Despite beating the Utah Mammoth 3-2 in overtime behind Macklin Celebrini’s hat trick, San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsfosky didn’t like how his team played.
The Sharks coach repeated what he said postgame during practice on Wednesday: he didn’t like many aspects of the game.
“I didn’t really love our game. We get a fortunate power play, and we score on the 4-on-3. To be honest, there were times in that game that looked like last year,” Warsofsky said.
Last season, the Sharks lost 15 games in which they led at some point in the third period. The team had a record of 12-8-5 when they had a lead to start the final frame.
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Sharks forward Will Smith agreed with his head coach, saying the game should’ve never gotten to overtime.
“We’ve got to be better in the third period. That game probably shouldn’t have gone to overtime, but we got the job done,” Smith said.
The Sharks were outshot 26-22 in the game, including 11-4 in favor of the Mammoth in the third period. Warsofsky said his team his getting lucky.
“That’s something we have to fix, and we need to be better. We have to have maturity in our group right now. We’re not playing that well, and we need to get it on the rails here quickly,” Warsofsky said. “There’s a lot of hockey ahead of us. We’re playing with fire. We’re making it extremely hard on ourselves to win hockey games.”
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Third periods are still a struggle for the San Jose Sharks. While their team goal differential for the season is -5, third periods remain the Sharks’ biggest problem. San Jose is tied with the Edmonton Oilers for the 5th-worst goal differential in the third at -7.
The Sharks are also tied with the Calgary Flames for the fewest goals scored in the third period, with 15.
“The D-pairs did some good things, but there’s definitely room for improvement,” Warsofsky said. “We’ll make some decisions tomorrow.”
Power play changes to come
Five forwards on the top power play unit is on the table for the San Jose Sharks. Warsofsky says the team has discussed using that layout and is comfortable with Alexander Wennberg running the point.
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John Klingberg was a healthy scratch against the Mammoth and had been running the top unit. Wednesday’s practice was optional, and Klingberg participated.
Warsofsky understands the power play needs improvement, but the personnel for the next wave of changes have yet to be revealed.
“We had a good discussion with those guys on the power play, especially that top unit. But we got to get more on the same page, and we got to cue in on the details of what teams are doing against us and how we want to approach it and go execute it,” Warsofsky explained.
“We’ve got to win more pucks. We don’t put teams in chaos enough. We’ll get to the personnel tomorrow, but at the end of the day, we don’t have a shooting mentality. We don’t go on the attack enough to get teams out of structure. That is the biggest issue right now with our power play.”
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Warsofsky also said postgame that the Sharks will make changes to their power play units.
The Sharks had a power play in the second period, and Warsofsky began with the second unit, which features Sam Dickinson, due to the top group’s lack of success.
It is unclear at this moment if Klingberg or Timothy Liljegren will return to the Sharks lineup. The Sharks host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.
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