SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks rookie Will Smith had lunch this week with veteran forwards Logan Couture and Barclay Goodrow, two key players within the team's last playoff run in 2019.
Of course, Smith desired to know what happened on the SAP Center over five years ago when Goodrow scored the series-winning goal in extra time in Game 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights, capping off arguably the wildest game within the team's history.
“I actually watch it a lot on YouTube, and to see Shark Tank like that is pretty crazy,” Smith said. “They told me it was so loud, it was ringing the whole time.”
“Our goal is to get it back on track.”
With loads of latest enthusiasm after a relatively eventful summer, the Sharks began the ice a part of this long process on Thursday with the primary day of coaching camp.
New head coach Ryan Warsofsky led several latest players, including top talents Smith and Macklin Celebrini, through hour-long workouts featuring several up-tempo drills.
The revamped Sharks hope to change into a totally different team than the one which finished last season with an NHL-worst record of 19-54-9, giving them the most effective likelihood to recruit a possible future cornerstone of the franchise in Celebrini.
Now that a couple of more pieces are in place, the Sharks feel able to take a step forward. Their record definitely couldn't get much worse.
“I think last year was the lowest point for us as an organization, and now it's time to look forward and move things forward,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “Not just me, but I think the players and everyone else are excited to get going, turn the tide and see what this year brings.”
Celebrini, who was the primary player drafted by the Sharks with the No. 1 overall pick in June, looked right at home at practice and the team's intra-team scrimmage on Thursday, where he scored a couple of nice goals and was seen everywhere in the ice.
In one sequence, Celebrini streaked through the attacking zone before finding a small space in front of the opponent's goal. A split second after receiving defenseman Gannon Laroque's pass to the middle, Celebrini shot the puck past the catching hand of goalie Georgi Romanov.
“It's simple. Just give him the puck,” forward Tyler Toffoli said of Celebrini. “Yeah, he was pretty good out there.”
“The more fun you have doing something, the better you feel,” Celebrini said. “So enjoy it.”
Celebrini could begin the season because the Sharks' No. 1 center, as captain Logan Couture is prone to be on the injured list to start the yr.
Couture, who’s entering his sixth season as captain of the Sharks, continues to struggle with osteitis pubis – an inflammation of the joint between the left and right pubic bones.
After missing all of coaching camp and the Sharks' first 45 games, Couture returned last season and played six straight games from Jan. 20-31 before being benched again. But he hasn't skated because the Jan. 31 game in Anaheim and still has no timetable for his return to the ice.
The Sharks open the season at home against the St. Louis Blues on October 10.
“I played hockey for over 30 years and when it's suddenly over, it's difficult, especially when you have no other choice. The body just deteriorates,” Couture said Thursday. “But that's how it usually goes in professional sports or sports in general, it's not always injuries, sometimes there are other reasons. But that's the situation I'm in.”
Couture was one in all 4 injured Sharks players who were absent from the sidelines on Thursday.
Junior goalkeeper Yaroslav Askarov and defender Shakir Mukhamadullin are each out with lower-body injuries, and veteran defender Marc-Edouard Vlasic has an upper-body injury that Warsofsky said he sustained during team practice earlier this month. Warsofsky said those three players can be selected a day-to-day basis.
The Sharks appear to give you the chance to deal with Couture's absence higher than last season.
Celebrini and Smith played center during their stellar freshman seasons at Boston University and Boston College, respectively. The Sharks also signed 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 latest players this season, and the defense has gained some much-needed experience with the additions of Jake Walman and Cody Ceci. Askarov, the Sharks' hope, can be the goalie of the long run.
All in all, the Sharks hope this can be essentially the most competitive training camp in years, a message Grier delivered to the players on Wednesday.
“It's about competing and earning opportunities that maybe in the past were a little different. (There were) guys in the lineup or on the roster that maybe wouldn't have been there,” Grier said. “Now there's real competition throughout and there's no one which we don't feel like we’ve to force someone into the lineup.
“That was kind of the message to the guys, young and old. If you want a place and you want to earn something, you have to go out and get it. Nobody is going to give it to you anymore.”
The Sharks were in a downward spiral for 3 years before Grier arrived in the summertime of 2022. But management on the time was still unwilling to publicly declare that they needed to reposition themselves after a decade and a half of success.
Then Grier got here along, ripped off the Band-Aid, stripped the roster all the way down to its top players, and endured two of essentially the most painful seasons in franchise history.
But now, with a rebuilt farm system led by Celebrini, all that heartache is beginning to repay. Or at the very least that's the hope.
“I think we're all trying to look forward,” Grier said. “We appreciate what's been accomplished here. I think (former Sharks GM) Doug (Wilson) did a great job and it was special to be that competitive for that long. But now it's our turn and the group's turn to write their own history.”
Despite the brand new additions, the Sharks are expected to complete near the underside of the NHL standings again. Few, if any, imagine the Sharks will make the playoffs this season, but there’s also a sense among the many players that they might not be as far-off as some think.
Goodrow said the atmosphere within the Shark Tank during and after Game 7 against Vegas was “the loudest building I've ever been in. When we're in a good mood here and the team is competitive, it's a great place to play and a great building to play in.”
“It is up to us as players to regain that and bring the level back to the old level.”
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