Tag: south bay

SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini stood inside the San Jose Sharks dressing room and seemed to be in disbelief that he and his teammates were going through this again. Outside the room, coach Ryan Warsofsky, who has now been through four straight agonizingly slow starts with the team, facetiously said he’d give up one of his two young children for a win right now.

“Trust me, it sucks,” Warsofsky said Saturday night. “I keep telling myself, there’s a reason why this keeps happening.”

A Sharks season that was hoped to be a little bit better than the previous few has so far turned out to be anything but, as San Jose enters a challenging four-game road trip this week as the NHL’s last remaining winless team.

The Sharks fell to 0-3-2 with a 3-0 loss to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night at SAP Center. Responding after poor performances against the Carolina Hurricanes and Utah Mammoth earlier in the week, the Sharks were the better team for the final two periods as they established a forecheck, outchanced the Penguins, and kept Pittsburgh’s shots on goal to a minimum.

Still, the Sharks were unable to beat Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry, who made 31 saves, as they were shut out for the first time this season. Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 18 saves in a frenetic first period, but Crosby scored a second-period goal on a tipped shot, and Anthony Mantha and Evgeni Malkin both scored in the third, with Malkin’s being an empty-netter, to hand San Jose its third straight regulation-time loss.

“The only way we’re going to get those bounces is if we keep working for them. They’re not just going to happen,” Nedeljkovic said. “We have to earn those bounces. And if we play like we did tonight, more times than not, coming up, we’ll start getting some.”

While the goaltending took a step forward Saturday, the Sharks have still managed just two even-strength goals in their last three games.

“I think we have a really tight group, and it’s just hard,” Celebrini said, “especially when you play some good games, do some good things, and it just feels like it hasn’t really kind of connected yet.”

The Sharks begin a four-game road trip on Tuesday against Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NHL Draft, and the New York Islanders. That’s followed by games against the New York Rangers on Thursday, the New Jersey Devils on Friday, and the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

The Sharks were 0-5-0 to begin the 2022-23 season, started 0-10-1 in 2023-24, and 0-7-2 last year. Warsofsky has unfortunately been a part of every dismal start, as he was an assistant under David Quinn from 2022 to 2024 before he was named the Sharks’ head coach.

This year’s team is believed to be better than any of the previous three. Now’s the time to show proof.

“We’re not going to quit,” Warsofsky said. “We’re five games into this thing. What’s happened has happened, and we’ve got to work. I’ve got to get this team to improve and individuals to improve. It’s on me.”

SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks will go without a captain this season, announcing Wednesday that they will instead have five alternate captains for this year.

The Sharks will have Tyler Toffoli, Alexander Wennberg, Barclay Goodrow, Mario Ferraro, and Macklin Celebrini as the team’s alternate captains.

The last time the Sharks went without a captain was during the 2014-15 season.

Logan Couture was the Sharks captain from 2019 to 2025 before he announced in April that he would be unable to play again due to a chronic groin/pelvic area injury.

Toffoli, Wennberg, Goodrow, and Ferraro also served as alternates last season. Celebrini, a cornerstone of the Sharks franchise and likely a future captain of the team, is entering his second NHL season.

The list of full-time Sharks captains includes Doug Wilson (1991-1993), Bob Errey (1993-1995), Jeff Odgers (1995-1996), Todd Gill (1996-1998), Owen Nolan (1998-2003), Patrick Marleau (2005-2009), Rob Blake (2009-2010), Joe Thornton (2010-2014), Joe Pavelski (2015-2019) and Couture (2019-2025). Marleau, Vincent Damphousse, Alyn McCauley and Mike Ricci shared the captaincy during the 2003-2004 season.

Please check back for updates to this story.

It remained unclear going into the preseason whether wingers Pavol Regenda and Ethan Cardwell would make the San Jose Sharks roster out of training camp.

Certainly, with the veteran additions the Sharks made to their forward group this offseason, their chances seemed remote.

Perhaps, though, Regenda and Cardwell gave the Sharks’ front office and coaching staff something to think about with their workmanlike performances Friday night, as both finished with four points in San Jose’s 4-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.

Cardwell had a hat-trick, with all of his goals assisted by Regenda, against a Vegas lineup that was almost wholly comprised of NHL players.

The two also assisted on Egor Afanasyev’s second-period goal and saw goalie Alex Nedeljkovic make 29 saves, including 16 in the first two periods, as the Sharks won their second game of the preseason after three straight losses.

San Jose closes exhibition play on Saturday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Mammoth and begins the regular season at home on Thursday against the Golden Knights.

Cardwell’s first two goals came at the 1:18 mark of the first period and the 6:48 mark of the third when the Sharks took a 3-0 lead, and he finished the hat trick with an empty-netter with 2:08 to go in regulation.

“We worked hard and came in here with an attitude that we’re going to get pucks deep, get pucks behind them, and kind of skate as hard as we can to win loose pucks, recover them, and get to the net,” Cardwell said.

Takeaways from Friday’s game

1. MORE ROSTER QUESTIONS: So did the performances by Regenda and Cardwell on Friday make the Sharks’ roster decisions any easier, or more difficult?

Cardwell had a fine night offensively and was also one of the Sharks’ top penalty killers as the Golden Knights went 0-for-4 on the power play. While he likely will not be on the Sharks’ roster next week, as he remains waivers-exempt, he has perhaps made a case for himself that he should be among the first players recalled if injuries occur.

Regenda, though, must pass through waivers if the Sharks want to assign him to the Barracuda. If the Sharks really like Regenda and feel he can be an asset, they must weigh the chances of him being claimed by another team. The Sharks will have to make those determinations this weekend if they haven’t already.

The Sharks this summer, after not bringing back a handful of forwards from last season’s team, signed Jeff Skinner and Adam Gaudette as free agents, and acquired Philipp Kurashev and Ryan Reaves via trade. They also selected Michael Misa second overall at the NHL Draft in June.

With that in mind, Regenda, who was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in January for forward Justin Bailey, wasn’t necessarily thought to be in the mix for a roster spot. He had 25 points in 36 regular-season games for the Barracuda and three goals in six playoff games, but did not get called up to the NHL.

Regenda, 25, has three points in 19 career NHL games, all with the Anaheim Ducks, and is hoping he has earned another shot.

“I’ve been working my ass off every day, just trying to play simple,” Regenda said. “That’s what (the Sharks) expect from me, and I’m just trying to do what the coaches say and show them that I belong here. We will see.”

2. WHAT ABOUT MISA AND DICKINSON?: Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky had good things to say about defenseman Sam Dickinson, who was listed as having four giveaways but also logged a team-high 23 minutes in ice time as he played in all situations. It seems he did enough to make the Sharks’ roster out of camp.

But if the Sharks keep Dickinson and eight defensemen, that means they can only keep 13 forwards. If Misa is part of that group, then Regenda might not be, considering Collin Graf and Carl Grundstrom are also in the mix for NHL jobs. To us, it seems like Regenda had a better camp than Grundstrom.

What we think happens with Misa is that he breaks camp with the Sharks and plays nine games over the first four weeks. The Sharks, armed with more information, will then finalize a decision on whether to keep Misa and burn the first year of his entry-level deal, or return him to the OHL. The Sharks will know by then whether the NHL is the right spot for Misa this season.

SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks got third-period goals from William Eklund and Jeff Skinner, but were unable to overcome some second-period puck management issues in a 5-2 preseason loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday at SAP Center.

With the Sharks down by three goals, Eklund scored a power play goal 50 seconds into the third period, and Skinner, one of a handful of new forwards for San Jose, one-timed a pass from Philipp Kurashev past Ducks goalie Calle Clang at the 5:22 mark.

But the second period proved to be the Sharks’ undoing for the second straight game, as the Ducks scored three times in a span of 6:46.

After a Beckett Sennecke goal 69 seconds into the middle period, the Ducks took a 2-0 lead on a Sam Colangelo goal less than six minutes later.

Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov tried to find Michael Misa with a pass just inside the Ducks’ zone. But Ducks defenseman Tyson Hinds took away the puck to start the transition, which Colangelo finished off with a shot that beat San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov short to the blocker side.

Orlov was then unable to control a Kurashev pass back to the point, and Cutter Gauthier jumped on the loose puck in the neutral zone and beat Askarov from an angle off the rush for his second goal of the preseason.

Egor Sidorov and Frank Vatrano added empty net goals for Anaheim in the 1:31 of the third period.

Askarov finished with 20 saves in his second game of the preseason.

The Sharks close exhibition play this week with road games against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday and the Utah Mammoth. Macklin Celebrini, who dealt with an undisclosed illness near the start of training camp, and has been kept out of contact drills in recent day, is expected to make his preseason debut in one of those games.

During Monday’s loss to the Ducks in Anaheim, the Sharks allowed goals to Gauthier, Radko Gudas, and Frank Vatrano in a span of 2:51 to fall behind 3-0 by the 9:13 mark of the second period. The Sharks got goals from Adam Gaudette and Pavol Regenda in the third period but lost 3-2.

The Sharks on Wednesday dressed their most experienced lineup so far this preseason, with at least 15 of the players in uniform expected to be on the 23-man roster next week.

Originally Published: October 1, 2025 at 9:32 PM PDT