Something strange is going on with the Sharks...

Despite best efforts not to, last night the San Jose Sharks came out on top with a 5-4 overtime win over the LA Kings to remain one of the seven teams in the league undefeated. We are 2-0 going into the season. That's really exciting. However, we really should be 0-2. We did not deserve to win either of those games in overtime, and we only got to overtime because we blew leads. They were tough to watch. Really undeserved wins, especially last night. The only person who deserved that win last night was Yaroslav Askarov. He's looked really amazing. I love what we've been seeing from him, but we have not been fair to him. Last night was awful in every single category except for goaltending. It was really hard to watch. I know I've talked a ton about our defensive issues, but I'm going to hold off on that today because, firstly, I know Casey is doing a video on that later, and I do not want to steal his thunder, but also I've basically been screaming into the void about defense for a really long time now, so I'm going to give you guys a break about that, and I'm going to scream about our offensive troubles because what we're doing offensively is not working. We've managed to score nine goals in two games, but I really don't understand how. We look terrible, but before I get too into it, I just want to remind you guys that we're still on Twitter and our handle is still at SharksDigest, and we're still there to give you the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the San Jose Sharks. We can't always hop on a video, but we can always send out a tweet, and it's just another way to talk to you guys, and we love doing that, so give us a follow and a shout at SharksDigest on Twitter. Now, before I really talk about everything that happened in the game, firstly, I want to say I love Kiefer Sherwood's goal, love him intercepting a pass and immediately capitalizing on it, and I even love more the fact that he just straight up shoved one of the LA Kings out of his way when he was celebrating. He said, move, get out my way, don't get in my way of my celebration. I love Kiefer Sherwood. I love what we see from him, and we also actually got his first goal in a teal sweater by Nolan Allen. I do not want to touch that, though, because there's a lot to unpack with him specifically, and I know Casey is doing that later, but just be aware that that is something that happened, but we look terrible offensively, really could not break out, like, just incomplete passing, not good cycling, it really didn't look good. Again, we managed to score nine goals in the past two games, but I really don't know how. It's, I mean, granted, like, our shots have been good and deliberate for the most part, the ones that went in have been at least, but we're not really getting that much, and we're really struggling to firstly get out of our defensive zone, but also just consistently stay in the offensive zone or even just get through the neutral zone, but let's, that's a good place to start, because let's start with our first star of the game, Igor Chernyshov. He actually did look really good last night. He looks good every night. He's so fun to watch crash the net and just use his big body, and that's exactly how he got his first goal, and that came from, this was the really, the only way we were able to really break out and push was these long stretch passes. That pass came from Tyler Toffoli, which is actually part of my next point, wherein that his long passes are really the only way he could keep up with this line, but he saw Chernyshov rushing towards the net and made that long pass. He saw him waving his stick. He said that he thinks that if he didn't pass to him, Chernyshov might have actually killed him after the game. That is a direct quote from him. Again, I love Tyler Toffoli, but I don't love what he's bringing to the team anymore, but that was a really great pass by him, and Chernyshov just barreling through, really just pushing past the pressure from the Kings, was really fun to watch. He had two guys hounding him, and he just barreled through. It was like that scene in Shrek where he's at Lord Barquad's rumble thingy, and like everyone's jumping on him at once. That's what Chernyshov looked like on his first goal, but he's so strong on his skates and crashing the net that he managed to capitalize on it, and he also got our overtime winner. Again, crashing the net. I really, really love Igor Chernyshov and what we saw from him. He looked really great, but again, his first goal did come from a really fantastic pass from Toffoli, but that is the only way Toffoli can keep up with this line, because he is too damn slow, which brings me to my next point of Michael Misa, who really, really deserves better than to be shackled to Toffoli, and honestly, Chernyshov can play with really anyone, but he deserves better too. Again, the only reason that play worked was because Toffoli made that long pass, but he was never going to be able to keep up with him. Misa is so frequently slowed down by him. Last night was not a really great game by Misa. He had five giveaways. He did have an assist and was a plus two, but he had five giveaways, but honestly, I feel like a big part of that is the fact that he kind of had to hang around and wait for support to come. If he's just hanging out waiting for Toffoli to actually join the play, it's gonna be taken off his stick immediately. He can't be hanging around waiting for Toffoli. Toffoli slows him down so freaking much, and granted, Toffoli did have a goal, but this is all flowing so nicely. That was 100% effort by Ivar Stenberg, which look at him with his puck for his first point. Oh my god, yeah, he's so proud. He had an assist last night. Toffoli's power play goal, but this brings me to my next point. He should be that third person on that line. It should be Chernyshev, Misa, Stenberg. Toffoli slows down Misa specifically so much because with a player like Chernyshev, he really can play with anyone. For him, it's more about the use of his size than his actual speed. I mean, granted, he is so strong on his skates and him crashing the net is a big factor of this, but a lot of him crashing the net is just his usage of size. Whereas Misa, he is 100% speed and agility, and he needs someone that can keep up with him. Toffoli is not that guy. We've been screaming this from the rooftops. He just doesn't really fit anymore. I said it in my last video, I understand why they don't want to play him on the fourth line because he cannot meet the physical demands of what a fourth line does. However, he should not be slowing down a guy like Michael Misa. We're getting comments from Warsawski that he doesn't really like what he's seeing from him, but it's because what we're doing is not working. It's not fair. Also, Warsawski said that we haven't even begun to see the full potential of this group, and I believe that, yes, but a big part of that is you're not letting them reach their potential. Cough, cough, Sam Dickinson, but that's a whole other thing. I really just hate watching this. It's so upsetting to watch because he can be doing so much better, especially if he has support in speed on his wings, and Toffoli's not giving him that support. He's a finessed, fast player. He needs players that can keep up with him, and Toffoli's not that. Also, going back to Stenberg, he has great chemistry with Misa. There was this one sequence very, very early into the game, and this would have been crazy if he scored on it, but Stenberg saw Misa on the other side of the net and saucer passes it to him, and Misa almost batted it out of the air into the back of the net. I think someone might have gotten a piece on it, and that's why he couldn't really get a good shot, but that would have been a crazy goal if that went in. But that was all hand-eye coordination by both Ivar Stenberg and Michael Misa, and that was an amazing connection from them, and both of them using their immense speed to get to the net and make the play. Stenberg is the clear addition to this line in replacement of Toffoli, especially because, again, bringing me to my next point, Colin Graff is not really working with that Graff-Berg line. Alex Wenberg has not looked good in these past two games, but Graff doesn't fit in great. Stenberg, Ivar, he's so talented that he can play on Mack's line, he could play on Misa and Chernyshev's line, he could also play on Wenberg's line, but he would be better suited playing on Misa's line, and Graff would be better suited taking, I think, Marchment's place on that top line. I love Marchment, but I think Graff is a better fit there, although that would make a line of Toffoli, Wenberg, and Marchment, that would be an unk line, but, I mean, it's what are the other solutions, right? Like, we can't keep shackling Toffoli to Misa, it's not fair to him, it's slowing him down, we can't keep having Graff on that Wenberg-Stenberg line because it's not working. He worked really well on that Celebrini-Smith line, so something's gotta change here. These lines are not working, with the exception of the Marchment-Celebrini-Smith line, but even that wasn't working last night. Marchment didn't look great with his entry and holding on to the puck and stuff like that, he looked much better in game one, but I don't think there's really a harm of sending Marchment down a couple of lines, I don't think he would seem a harm of that either, especially because of what's going on with Mack. We have to talk about the Macklin-Celebrini of it all, because he did not look good last night. He had four giveaways, he did have two assists, but he had four giveaways, he had the most time on ice, of course he did, but a lot of that was he was double-shifting himself. Like, that was a choice he was making, which that really bothers me, because Warsawski needs to put his foot down. Like, yes, Mack is a generational talent, he's incredible, he knows what he's doing, he's intuitive, he's fantastic, but he's gonna run himself into the ground, and him double-shifting himself like that was backfiring immensely. So why is Warsawski letting him do this? You are the coach, man. What you say goes. You think Connor McDavid disregards his coach? No, that's what a coach is there for. Put your foot down with the child. He is a child. We don't want him burning out, especially when you're already relying on him so heavily. Letting him double-shift himself, again, a choice he was making, not Warsawski, that's a crazy look. I hate that. I really don't like that. And it was really, really evident, and just look at this shot chart from the Sharks. This is terrible. Firstly, not that many shots in general, 25 shots, and also 25 giveaways, but 25 shots. We had them coming from weird places, too. They're two shots from the neutral zone. What is that? What is that? Like, this is really reflective of how much we were struggling offensively last night, especially with zone breakouts. It was just really hard to watch, especially because the Kings seemed to really easily swarm. Swarm is the perfect word for it because it felt like every time one of us had the puck, there were three Kings on the guy. They were just not letting anything happen, and this is very reflective in our shot chart. But the Kings were getting a lot of opportunities. I'm making a tiny bit of a shift to defense here. Again, I'm not really going to dive that too deep into it because I know Casey's doing a video, but look at this! Firstly, look how close they were getting to Askarov. How many high-danger scoring opportunities they were getting versus this ridiculous shot chart by the Sharks. Not many high-danger scoring opportunities, but a lot of high-danger scoring chances from the Kings, and also they got two power play goals. Our penalty kill looked terrible last night. Absolutely terrible. Better with taking penalties, only three last night, but still two power play goals. Absolutely terrible looking penalty kill. However, I do want to shift, of course, to just give an honorable mention. Luca Cagnoni, I'm so proud of you. I'm so glad that you are proving everyone wrong every step of the way. This picture in and of itself really shows how well he can hang with the big boys. People were concerned about his size, but his speed and agility and awareness completely negates that concern. He looks fantastic. I love it. And of course, also, Askarov looks fantastic, but still kind of being hung out to dry by defense. I don't, again, what is this shot chart here by the Kings? Why are they getting so close to him? Why are they getting so many good chances? That should not be happening, but Askarov has held strong. He let in four goals last night. He had 31 saves. His save percentage, again, it's not fantastic, but all things considered, it should have been worse. It was 88-6, so almost 89%. Pretty good, especially considering this shot chart here and all the opportunities the Kings were getting to be dangerous and swarm us. Askarov looked fantastic, but for the most part, the rest of the team did not. We really need to make some changes here. I don't know why we are just insisting on just putting the same things out there that aren't working. And also, again, Warsawski really needs to put his foot down, especially with Macklin. He is a superstar talent, absolutely. Yes, we should trust him, but it went a little too far last night, and it was seriously backfiring. And again, we can't just lean on him. We have better support now. We need to do a better job of managing these players and these lines. If we can get the systems flowing nicely, we can be a real threat. But we're not there yet, and we're not gonna get there if we don't make some changes. It's frustrating, but we are getting some glimpses of hope. There are definitely things to look forward to, and definitely things to look out for, that is for sure. But otherwise, 2-0 going into the season. Really great stuff that we're winning, at least. Not well, but we're still winning. They don't ask how, they ask how many, right? So on the score sheet, we look good, but on the ice, we don't look so good. So let's fix that, and let's give the people more to cheer for. Go Sharks!