PHILADELPHIA – All the San Jose Sharks can hope to do, at this point, is learn and be better.
On the verge of being mathematically eliminated from the playoff chase tonight, the Sharks lost 3-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers. San Jose will officially be eliminated if the Vegas Golden Knights earn at least a point tonight.
Of course, San Jose has been out of the post-season chase since their 0-10-1 start.
But maybe they can learn something from tonight, veterans and youngsters alike, that they can apply to next season.
First, when you’re about to get an extended 5-on-3, give up the puck.
Midway through the second period, down a goal, the Sharks were on the power play. Garnet Hathaway was called for elbowing, giving San Jose about 40 seconds on a 5-on-3, but only if the Flyers touched the puck.
“I think everybody on the bench was yelling, ‘Give it to them!’ Maybe they didn’t hear us?” San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn mused dryly.
Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin, Alexander Barabanov, Jacob MacDonald, Filip Zadina, and Klim Kostin were on the ice, and they opted to move the puck around, getting a couple of okay chances, and frittering away 29 seconds of a potential two-man advantage. No one is telling the power play to pass up Grade-A opportunities, but there appeared to be some lack of urgency with the puck movement.
Zadina did manage to score his second goal of the night at the end of the Hathaway penalty, so all’s well that ends well, I guess?
Or not. Second, stop puck watching!
That’s a hard habit to break, but it’s what led to Owen Tippett’s eventual game-winner.
It looks like William Eklund, who actually played some pretty detail-oriented hockey tonight, got lost in passer Travis Konecny’s eyes.
“We just fell asleep,” Quinn said. “We just got puck-watching and allowed that backdoor play.”
Third, when your goaltender loses his stick, if you can’t hand it back to him, take the icing.
Thrun’s mistake is what’s whistled, but Givani Smith and Marc-Edouard Vlasic appeared to have chances to ice the puck earlier in the play.
“Be a little more alert. Circumstances, know the goalie has lost his stick and just get a whistle so he can get his stick and we can reset,” Quinn said.
There was a similar incident in October in Tampa Bay when Mackenzie Blackwood lost his stick. There was no penalty taken there, but that sequence was noteworthy because the Sharks neglected to hand their goalie his stick for about a minute.
These are the details that turn a one-goal game against you,u ultimately wasting Zadina’s two goals and 38 Magnus Chrona saves.
David Quinn
Quinn, on what happened on the Owen Tippett 6-on-5 game-winner:
Well, we just fell asleep. We just got puck-watching and allowed that backdoor play.
Quinn, on Henry Thrun’s throwing the stick penalty:
Be a little more alert. Circumstances, know the goalie has lost his stick and just get a whistle [with an icing] so he can get his stick and we can reset.
Quinn, on the San Jose Sharks frittering away possible 5-on-3 time in the second period by holding onto the puck for too long on the delayed penalty:
I think everybody on the bench was yelling, “Give it to them!” Maybe they didn’t hear us?
Quinn, on Zadina’s recent scoring tear:
I think he’s doing a much better job understanding how to score in this league. You’re not gonna go coast-to-coast, you gotta move pucks, you gotta get inside more.
I think he’s having a better understanding what’s going to take to be productive in this league.
The way you score in juniors isn’t the way you score here.
Sometimes, it takes a long time for people to really realize that because you’re asking them to do things that they’re not comfortable doing. They’ve played a certain way for a long time.
All of a sudden, you get to the National Hockey League, and you got to play a little bit different brand of hockey in order to be productive offensively and he’s starting to get that.
Filip Zadina
Zadina, on Tomas Hertl leaving the San Jose Sharks:
He meant the same to me, what he meant for the whole organization. He was one of the best, and obviously, it’s hard to lose a guy like Tomas, but we wish him well in Vegas, and hopefully, he’ll be one of the best there.
We just spoke a little bit, nothing important.
Just wished him good luck, and hopefully, he can go as far as he can in Vegas.
Luke Kunin
Kunin, on what the San Jose Sharks could’ve done better to come out of a 2-2 game heading into the third period with a win:
Just do a better job 5-on-5 throughout the game. I think we were good on the power play, I thought the kill was pretty good, just some lapses 5-on-5 via turnovers.
They were definitely more physical than us.
Kunin, on his talk with GM Mike Grier around the Trade Deadline and his desire to stay:
He brought me in. I want to be here. I want to be a part of the solution. I want to help turn this thing around.
It’s nice to have that pass, the Deadline, obviously, for a lot of guys. Now we can just go out and play and not think about it.
Kunin, on the kind of individual example that he wants to set as a locker room leader:
Just everyday, doing the right thing, showing the right way to go about your business. I played with some pretty special players and seen how it’s done the right way. I feel like just trying to do that.
Not change really too much, [like] try to speak all the time. Just be myself and do what I do and the rest should take care of itself.
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