It doesn\u2019t take an NHL GM to figure out that the San Jose Sharks need to improve their defense to get to the next level.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no disrespect, truly, to their current blueliners, who have done admirable work to help the Sharks to a surprising 23-19-3.<\/p>\n
But if the San Jose Sharks are going to be a Cup contender, like their counterparts on Sunday night, the Vegas Golden Knights, they\u2019re going to need some internal and external growth on the blueline in the coming years.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t an overreaction to a 7-2 loss on Sunday to Vegas.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what a league source, not with the San Jose Sharks or Knights, texted San Jose Hockey Now during the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sharks need more skill and more bite on the backend. They\u2019ve got a couple of average puck-movers now \u2014 way better than previous years,\u201d he noted. \u201cBut they get exposed in coverage. Compete is there, but against heavy teams like this, they get pushed around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everybody, of course, wants more skill and bite and heaviness down low, to compete with the Jack Eichels and Mark Stones and Tomas Hertls of the world. And this doesn\u2019t mean that the Sharks should invest in just big, heavy defenders in the future.<\/p>\n
A great defense is about balance, a winning formula of skill and bite and heaviness that can play any way that you want.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s clear that the San Jose Sharks need more defensemen who can first and foremost, end plays\u2026like the Golden Knights also have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got big trees back there. That is the new era of the National Hockey League is big, long defensemen,\u201d Warsofsky said of Vegas, who checked in at 6-foot-2 or above with every one of their defensemen tonight. \u201cSo if you\u2019re big and long and you\u2019ve got some ability to play, make some plays, and close and kill plays, you\u2019ll play in this league for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if you\u2019ve got enough of these guys, you might be a contender for a very long time, too, like Vegas has been.<\/p>\n
Ryan Warsofsky<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on what makes the Vegas power play so lethal:<\/p>\n
One, they have everything you really want on a power play.<\/p>\n
They have an elite guy on the half-wall in Eichel. They got a big guy in Stone as a righty, and then they have Tommy in the middle as a lefty, and then they get a one-timer on the flank, and then you get Mitch Marner on top, and that\u2019s without Theodore.<\/p>\n
There [are] dangerous weapons at all five spots, that\u2019s what makes it difficult.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Michael Misa<\/p>\n
Misa, on what he did well tonight, what he needs to improve:<\/p>\n
I thought I came out with speed. Defensively, some things I need to clean up, getting back to this level. But yeah, I thought I was moving my feet well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
John Klingberg<\/p>\n
Klingberg, on what makes the Vegas Golden Knights\u2019 power play so good:<\/p>\n
They\u2019re just very poised with the puck. They know their outs when they don\u2019t face the net either, when they have their back [to the net], they know where their outs are, and they\u2019re bringing the puck to net. They\u2019ve been playing together for so long, they know each other very well. They\u2019re a great PP.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Alex Wennberg<\/p>\n
Wennberg, on how the San Jose Sharks can emulate how the Vegas Golden Knights play 5-on-5:<\/p>\n
The way they\u2019re shrinking the zone. Obviously, you don\u2019t really get that much time and space. They\u2019re quick, closing time. For us, maybe get some momentum, get some long shifts, it\u2019s a little bit one-and-done. So obviously, they did a good job.<\/p>\n
But like I said, I feel like every time we talk about us playing good hockey, it\u2019s always come down to our identity and how we play. And right now, no matter who we play against, what team it is, we got to go back to what we know we can be successful with. And today, I didn\u2019t feel we played that game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It doesn\u2019t take an NHL GM to figure out that the San Jose Sharks need to improve their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[12301,5631,58,5,691,375,4,748,519,168,5306,5305,1780,5787],"class_list":{"0":"post-403115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-2025-26","9":"tag-alex-wennberg","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-john-klingberg","13":"tag-michael-misa","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","16":"tag-san-jose","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-sanjose","19":"tag-sanjosesharks","20":"tag-sharks","21":"tag-sharks-locker-room"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115881097544629112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}