Sharks Locker Room: Faith Rewarded

SALT LAKE CITY — Faith rewarded.

Believe it or not, the San Jose Sharks have actually played a fair amount of decent hockey this season, their 0-7-2 record going into Monday’s night tilt with Utah Hockey Club be damned.

Despite the record, this was not last year’s historically bad Sharks’ squad.

But it was getting to the point that San Jose needed to get some reward for good hockey played, which they hadn’t received all season. It’s human nature, right? If you continue to not get rewarded for doing the right things, it’s easy to stop doing the right things.

It looked like the Sharks were going to go home empty-handed once again, with five minutes left to go, down 4-1, despite outshooting Utah 28-11 in the second and third periods.

And then?

Zetterlund scores his second goal of the night 🔥 pic.twitter.com/swFg6i9dle

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 29, 2024

Granlund puts the Sharks within one 👀 pic.twitter.com/jMlC6ZAIxe

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 29, 2024

TYLER TOFFOLI TIES IT pic.twitter.com/ntajVPd5vq

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 29, 2024

Three goals in 1:50, and then…

WENNBERG COMPLETES THE COMEBACK ‼ SHARKS WIN pic.twitter.com/177SiuFxKY

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 29, 2024

“There was times we did some really, really good things and just didn’t get rewarded for it,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said about his first NHL victory. “But we stuck with it. We just kept playing. And that’s going to be our mindset. We’re never going to give up.”

More than perhaps anything, more than even wins, that’s the culture that GM Mike Grier wanted to instill after last season’s radioactive disaster area.

That never-quit attitude is the foundation of a winning culture, that leads to actual victories once the talent, your Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith and William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund and Henry Thrun and Danil Gushchin and company mature. Winning culture plus winning talent equals winning lots of games.

But the San Jose Sharks squad that got embarrassed 7-3 in Vegas for a ninth-straight loss on Saturday? That looked a little too much like last year’s outfit, a team ready to quit.

And last year’s San Jose squad would have probably packed it in after Mikhail Sergachev’s seeing-eye point shot that gave Utah a 4-1 lead at the end of the middle frame. Or the back-breaking Matias Maccelli strike that made it 3-1, just 1:26 after Zetterlund scored the Sharks’ first goal.

Instead, the Sharks, more impressive than the three goals scored in 1:50, kept playing hard and structured hockey with little reward through the second and third periods.

“That’s what we kind of said after the second period is whoever plays the simplest is going to have the most success in the third period. I can’t tell [you] we’re going to win or lose a game, but I think we’ll have the most success,” Warsofsky said. “And I thought we kept our game extremely simple, north-south. Hard puck plays, got pucks to the net, and we just stuck with it.”

Faith rewarded.

Will this victory be a springboard this season and bury all talk about the 2023-24 Sharks?

“I feel like we have a really good team here,” Alex Wennberg said. “We just gotta find a way to just keep going at it.”

Warsofsky, Zetterlund, Tyler Toffoli, and Wennberg spoke after the “Miracle in Utah”.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on how his first NHL win feels:

Relief. I think it was the biggest thing. Look, I didn’t really do much. The players, credit to them. They stuck with it. There was times we did some really, really good things and just didn’t get rewarded for it. But we stuck with it. We just kept playing. And that’s going to be our mindset. We’re never going to give up.

Warsofsky, on Zetterlund’s sense of purpose tonight:

He does that a lot of the time. He’s vocal on the bench. He’s keeping our guys engaged. He works extremely hard. For him to get rewarded there with that goal is nice, and that’s how he needs to play every single night. And I think he had a one of his best games tonight.

Warsofsky, on how Zetterlund has handled a slightly-reduced role this season:

Hasn’t complained once, just puts his head down, goes to work, and that’s what we need. He’s done some really good things. I think there’s a whole ‘nother level he can get to, and we’re going to keep pushing him and challenging him to get there.

Warsofsky, on how the Sharks played in the second and third periods:

That’s what we kind of said after the second period is whoever plays the simplest is going to have the most success in the third period. I can’t tell [you] we’re going to win or lose a game, but I think we’ll have the most success. And I thought we kept our game extremely simple, north-south. Hard puck plays, got pucks to the net, and we just stuck with it.

Warsofsky, on how much of a relief this win is for the San Jose Sharks room:

The relief and the belief. We’ve got a group of guys in there that are gonna believe a lot more now, and that’s what this is all about…You’ve got to believe that you can win a hockey game no matter what the situation is…We can get that going here.

Warsofsky, on Mikael Granlund and Tyler Toffoli:

Mikael has been our best player, most consistent player all year…And Toff, I thought that was his best game as a Shark. [They] were engaged and they were helping our younger players and they were leading from the front, and they did a great job, both of them.

Fabian Zetterlund

Zetterlund, on the sense of purpose that he played with from the first shift tonight:

Yeah, of course, I want more, I want to hold onto the puck, be physical out there, and take the puck to the net as much as I can. I think I stepped it up today. It was a great game.

Zetterlund, on if this is the most fun win that he’s had with the San Jose Sharks:

I would say that’s the first one, and definitely not the
last one.

Tyler Toffoli

Toffoli, on how much a shot in the arm this victory was for the team’s belief in itself:

We got to keep grinding. We got to keep working and keep getting better as a group and keep having fun. That was the thing with yesterday in practice. We didn’t watch any of the Vegas game. We came, had fun, worked, and we had a good outcome tonight.

Toffoli, on how fun it was to win:

(smiles) It’s fun to win hockey.

Alex Wennberg

Wennberg, on if the belief in the San Jose Sharks room had been flagging:

At the end of the day, I feel like we always had the belief. Obviously, it’s been tough. We haven’t really executed. There’s been games where we had the chance to win the games, we haven’t. But at the end of the day, I feel like we have a really good team here. We just gotta find a way to just keep going at it. And today, obviously we find ways to play a little bit better. But I mean, the belief is always there. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. No one here wants to lose. No one is happy with the record we have, and that’s why, right now, we find a win and we just build on it.