LOS ANGELES - The San Jose Sharks left another ugly night behind them with a players-only meeting, a 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings serving as the latest jolt in a season that already feels like it’s asking hard questions.
Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg scored for San Jose, but the goals didn’t change the mood. The Sharks were still searching for answers after a game that pushed Kiefer Sherwood to speak bluntly about the team’s effort and togetherness.
“We’re gonna fix our work ethic next game, and we’re going to get gritty. The outcome, sometimes you can control, sometimes you can’t,” Sherwood said.
“But things that we can control, bringing the energy, bringing the work, being a good teammate, bringing good communication, things like that. That’s the stuff we’re going to fix.”
Sherwood didn’t stop there. He called the performance “unacceptable” and said the group has to take ownership of what’s happening on the ice.
“It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough.
It’s not good enough to a man, to a team. It’s not.
It’s not on the coaches right now. We’re not winning our battles.
We’re not being hard to play against. We’re not making plays.
It’s not good enough. We gotta turn it on here.
We gotta stick together here, obviously going through some growing pains, but we got to look ourselves in the mirror & do something about it. They’re up 6-2.
Put their top power play out. Panarin’s blocking shots, celebrating to his bench.
It’s disrespectful. Until we do something about it.
Things aren’t going to change unless we man up and do something about it.”
He also said the group isn’t clicking right now.
“I don’t know. I don’t know.
We’re not connected right now. I think there’s intangibles, talking and helping each other out sometimes, and you can see that we’re not on the same page.”
Sherwood agreed the Sharks are emotionally fragile at the moment, a point that showed up early after the first goal they allowed.
The response came in the form of a players-only meeting after the game, and Sherwood said the message was straightforward.
“We just had one. We’re gonna move forward here.
We got a lot to learn, and listen, it’s better to go through growing pains now than later on, right? But we’re gonna stick together, and we’re gonna get through it together, and we’re gonna fix our mindset.
We’re gonna fix our work ethic next game, and we’re going to get gritty. The outcome, sometimes you can control, sometimes you can’t.
But things that we can control, bringing the energy, bringing the work, being a good teammate, bringing good communication, things like that. That’s the stuff we’re going to fix.”
Celebrini kept his comments focused on the room and the players, saying the group believes in itself and has to sort it out together.
“We know what we have in this room, we believe in each other, and we’re a team, first and foremost. Just kind of figuring it out.”
He said the meeting’s message stays inside the room and pushed back on the idea that the Sharks are emotionally fragile.
“We’re frustrated. We’re not happy with the way we’re playing.
We need to move forward. You can’t really dwell on it.”
On the question of whether the slump falls on the coaching staff, Celebrini pointed back to the players.
“We’re the ones on the ice. It’s not nothing in the structure or anything that’s going really wrong. I think it’s just to a man, we just need to be better.”
Rookie Eric Pohlkamp, making his NHL debut, said the speed jump was obvious right away.
“Yeah, I noticed a lot of guys [had] a lot more speed. They like to fly the zone.
Just have your head on a swivel. Got some really fast players out there, and I’d say that’s the biggest thing overall.”
Head coach Ryan Warsofsky pointed to consistency as the main issue, while still saying there were some things to build on.
“Just some of the consistency issues, things that we’ve talked about, we’re just a little off. There’s some things that, believe it or not, were some positives, and we’ll work from that. But yeah, there’s still some things we got to get cleaned up.”
Warsofsky also said he believes his message is getting through, while noting he has to examine his own approach too.
“I think it’s been good. We’ve had some good meetings.
Our guys understand how we need to play. We show it daily.
But you know, I got to look in the mirror myself. When we’re in these types of situations, are there things that I can do differently?
We’ll look at it and we’ll go from there.”
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