Macklin Celebrini is special, and Sharks fans absolutely should enjoy that. But that’s not Ryan Warsofsky’s job.
Last week, the head coach raised eyebrows for getting real about the Sharks’ playoff chances.
“Where we’re at as a team is, no offense, but reading all this stuff about playoffs and where we are,” Warsofsky said last Friday, “we got a long way to go here.”
Warsofsky struck a similar tone on Wednesday, when asked about Will Smith’s risky-but-remarkable pass on Celebrini’s first goal, part of the superstar’s hat trick in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Utah Mammoth.
“There’s another level that they can both get to within their game. Not just the points and the goals and the assists, [but] for us to win consistently, and really go on and really start building this thing,” Warsofsky said. “We have to have an understanding on how we need to play the game and winning habits and what it looks like.”
Call Warsofsky a buzzkill, but he’s right.
And that’s his job as a head coach, not to celebrate Celebrini’s hat trick or being one game over .500 again, but to get his team to the next level and the next and the next, until the Sharks hoist their first-ever Stanley Cup.
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