Sharks Locker Room: Warsofsky Calls Out Top Line, Kostin

LOS ANGELES — The last time that the San Jose Sharks had a lead?

Six games ago, in Dallas, 35:12 into a contest that they dropped 3-2 in the shootout.

That was also the Sharks’ last point. They’re now 0-6-2, after a 3-2 loss on Thursday night to the Los Angeles Kings.

#SJSharks are 1st team to go winless in 1st 8 games of back-to-back seasons since the Bruins in 1960-61 and 1961-62

— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) October 25, 2024

In the last five games, the Sharks have spotted the opposition 3-0 (Kings), 1-0 (Anaheim Ducks), 2-0 (Colorado Avalanche), 2-0 (Winnipeg Jets), and 3-0 (Chicago Blackhawks) leads.

The Kings also hung a -3 on the San Jose Sharks’ top line.

“Awful start by that line,” Warsofsky said of the Mikael Granlund-centered trio, Tyler Toffoli and William Eklund on the flanks. “We just can’t afford for that line to be that poor in the first period. We expect more out of those guys, and we need more.”

Ironically though, Granlund was also the Sharks’ only source of offense, scoring both goals.

Toffoli (4) and Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund (both 3) have accounted for 10 of San Jose’s 16 goals this season.

Anyway, playing 60 minutes is a myth. Rarely does a team dominate or play flawless hockey for every shift in a game.

But you also can’t let one goal against snowball into a three-spot, which is what buried the San Jose Sharks in the first period on Thursday. Pushback has to come after the first goal allowed, during the next shift, not a half hour later, in the second period.

These are all hockey cliches, but what are we left with as the Sharks try to navigate their way out of another nightmarish, winless start to the season?

“I just want to win a game. It doesn’t matter how it looks and how [the team] does it. We just got to win,” Zetterlund said.

After the game, Warsofsky had praise for Nico Sturm and explained Klim Kostin’s benching.

Luke Kunin also spoke on what the San Jose Sharks did well in the second half of the contest.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on getting more secondary scoring:

We need guys to step up, we need a lot of guys to step up, be more consistent night after night, and we’re just not getting that at all. A lot of passengers, and when one guy’s going, the next night he’s not going.

Warsofsky, on if it’s hard to keep up morale when you’re playing well, but not getting the results:

No. I mean, it’s the National Hockey League. You work so hard as a kid to get to…