SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks start a four-game road trip on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils, and it’s clear from their perspective what needs to improve between now and then.
It’s not a short list.
“We’re on our heels too much, and that’s a lot of it has to do with our puck play,” forward Mikael Granlund said after the Sharks’ 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
“You’ve got to be connected as a five-man unit on the ice,” Sharks center Macklin Celebrini said.
“It starts with our breakouts,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Turn over some pucks, go back with a couple pucks, which we don’t want to do, and then they end up in the back of our net.”
After enduring a nine-game losing streak, the Sharks stabilized their season over the past 10 days with close wins over Utah, Los Angeles, Chicago, and, most recently, Columbus. But losses like Thursday demonstrate how much further the Sharks still have to go before they can genuinely call themselves contenders.
Pressured by the Wild, the Sharks were a mess at times in their own zone, repeatedly unable to break the puck out clean against a hard-forechecking team. That lack of connectivity often resulted in turnovers, leading to some quality scoring chances for the visitors.
While the Sharks played to their identity at times earlier on their homestand, the bigger and more experienced Wild took them out of their game.
One can say the rebuilding Sharks (4-9-2) are in a different phase right now than the Wild (9-2-2), who are on track to make the playoffs for the 11th time in 13 years. But the Sharks, with an overhauled roster this season, expect a bit more out of themselves than what they put forth Thursday and aim to be competitive on a more regular basis.
“We need to get on the forecheck,” Granlund said. “But the thing is, we need to get all five guys over the red line with speed to able to forecheck. If there’s only one guy forechecking, we’re never going to get the puck back.”
It won’t get any easier for San Jose on Sunday against a Devils team that is seventh in the NHL in both scoring (3.63 goals per game) and goals allowed (2.81 per game). After New Jersey, the Sharks play the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, the New York Rangers on Thursday, and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 16.
The Sharks travel to New Jersey on Friday and practice Saturday to prepare for the Devils.
“There’s a lot of areas in our game that need to continue to improve,” Warsofsky said. “It’s up to myself and the coaching staff to continue to push this group and get them to learn certain aspects of our game that need to improve.”
Takeaways from Thursday:
LINE SHAKEUPS: Warsofsky shook up his line combinations in the third period, notably demoting William Eklund to the fourth line alongside Nico Sturm and Carl Grundstrom, and moving up Ty Dellandrea to play with Celebrini and Fabian Zetterlund.
Eklund averaged nearly 21 minutes of ice time per night before Thursday and had nine points in his first 13 games. But Warsofsky didn‘t like what he saw from Eklund against the Wild and perhaps hasn’t liked what he’s seen from the forward in some time.
Eklund didn’t have a shot on goal Thursday and finished with a season-low 15:21 in ice time. He now has just three shots on goal and just one assist in his last three games.
“I need more from (Eklund),” Warsofsky said, later adding that Eklund needs to “impact the game. Somehow, someway. He knows that, we’ve talked about it, we’ll continue to work with him and help them get through this.”
Former Sharks coach David Quinn used a similar tactic last season with Eklund, moving him down to the fourth line after he struggled to produce on the second line. Eklund got the message, responded well, and finished the year on a positive note.
The Sharks continue to expect a lot from Eklund, who is still developing. For the Sharks’ rebuild to work, he has to become one of their most consistent and productive players.
MISSING WALMAN: While defenseman Timothy Liljegren appears to be getting more comfortable with the Sharks with each passing game, it’s clear that they need to get Jake Walman back in the lineup to help stabilize things on the back end.
Through 13 games, Walman had nine points and was second among all Sharks skaters in average time on ice before he was held out of the lineup for Tuesday’s game against Columbus. Warsofsky held him out of the lineup that night for non-hockey-related reasons, and Walman missed Thursday’s game for health reasons.
Walman is day-to-day with an upper-body injury but will be on the road trip. He’ll be welcomed back.
CELEBRINI’S PROGRESS: Celebrini on Thursday scored goals at the 4:36 mark of the second period and 16:08 mark of the third, both off assists from Granlund and both on Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Celebrini, 18, is the youngest player in the NHL, and the 39-year-old Fleury, a noted practical joker who is expected to retire at the end of the season after a 21-year career, is the oldest.
Fleury, a sure-fire hall-of-famer, is now 19-5-4 in 28 career games against the Sharks. Thursday’s game might have been his last start at SAP Center.
“I mean, he’s been in the league longer than I’ve been alive,” Celebrini said of Fleury. “So It’s been amazing to watch his career. The runs he had with Pittsburgh and Vegas, and even him in Chicago and now Minnesota. He seems like a great personality, and it’s been fun to watch his off-ice antics as much as his play.”
More importantly, Celebrini, who was in his second game back after a 12-game absence with a hip injury, looked less rusty against the Wild, although he said there are still some things he needs to clean up, particularly in the defensive zone.
“We’ve got to talk more. We’ve got to figure out how to play,” Celebrini said. “We’ve got to play harder, not just let them just walk around our zone.”