Sheng Peng
This stretch of losing for the San Jose Sharks feels different.
The Sharks have had three losing streaks of six games or more this season, 0-7-2 to start the season, an eight-game skid in December, and their current 1-7-0 slide.
But not all losing streaks are made the same. San Jose has felt farther away from winning in their most recent slump than the other two streaks.
“Lately, there’s been a lot of these games that the game just slips away,” alternate captain Mikael Granlund said.
On Thursday, the Sharks gave up four goals in 5:49 in the second period, en route to what head coach Ryan Warsofsky called a “downright embarrassing” 6-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken.
On Jan. 25, San Jose gave up six unanswered goals to the Florida Panthers in a 7-2 loss. On Jan. 21, they gave up six unanswered at the Nashville Predators to blow a 5-1 lead.
“Our organization needs to draw a line in the sand,” Warsofsky said. “The culture is changing, and we’re not going to be a team that just gives up.”
Thursday’s effort was so embarrassing, however, Warsofsky made the Sharks practice on Friday, on what had been trending as a day off before they got blown out.
The San Jose Sharks are getting worse in season, not better.
That might explain the back-to-the-basics approach to practice on Friday.
For the first 20 minutes of practice, the Sharks just skated. No puck, a bag skate.
“We don’t skate enough,” Warsofsky said tersely. “So we skated today.”
Alternate captain Mikael Granlund got the message: “We haven’t been skating enough in games.”
It sounds like Warsofsky is going to take advantage of the unusually long break before the San Jose Sharks’ next game on Feb. 4 with a training camp-like approach.
“Little bit of that,” he said. “Touch on some system stuff. Touch on some competitiveness stuff. Today, we did skating.”
What kind of systems work?
Like I said, back to the basics.
Warsofsky railed against this goal on Thursday night: “From the first goal against, we’re late on a pinch. We don’t get above the center. Something you learn in training camp.”
Cody Ceci (4) was slow to get on top of Eeli Tolvanen (24). But worse, both Macklin Celebrini (71) and Jake Walman (96) cover one man, Oliver Bjorkstand (22), leaving another, Chandler Stephenson (9), for a breakaway.
Celebrini has a chance to make a defensive play on Bjorkstrand, so Walman has to hang back and lock down the center lane.
“We’ve saw those clips since training camp, it should be almost muscle memory. You should exactly know what your job is there,” Warsofsky said. “We should not give up that goal.”
That’s the mental side of the game. What about the emotional, the compete?
According to Warsofsky, the air went out of the San Jose Sharks’ bench on Thursday when Jaden Schwartz came out of the penalty box to score a breakaway goal to make it 4-1.
“I get Trade Deadline is coming around the corner. I get where we are. We’re not in the playoffs. I get that the human mind can drift and not be extremely focused,” Warsofsky said.
But that doesn’t excuse the Sharks no-showing the rest of the second period, a healthy 12:08 after the Kraken made it 5-1.
“What bugs me the most is our response [to] those goals against,” Granlund said.
“Right now, we have give in our game when we get down, and that needs to change very quickly,” Warsofsky said.
Last year, the 19-win Sharks surrendered too easily too often.
GM Mike Grier brought in veterans Tyler Toffoli, Barclay Goodrow, Alex Wennberg, and Cody Ceci — to complement Granlund, Luke Kunin, and Mario Ferraro — to make sure that didn’t happen again. And through about half the season, San Jose appeared on track. They weren’t making the playoffs, but they also weren’t the worst team in the NHL, a huge improvement over last year’s historically bad showing.
It’s too easy, when you’re rebuilding, to blame just the youngsters for your woes. The veterans have had an equal hand in the Sharks’ recent slide.
But they also have a chance to guide San Jose out of their recent quagmire.
“That’s what they should do as leaders. That’s why you wear a letter on your jersey. That’s why guys have came in and Mike signed to help the younger players and change the culture here. That’s what they’re here for,” Warsofsky said.
Skating. Systems. Compete.
This is going to be the test for all the San Jose Sharks, young and old, in the coming week, with three games before the 4 Nations Face-Off break. After the tournament, the Trade Deadline is fast approaching on Mar. 7.
“Rebuild the mindset,” Warsofsky said, of his focus from now until the Sharks’ contest against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 4. “Let’s feel good about our game heading into the break, and whatever happens after that with the Deadline going forward, we’ll worry about that then.”