Tag: inside sports

SAN JOSE – Thomas Bordeleau’s lower-body injury could have a ripple effect throughout the San Jose Sharks’ lineup, particularly in the competition for one of the team’s final few roster spots.

Bordeleau was injured in a Sharks’ practice over the weekend and was, or is, competing to start the season in the NHL, perhaps as a third-line winger. Now he’s considered week-to-week, with the Sharks unsure if he can start the regular season on time.

Who jumps into Bordeleau’s spot, should he have to miss the next couple of weeks, might become one of the bigger storylines in training camp as the Sharks’ preseason continues with Thursday’s game in Anaheim against the Ducks.

On Tuesday, some NHL hopefuls tried to make a case for themselves in what became a 4-3 loss to Anaheim before an announced crowd of 9,462 at SAP Center.

Forward Danil Gushchin scored and added an assist, and veterans Jake Walman and Alexander Wennberg also scored. But the Sharks fell to 0-2-0 in the preseason, thanks mainly to a sloppy second period when San Jose allowed four unanswered goals.

“We’re going to have to peel some scabs back from the last couple of years and understand that to win in this league, you have to do it shift after shift after shift after shift,” Sharks coach Ryan Warosfsky said. “There’s guys in there that have won Stanley Cups and have won a lot of hockey games in this league, and I’m going to rely on those guys quite a bit to drive that home.”

Can Gushchin make a roster push? His offensive talents have never been in question. But can he be responsible on the defensive end?

“Good first period, and just like everyone else, not a good second period,” Warsofsky said of Gushchin. “I thought he bounced back in the third and showed some moments. Another young guy who needs to find his way a little bit, and he has a lot to work on.”

Things figure to get a little tougher from here for all players competing for a spot on the Sharks roster as opposing teams start to dress more NHL regulars in games. Anaheim’s lineup Tuesday mainly featured players who will start the season in the AHL.

Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s game.

SMITH’S PLAY: Top prospect Will Smith displayed his vision and playmaking ability in the first period, as he set up winger Tyler Toffoli for a quality scoring chance on the power play. Smith finished with over 21 minutes of ice time, had two shots on goal, and won 4 of 8 faceoffs.

“I thought he was pretty good,” Warsofsky said. “He handled some things, he got inside ice, played with some pace. Obviously, there’s some things he needs to work on, but I liked his game tonight.”

Smith’s spot on the 23-man roster seems assured, and his offensive skills figure to land him on the scoresheet at some point here. However, his biggest growth area as an NHL centerman will be in the defensive zone.

Being a Massachusetts native, Smith watched former Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, one of the best two-way centers in NHL history, play regularly. Being a part of the same agency as Bergeron, the two have also gotten to know each other off the ice.

“We were supposed to get out and golf before I left (the Boston area), but it got a little busy, having to go to the (NHLPA) rookie orientation,” Smith said before Tuesday’s game. “But he said whenever I want to reach out, it’ll be good.”

Having a six-time Selke Trophy winner a phone call away is a pretty valuable resource for an offensive wizard like Smith, who faced questions about his two-way game in his draft year. He also knows it’ll be a work in progress as he starts to compete against some of the best centers in the world, particularly in the Pacific Division.

“(Bergeron) touched on there’s going to be ups and downs — everyone has said that to me — and it’s a tough league for a reason, the best one in the world,” Smith said, “so you’ve got to be there for the ups and the downs.”

IDENTITY PLAY: After Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights, Warsofsky said the team needed to start playing closer to its desired identity: playing with pace and having numbers around the puck all game.

“We want to be on top of the opponent,” Warsofsky said. “We had two or three guys doing it. We didn’t have four or five guys doing it. And we want to play a little bit quicker, coming out of own end a little bit cleaner.”

The Sharks started off well with goals from Gushchin and Wennberg in the first 11:59 of the opening period. Anaheim, though, controlled things in the second period, and some of the Sharks’ defensive breakdowns that bit them Sunday cropped up again Tuesday.

“My biggest takeaway is probably a lot of guys trying to get used to each other and getting used to a new system,” Sharks defenseman Jake Walman said. “It was scrambly at times, but (we’re) trying to kind of set the standard of working hard and skating.”

MAKING A STATEMENT: Just like during Sunday’s game when Givani Smith went after Kaedan Korczak after the Golden Knights defensemen hit Macklin Celebrini, a host of Sharks went at Ducks forward Jansen Harkins, including Barclay Goodrow and Fabian Zetterlund, after he and Smith exchanged cross-checks. Harkins received a penalty, and Smith did not.

That’s a non-negotiable for the Sharks this year. If opposing teams take liberties with the Sharks’ best young players, there has to be a response. No questions asked.

“I think we’ve touched on being connected, and obviously, those guys have my back there,” Smith said. “Feels nice when you’re going out there knowing your two linemates are going to be there for you.”

FIRST ACTION: Goalie Vitek Vanecek played the first half of Tuesday game and stopped 11 of 12 shots. It was a step in the right direction for Vanecek, who had his 2023-24 season end prematurely with a groin injury in February.

“He was outstanding,” Warosfsky said. “I thought he was really good. You could tell he was dialed in from the start, made some big saves. But he looked comfortable, confident. He was good tonight.”

Vanecek said he’ll take as much game action as the Sharks coaches give him to help him prepare for the season.

“February was the last game,” he said, “so it’s a long time.”

Originally Published: September 24, 2024 at 9:38 p.m.

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks prospect Will Smith had lunch this week with veteran forwards Logan Couture and Barclay Goodrow, two central players in the team’s last playoff run in 2019.

Smith, naturally, wanted to know what it was like inside SAP Center more than five-plus years ago on the night Goodrow scored a series-clinching overtime goal in Game 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights, capping arguably the wildest game in team history.

“I actually watch it back on YouTube a lot, and seeing the Shark Tank like that is pretty crazy,” Smith said. “They were telling me how it was so loud, it was just ringing the entire time.

“It’s our goal to get it back to that.”

With plenty of renewed enthusiasm following a rather transformative summer, the on-ice part of that long process for the Sharks began Thursday with the first day of the team’s training camp.

New head coach Ryan Warsofsky directed several new players, including top prospects Smith and Macklin Celebrini, through hour-long practices featuring several up-tempo drills.

The overhauled Sharks hope to be a vastly different team than the one that finished last season with an NHL-worst 19-54-9 record, giving them the best chance to draft a potential future franchise cornerstone in Celebrini.

Now, with some more pieces in place, the Sharks feel ready to take a step forward. Certainly, their record could not get much worse.

“I think last year was rock bottom for us as an organization, and now it’s time to start moving forward and pushing things forward,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “Not only myself, but I think the players and everyone’s excited to get going, turn the page and see what this year brings.”

Celebrini, who became the first player drafted No. 1 overall by the Sharks in June, already looked right at home during Thursday’s practice and intrasquad scrimmage, where he scored a couple of pretty goals and was all over the ice.

In one sequence, Celebrini buzzed around the offensive zone before he found a sliver of space in front of the opposing net. A split-second after he took the centering pass from defenseman Gannon Laroque, Celebrini ripped the puck past the glove hand of goalie Georgi Romanov.

“It’s pretty simple. Just get him the puck,” forward Tyler Toffoli said of Celebrini. “Yeah, he was pretty good out there.”

“The more you enjoy something, the more comfortable you are,” Celebrini said. “So enjoy it.”

Celebrini might start the season as the Sharks’ No. 1 center as captain Logan Couture will likely be on injured reserve to begin the year.

Couture, entering his sixth season as the Sharks’ captain, continues to deal with osteitis pubis — inflammation in the joint between the left and right pubic bones.

After missing all of training camp and the Sharks’ first 45 games, Couture last season returned and played in six straight games from Jan. 20-31 before being shelved again. But he hasn’t skated since that Jan. 31 game in Anaheim and still has no timeline for getting back onto the ice.

The Sharks open the season on Oct. 10 at home against the St. Louis Blues.

“I’ve played hockey for 30-plus years, and when it just ends abruptly, it’s difficult, especially when you don’t really have a choice. The body just breaks down,” Couture said Thursday. “But that’s the way professional sports, or sports in general, normally work, not always injuries, sometimes other reasons. But that’s the situation I’m in.”

Couture was one of four injured Sharks players unable to skate Thursday.

Goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin are both out with lower-body injuries, and veteran defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic has an upper-body injury that Warsofsky said occurred during captains skates earlier this month. Warsofsky said those three are considered day-to-day.

The Sharks would appear to be better positioned to absorb Couture’s absence than they were last season.

Celebrini and Smith played center during their standout freshman seasons at Boston University and Boston College, respectively. The Sharks also added Goodrow and Alexander Wennberg this summer and have Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm back from last season.

The Sharks’ forward group could have as many as seven or eight new players this season, and the defense corps added some needed experience with the acquisitions of Jake Walman and Cody Ceci. Askarov, the Sharks’ hope, will be the goalie of the future.

It all adds up to what the Sharks hope will be the most competitive camp in years, a message Grier relayed to the players on Wednesday.

“It’s about compete and earning your opportunities that maybe somewhat in the past, (there were) guys in the lineup or on the roster that maybe shouldn’t have been,” Grier said. “Now there’s legitimate competition throughout, and there’s no one where we don’t feel like we have to force someone onto the lineup.

“That was kind of the message to the guys, young and old. If you want a spot and you want to earn something, you’ve got to go out there and take it. No one’s going to give it to you anymore.”

The Sharks were in a downward spiral for three years before Grier’s arrival in the summer of 2022, yet the front office at the time was still unwilling to publicly state that they needed to rebuild after a decade and a half of success.

Then Grier arrived, ripped off the band-aid, stripped the roster down to the studs, and endured two of the most painful seasons in franchise history.

But now, with a restocked farm system led by Celebrini, is when all that heartache starts to pay off. Or at least, that’s the hope.

“I think we’re all trying to look forward,” Grier said. “We appreciate what was done here. I think (former Sharks GM) Doug (Wilson) did a great job, and it was something special to be so competitive for such a long time. But now I think it’s our turn and the group’s turn to start writing their own history.”