Sharks lose to Wild after players-only meeting

Wednesday in Los Angeles was bad enough that the people waiting outside the visiting room noticed something was off before anyone said a word.

It was a players-only meeting. The Kings had just dropped 7 on them at Crypto.com Arena, San Jose's 5th loss in 6 games, and it put the Sharks at 7-9-1. Celebrini kept what was said private. Warsofsky said he was happy the group took it on themselves to fix it. Kiefer Sherwood took a different approach and went after the Kings.

Daily Faceoff

@DailyFaceoff

Sharks’ Sherwood calls Kings ‘disrespectful,’ demands his teammates ‘do something about it’ t.co/Xrk5w5ipFL

Sherwood's problem was LA sending its top power play out up 6-2, plus Artemi Panarin blocking shots and celebrating to his bench. Hockey Twitter mostly told him to grow up, because there's no such thing as running up the score in the NHL. In fairness to Sherwood, the reporter who asked the question said the 'disrespectful' bit was one piece of a much longer answer about San Jose's own play being 'unacceptable,' and Sherwood told reporters it's not on the coaches right now. Still, nobody talks about manning up after a blowout when things are going fine.

By Thursday it had gone national, and the standings explained why. A team with Macklin Celebrini on it, coming off a rebuild, sitting 6th in the Pacific in early November is not how this season was supposed to go. The beat started asking what GM Mike Grier does next and whether Warsofsky's future rides on how the team answers.

Spittin' Chiclets

@spittinchiclets

The Sharks called a players only meeting last night after starting the season 7-9-1 and currently sit 6th in the Pacific Division.

The schedule offered no break: a road back-to-back at Minnesota and Dallas. Warsofsky pulled everyone together at the end of Friday's morning skate and told them to play free and have some fun while sticking to the team identity. He also changed the lines, putting Misa on the wing with Celebrini and Will Smith and moving Graf and Dellandrea back to center. Askarov got the net against Jesper Wallstedt.

Some of it worked. San Jose gave up the first goal for an 8th straight game when Kirill Kaprizov scored on a 5-on-3 early in the 1st, but the effort looked nothing like LA. They were quicker, more direct and better on the backcheck, and Misa added speed to that top line. The power play stayed broken.

Celebrini tied it in the 2nd after winning an offensive-zone draw and tipping an Orlov shot past Wallstedt, his 7th goal of the season. That was the only goal San Jose got. Kaprizov ended up with a goal and 3 assists, scoring his NHL-leading 16th. Quinn Hughes added a goal and 2 assists, and Zach Bogosian scored his first of the year to put it away at 4-1.

Those numbers are the story: 29th in offense, 26th in defense, and 12 goals across 7 games. Afterwards Celebrini made the case for the process, and it's a fair case. This was a better game. It's also hard to sell a better game when it ends with another loss.

Warsofsky said nearly the same thing, and he also spoke to the fans, which is what a coach does once the seat starts warming up.

Next is Dallas on the 2nd half of the back-to-back. If the Sharks play as hard as they did in St. Paul and the power play finally converts, this week becomes the week they turned it around. If they lose 7 of 8, nobody will be asking about process anymore. They'll be asking what Grier is going to do.