The San Jose Sharks hosted their first preseason game of the season on Sunday night. We discussed the events of the game itself last night, now let’s dive into what both locker rooms had to say about the game.
It was the opening contest of preseason for both teams, which was a major talking point of their media availabilities. “I felt good. I thought as the game went along, I got more comfortable,” said Sharks forward Michael Misa. “It's just gonna have to be something I'm gonna have to get used to. But obviously, that was the first preseason game, and I felt good out there.”
Vegas defenseman Kaedan Korczak was a little less optimistic, but had positive takeaways from the night overall. “I felt okay, obviously not the cleanest but felt decent,” he said. “I think going back to last year’s first game I felt a lot better.”
Jeff Skinner was highly complimentary of Sharks defenseman Sam Dickinson, who assisted on his goal. “Obviously, he's got some real good skill,” said Skinner. “He's a big body back there, and I see his junior stats sort of speak for themselves. He can move the puck, and he can create offensively. But I think for me, watching him out there, he looks solid in all three zones to me. I thought he had a great game.”
Dickinson also felt that he had a strong performance, adding, “ [I was] a little more comfortable, a little more confident in what I can do out there. I wasn't really looking just to be out there tonight. I wanted to make a difference and showcase what I can do out on the ice. I think I did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
Dickisnon also noted a key defensive play he made in the second period, disrupting a breakaway chance for Vegas forward Brett Howden as a turning point for him on an individual level. “I think that play there was something that gave me a little bit of confidence to build off of, and to kind of use something to anchor and build shift by shift from,” Dickinson said. “I think it was just the kind of game where I think everybody knew it’s going to take some time to fully get into it.”
As for Vegas, they were pretty open about how the game played out. “We [were] a little soft and got scored on twice,” said Matyas Sapovaliv. “It’s harder to reach for the game after that.” While Korczak knew what they needed to address moving forward, “ I mean 5-on-5, I thought we were right there. We didn’t really take the puck to the net too much but had some looks, but to score in this league you have to get to the net.”
Both teams were also heavily complimentary of their goaltenders, as Skinner had nothing but great things to say about Alex Nedeljkovic, “He was great,” Skinner said. “Not only the saves, I thought he played the puck really well. I thought he made some great plays and that settles things down for us, especially sometimes when they're just trying to dump it in. We had a clean break out, because he made a good play, and then obviously, he saved all the shots. He did his job. I thought he did great. It's nice to see.”
At the other end, Sapovaliv had positive sentiments about both Carl Lindbom and Jesper Vikman. “They both played a really good game and they’ve been good for us,” Sapovaliv stated. “They still kept the game really close.”
Looking back on Misa’s night, he won some key faceoffs that certainly helped the Sharks walk away with the win, despite not recording a point. That’s a key area of his game that he feels he needs to work on moving forward though. “It's gonna be something that's gonna become my daily routine after practice, working on those,” Misa said. “You definitely see it out there a lot stronger guys on the face off. So it's good for me to have to deal with that, and have to practice.”
As for the coaches, Sharks head coach Warsofsky was happy with the performances of quite a few players but did note some things, in the third period specifically, he wants to see the team improve on moving forward.
“[We need to work on] managing pucks, continue to make plays,” said Warsofsky. “We got put on our heels a little bit, which is going to happen in this game, but we can't be soft flipping pucks to the neutral zone, losing wall battles with soft flips, and when you want to argue the penalty and whatnot, we can't take penalties up 2-0. Next thing you know, it's 2-1 with four and a half minutes left. We've seen this act before. So those are the things that we need to improve on. You know, we can't take penalties under six minutes. You know, we don't take penalties at all, really. It's going to happen. Those are the moments we have to start learning as a group.”
At the other end, Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy was happy overall with his team’s 5-on-5 play but said, “Offensively, we needed to be more competitive to get inside. Some of that is young guys not knowing how hard it is to score in this league, and that’s part of the learning curve.”
The Sharks and Golden Knights will face each other once again on Friday, and it will certainly be interesting to see not only how different the lineups will be, but also whether both teams are able to implement the changes they want to see in that quick of a time frame.
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