- The Sharks held a players-only meeting after a 7-2 loss to the Kings
- Kiefer Sherwood called the team’s play “unacceptable” and said it’s not on the coaches
- Read below for what Celebrini and Ryan Warsofsky said and where San Jose stands
The Sharks closed the door and talked it out among themselves after Wednesday’s 7-2 loss to the Kings.
San Jose held a players-only meeting at Crypto.com Arena following its third straight loss and fifth in six games. Forward Kiefer Sherwood was asked about the state of the team and didn’t dance around it.
“It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough. To a man, to a team. It’s not on the coaches right now,” Sherwood said. “We’re not winning our battles, we’re not being hard to play against, we’re not making plays. We have to turn it here. We have to stick together here.”
Watch Sherwood’s full postgame comments:
The game got away from the Sharks almost immediately. Adrian Kempe scored on a breakaway 1:23 in, and Los Angeles led 3-0 by the end of the first period. Kempe went on to finish with a hat trick in his return from an illness.
Captain Macklin Celebrini got San Jose on the board with a power-play goal in the second period, his sixth of the season. Ivar Stenberg also scored on the power play, but the Sharks never got closer than two.
Celebrini was asked about the meeting and said what was discussed will stay private. He did say the group is frustrated.
“It’s got to change. We can’t let it seep into our game, but I mean, we got to be frustrated and not happy with the way we’re playing,” Celebrini said. “We know what we have in this room, and we believe in each other.”
Head coach Ryan Warsofsky said he was glad to see the leaders take charge. “That’s up to them. It shows that we’ve got some leadership in here, and we’re all frustrated,” he said.
Sherwood also took a shot at how the Kings finished the night. With Los Angeles up 6-2, he said, the Kings sent out their top power play unit while Artemi Panarin blocked shots and celebrated on his way to the bench. “It’s disrespectful,” Sherwood said. “Until we do something about it, things aren’t going to change unless we man up.” Panarin had four assists in the win.
The Sharks are 7-9-1 and sixth in the Pacific Division, a rough start after the rebuild took a real step forward last season, when they finished four points behind the Kings for the second wild card. They rank 28th in the league in goals per game (2.53) and have been outscored 24-11 over the last six games.
The schedule isn’t doing them any favors. San Jose wraps up its road trip Friday against the Minnesota Wild, then faces the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
