San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: Better in a Loss Than a Win
The San Jose Sharks were better in a 4-3 loss than a 7-2 win.
From the drop of the puck, the Sharks were better than the Ottawa Senators.
Per Natural Stat Trick, San Jose dominated with an 82-31 Shot Attempts, 39-11 Shots, and 21-3 High-Danger advantage in All Situations.
In contrast, the Los Angeles Kings arguably outplayed the Sharks through 40 minutes on Monday — it was 2-2 through two — before San Jose got hot with five in the final frame.
The Kings actually came out of a rout with a 57-40 Shot Attempts, 24-21 Shots, and 12-3 High-Danger edge.
That's just the 3rd time in #SJSharks history that they've given up 11 or less shots in a game. Both times happened 16 years ago!
🦈 4/15/08 @ CGY (10 shots against, 3-2 win)
🦈 10/28/08 vs. PIT (11 shots against, 2-1 win)H/T @CurtisPashelka for the research idea!
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 28, 2024
To quote Macklin Celebrini on Monday: “I don’t know, the hockey gods?”
They are capricious, indeed.
Mario Ferraro, Celebrini, and Will Smith scored in a losing cause.
But if you believe in the process over the result, which I do, if the Sharks play more like did on Wednesday’s loss than Monday’s win, the hockey gods will reward them more often than not.
“Definitely. I would hope so,” Smith said.
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, are playing good hockey but making big mistakes:
Results are shitty. But we played some good hockey. Probably gotta be smarter in some scenarios, which we’re learning. Frustrating night.
Warsofsky, on if he wants the San Jose Sharks to focus on how well they played or the mistakes they made:
The big mistakes, that cost us the game.
Warsofsky, on Luke Kunin:
It’s the best I’ve seen him skate. He’s skating. He’s obviously can break away there a little bit, on the breakaway. He’s engaged in the hockey game. He’s been physical. He’s been really good as of late.
Will Smith went without a point in his first 8 NHL games, but he has 3 goals and 5 assists in his last 12.
Warsofsky: "We knew he would figure it out at some point. He'll probably take another speed bump here along the way, but he's done some really good things."
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 28, 2024
Warsofsky, on Smith’s response to his early season struggles:
We knew that he would. He’s a highly competitive kid. He wants to do well, he’s obviously very skilled. He’s done a lot of good things in his whole hockey career up to this date. We knew he would figure it out at some point. He’ll probably take another speed bump here along the way, but he’s done some really good things. He takes the coaching. You can see him trying to translate it. There’s obviously some things he needs to work on, but he’s taking some steps forward
Warsofsky, on Mackenzie Blackwood:
I thought he was good when he needed to be. Maybe one he would want back there. But it’s hard when you’re not getting a lot of shots, a lot of action. For so long, he’s been getting peppered back there.
Will Smith
Smith, on if the San Jose Sharks can play this way most nights, they’re going to win more games than not:
Definitely. I would hope so. It was almost a full consistent 60, but those times that we let up, obviously, the puck ends up in the back of our net.
William Eklund
Eklund, on assist to Celebrini:
There was a rebound there, their goalie was going really hard on me. I saw him backside, gave him the puck.
Luke Kunin
Kunin, on Smith’s performance:
I thought he played well. It was getting kind of chippy out there too, and he was playing hard, throwing some hits. I thought that was good to see.
Don’t love the ‘focus on the big mistakes’ comment by Warso. That to me is a game where you focus on how well they played and build off of it. The players that screwed up know they screwed up, they should feel positive coming out of that effort overall.
Better to have a coach that demands perfection IMO. There are no participation trophies in the NHL.
But striving for perfection is unrealistic and unachievable, it’s striving for excellence that is the achievable goal.
Sometimes there are little mistakes that end up in the back of the net and you can focus on the positives because every game has mistakes. I think his comment was about accountability. Big mistakes are unacceptable because they clearly cost wins in games they should win otherwise.
Hockey gods certainly wasn’t on their side last night, don’t remember when’s the last time we outshot someone like that! There weee glimpses of this in the first half of the Sabres game, but this is pretty much a full 60 as they say, hopefully we see these more often !
Gotta love everything but the result. Pretty amazing that Celebrini has actually elevated the Lund line. That allows Warsofsky the flexibility to slot Granlund alongside Smith when he returns, give the Sharks three real scoring lines right as Smith starts to get going.
If not for the 0-7-2 start, I’d actually expect this team to be on the playoff bubble.
We can probably attribute some of the start to Celly’s injury. He’s clearly a difference maker from day one.
Yeah it really is crazy and exciting to witness!
Yo, Sheng, enough of the moral victories, OK? Thank you.
lol!!! Dude… are you playing a character?
I want results, not attaboys. We’re just different, I guess.
Blackwood not a elite goalie.. need to start the 22 yr old kid more. Tired of trading off starts
Ding-ding-ding-ding!
Blackwood has like a .909 save percentage. He had one bad game, it’s fine. Our goaltending is enormously better this year than in the past several years.