit to simply staying positive.

The San Jose Sharks’ 12-game losing streak culminated last night with an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

David Quinn called it, from start to finish, arguably San Jose’s worst game of the season, and that’s saying a lot, considering the Sharks are 9-29-3.

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With GM Mike Grier watching from the stands, Quinn chose to emphasize the positive today, with hard-but-fun battle and skill drills.

The message from the head coach?

“We all felt like shit about the game last night. Let’s feel less like shit today when practice ends.”

William Eklund, Scott Sabourin, and Fabian Zetterlund were among the Sharks to get stick taps from appreciative teammates for their hard work during one-on-one (with a backchecker) battle and tracking drills.

Then, in a game within a practice, the losers had to do push-ups…

Team White vs. Team Teal, first to 5 goals wins, loser does 25 pushups, including the coaches. Quinn bet on Team Teal pic.twitter.com/Xs6IcI4qJx

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 10, 2024

Team White wins! pic.twitter.com/gIcUq8N0fB

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 10, 2024

Quinn joked that he picked Team Teal because they were closest to him. He also says that he was ready to do 25 more push-ups.

“As a coach, you’re responsible for an awful lot. When a game ends like last night’s game ended, there’s so many things that you want to cover. But the biggest thing we had to cover was our mindset. We’re a little bit down right now,” Quinn said. “I’m sure a lot of guys left that game last night thinking, God we suck, and we don’t. We don’t.”

At the end of practice, Quinn also spent more than five minutes with alternate captain Mario Ferraro. He pointed out to us that Ferraro has new teeth.

But more importantly?

“Honestly, just talking about the job he’s done, and how much fun it’s been to watch his career kind of evolve in the last year and a half,” Quinn shared. “He’s such a great person and a great player and we just talked about the impact he has with his personality and keep coming to the rink every day with that joy and personality because it’s infectious, other people feed off of him.”

To that point, Ferraro was working overtime in the locker room after practice to make sure that teammates, except for the locals with plans with family, were coming out for a team dinner tonight.

Ferraro spoke after the rout in his hometown Toronto yesterday about how the team needed to feel good and pick each other up, both on and off the ice. They took care of the on the ice this afternoon, now to the off the ice tonight with what he hoped would be a larger-than-usual dinner crew.

Another Injury

Ty Emberson was the lone absence from San Jose Sharks practice.

According to Quinn, the 23-year-old defenseman, who just came back from a four-week absence because of a lower-body injury, is now dealing with a week-to-week upper-body injury.

Emberson played the entire game last night and was second only to Ferraro in ice-time for the Sharks, so it’s not clear when the latest mishap occurred.

Hometown hero Marc-Edouard Vlasic will slide back into the line-up for Emberson against the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow.

Oh Captain, My Captain?

Put away the cape.

Quinn ruled out a Logan Couture return tomorrow.

If that holds, the San Jose Sharks captain will have missed more than half the season.

Couture continues to practice with no apparent limitations.

Yesterday, Elliotte Friedman suggested that Couture was hopeful that he could return this Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

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