Sharks Locker Room: Last Time We Talk About Last Year?

The phrase “last year” is the new “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” in the San Jose Sharks organization.

For years, it was the “R-Word” or “rebuild”.

But let’s say it again, perhaps for the last time: This isn’t last year’s San Jose Sharks. This is an NHL-caliber team, which you really couldn’t say last year.

Last year, on this date, the Sharks got eviscerated by the Vancouver Canucks 10-1. Two days later, the Pittsburgh Penguins humiliated them 10-2.

This season? San Jose hosted Vancouver again…and lost 3-2 on a last-minute goal. And they outplayed the Canucks for decent portions of the game too.

It’s not just about different Nov. 2 scores or records — the Sharks were 0-9-1 after last year’s Canucks loss and 3-8-2 after this season’s — just look at the line-ups.

If you didn’t get enough frights on Halloween!

These look like #SJSharks lines tonight, we'll see during warm-ups — Hoffman scratched, Okhotiuk & MacDonald in:

Duclair-Hertl-Zetterlund
Eklund-Granlund-Kunin
Zadina-Sturm-Labanc
Smith-Carpenter-MacDonald

Ferraro-Emberson
Vlasic-Burroughs
Okhotiuk-Rutta

Kahkonen

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 3, 2023

Compared to tonight?

#TheFutureIsTeal lines, Cardwell moves up:

Eklund-Granlund-Toffoli⁰Cardwell-Wennberg-Zetterlund⁰Goodrow-Smith-Kunin⁰Gushchin-Sturm-Grundstrom

Walman-Ceci⁰Ferraro-Rutta⁰Thrun-Liljegren

Blackwood

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 3, 2024

Look, neither is a playoff-caliber roster. But it’s clear that GM Mike Grier’s efforts to field a more competitive roster, highlighted by the additions of Tyler Toffoli, Alex Wennberg, Barclay Goodrow, Carl Grundstrom, Jake Walman, and Cody Ceci…it’s working.

“Moving in the right direction,” the always candid Nico Sturm, who’s seen plenty of losing with the San Jose Sharks over the last couple of seasons, said.

This is illustrated by Sturm’s goal, which came off a spirited forecheck by the third line of Goodrow, Luke Kunin, and Will Smith. Then the fourth line, Sturm flanked by Grundstrom and Danil Gushchin cleaned up.

Nico Sturm opens the scoring with a one-timer 😤 pic.twitter.com/79OTnzypfh

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) November 3, 2024

In particular, Grier focused on bettering the forward depth, including the bottom-six, with more compete and attentive two-way forwards. The improvements have been noticeable, especially a far more persistent forecheck than last year’s consistent one-and-done FC. A good forecheck sets the table for the rest of team — it takes pressure off the defense and the goaltending.

“That’s definitely something that’s been very noticeable, that our forechecks have been very effective,” Sturm said.

Mikael Granlund also scored for San Jose.

Of course, the bottom-six helped lose the game too — they weren’t stellar on either of Vancouver’s second and third goals. But for most of the night, they were actually better than the team’s top lines — the Sharks wouldn’t have been this close without them.

You couldn’t say that last year. And soon, I guess we won’t be talking about last year so much anymore.

The Sharks are headed in the right direction, it’s just a long road to get where they want to go.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on what the San Jose Sharks can learn from tonight:

In certain situations, we have to understand what is going on in the hockey game. What is going on in the hockey game. We cannot have brain lapses that we have, line changes that we have, puck play that we have & think we’re going to win hockey games in this league.

On both goals, really, awful change. They probably could have scored on the breakaway where they hit the post, we come back, we turn over another puck. Under a minute, we have some veteran guys out there that need to understand what’s going on in the game, and we turn over a puck again.

It’s digging in more, being more being more competitive in those situations. Focus level has got to go up. So we got to learn from it.

Warsofsky, on Liljegren’s Sharks’ debut:

Lily was good. He did some things, moved some pucks. Obviously, hasn’t played a lot of hockey, so I’m sure he’ll get better as the games go on.

Warsofsky, on the Sharks’ forecheck:

When we put pucks where we can get them on the forecheck, [then] we have a good forecheck, we sustain O-zone pressure. But when we give pucks [to their] goaltender, and we don’t put pucks where they need to so we can forecheck them is where we get into trouble, and for whatever reason, we can’t figure that out yet.

Warsofsky, on Ethan Cardwell and Danil Gushchin, who flip-flopped lines:

I thought both of them actually were pretty solid tonight. Obviously, Cards, a couple of reads without the puck that need to improve. The game picks up at certain moments that he’ll have to develop some of those habits. I thought Goosh had poise with the puck and was trying to the right things, being more physical.

Timothy Liljegren

Liljegren, on his first game in a while, and how long it’ll take him to feel comfortable:

Thought it was okay. Haven’t played for a long while, a long time now, so just try and go out there and play simple, hard, and get my legs back and get up to game speed.

Probably take a couple of more games for me to feel like myself again.

Jake Walman

Walman, on leaving the game after an awkward Brock Boeser hit:

Yeah, it was a hard hit. I have to protect myself better. It’s a rough sport.

Walman, on what happened on the Canucks’ game-winner:

I got to take control of that play and be closer on my guy. Obviously, my guy put it in the net, and that’s on me. I got to be better there. Hold myself accountable, and that’s just the standard that we got to go by. We can’t be letting that stuff slide.

Nico Sturm

Sturm, on how San Jose Sharks can improve:

We made a couple of, I would call mental errors, communication errors. There’s a tough change coming off of that power play.

I’d have to watch it again, but never really want to change in the neutral zone when they have the puck. They quick up it on us. They get a [breakaway], we’re all out of sorts.

I thought we played a really good game for the most part, against a really, really good hockey team, we got to mention that too, right? So yeah, it’s frustrating.