This season continues to be one of ups and downs for the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks have figured out, so far, how to stave off strings of losses. That’s a step in the positive direction. However, stringing together those wins is still something that eludes the team. After the Sharks’ 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, forward Ryan Reaves summed it up the best.
Reaves: “Win one, lose one, play well, play like shit, just not going to cut it.”
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 10, 2025
”Win one, lose one, play well, play like shit, just not going to cut it,” Reaves told San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng after the game.
His comments are one of the reasons why San Jose traded for him in the offseason. The Sharks need players like Reaves who know what it takes to create a winning culture and what happened in Philadelphia is not it.
The Sharks allowed themselves to get pushed around by the Flyers and has been the case too often this season, if Macklin Celebrini isn’t scoring, then the team doesn’t seem to have a shot in hell of winning. Celebrini and his linemates were held to a single goal. Of the Sharks four lines, the trio of Celebrini, Will Smith and CollinGraf had the worst Corsi at 5-on-5 according to Natural Stat Trick.
Again, Celebrini is getting a heavy dose of team’s top defensive lines on the road and the next step in his growth journey is going to be figuring out how to battle through it. So far, he it hasn’t worked and being on a line with other young players who also don’t have that skill set yet isn’t helping.
Klingberg misplaced in the lineup
I don’t want to bash John Klingberg because I think he’s trying his very best out there. That said, things are not looking good for the defenseman. According to HockeyStatCards, Klingberg was the Sharks’ worst defenseman last night.
That is no bueno when you realize that Klingberg played the most minutes out of any of the Sharks’ defensemen. Klingberg played 22:19 last night, followed by Mario Ferraro who played 21:46. Dmitry Orlov, who was the Sharks’ second worst defenseman last night, got his ice time greatly reduced, playing only 15:55. However, Timothy Liljegren, who statistically, was the team’s second best defenseman played 18:30, received the third most ice time.
It is getting harder and harder to ignore the blind spot that this coaching staff seems to have for Klingberg. Yes, there’s what he could be as a defenseman. However, it’s starting to come at the detriment of some of our younger defensemen and it’s taking minutes and even games away from players who need this time to develop.
What happens if Klingberg plays sheltered minutes with Sam Dickinson on the third line. Does it inflate his stats and make him potentially more appealing to teams looking for a depth defenseman. No one is deluding themselves into thinking Klingberg is a 1/2 defenseman. So why are we?
Moreover, what happens if another player gets the confidence of guaranteed playing time the way Klingberg does? What kind of games could a player like Shakir Mukhamadullin string together with similar confidence with the coaching staff? Would it be worse than the performances we’ve seen from Klingberg in the last few games?