San Jose Sharks
Sharks Locker Room: In This Respect, San Jose Isn’t Getting Better

Are the San Jose Sharks getting better?
That’s been the big question recently, amidst another long losing streak.
On one hand, after a 7-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, the 14-32-6 Sharks have virtually the same record after 52 games as last year’s 14-33-5 Sharks.
It’s their sixth-straight loss, and their third skid of six games or more this season.
On the other hand, the Goal Differential through 52 games this year is a more bearable-looking -54 as opposed to last season’s -90 at the same point.
But there’s another way to look at the question of whether the San Jose Sharks are getting better: Are they improving in season?
On Dec. 7, the Sharks were overwhelmed by the Panthers in Fort Lauderdale, giving up 54 shots, en route to a 3-1 defeat. Then-San Jose netminder Mackenzie Blackwood, dealt just two days later, made 51 saves to keep things close.
“They’re ultra-competitive,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said of the defending champs.
That defeat dropped the Sharks to 10-15-5.
Warsofsky was singing a similar tune tonight.
“That’s the top of the top, right there,” he said of the Panthers. “I think we think we were working hard, but we don’t even have a clue how hard you have to work to win in this league consistently.”
San Jose is 4-17-1 since that loss in Florida.
That doesn’t look like a team that’s getting better.
“Now you’re seeing teams find their identity in this league,” Warsofsky said on New Year’s Eve, after a 4-0 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers. “Earlier on, I think we were probably catching teams by surprise.”
Maybe that’s it, and maybe we have to see San Jose’s response to that. There’s still plenty of season left.
And where it counts most — the future of the Sharks — I think they’re getting better?
Macklin Celebrini is Macklin Celebrini. Will Smith has two goals and four assists in his last seven contests. William Eklund is well ahead of last year’s pace of production. Henry Thrun has played some of the best hockey of his career…at times. Yaroslav Askarov — .852 Save % in his last four appearances — is dealing with his first slump in the NHL.
The San Jose Barracuda still appear to be headed to the playoffs.
But the Sharks can’t keep going this way either.
There’s still plenty of season left — and plenty of time for things to go from bad to worse, especially with the upcoming Trade Deadline.
San Jose pushed back after that lifeless Dec. 31 loss, their eighth-straight, with back-to-back wins over Eastern Conference powers New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning.
They’ll need to summon that spirit again, before what was once an encouraging season goes awry.
Jake Walman
Walman, on the Panthers:
I think they felt our push in the first. We immediately found out what a Cup-contending team looks like. Their pushback was much better than ours.
Tyler Toffoli
Toffoli, on if there’s any concern about how the losing is affecting the younger players:
Concerned in what way? They shouldn’t be happy losing. They’re emotional guys, and we have a lot of emotional guys in here, so I would hope that they feel the same way that I feel, and it’s shitty feeling, and got to try and do something about it.
Will Smith
Smith, on getting blown out in front of a sold-out SAP Center:
It’s embarrassing for us to do this in front of our home crowd. We have a tight group here, and we obviously want to be better for for the fans. Just in general in this room, we want to be better for each other.
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on the San Jose Sharks goalies:
I thought both them looked a little shaky at times.
Warsofsky, on the Sharks’ veterans knowing what to do, but it not translating on the ice:
We need a whole team to do it. You need a whole team. You watch that team, every single guy.
Perfect example is Rodrigues on their fourth line. His game does not change. Does not change, shift to shift, game to game. He just sucks it up. That’s his role. He’s going to play his role. And that’s what winners do. That’s what winning teams do. Doesn’t matter your role. You do your role to the best of your ability. You don’t complain. You go out there and you work as hard as you possibly can.
Warsofsky, on if the San Jose Sharks have an identity problem, that their 18 skaters aren’t playing to the right identity:
I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s just we get bored with it. We get bored when we don’t maybe score goals, or maybe nothing happens. We can’t just be okay with nothing happening. That’s what good teams do. You grind out games. You find different ways to win games. We just think there’s one way to win a game, that’s cheating the game at times.