ELMONT, N.Y. — The good news for the winless San Jose Sharks, despite their 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders?

The Sharks have played well enough to win the last two games.

“I thought this was probably our most complete game of the year,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We only had them for nine chances against 5-on-5. Those are wins, more times than not.”

The bad news? Besides being 0-4-2, they’re still shooting themselves in the foot.

Case in point, Matthew Schaefer’s dagger goal, that made it 4-2.

It’s obvious to finger Nick Leddy (4), who shaded toward defending the Kyle Palmieri (21) pass from the wall, making him slow to rotate on goal-scorer Schaefer (48).

“It wasn’t so much on Leds, it’s more of our line change,” Warsofsky countered. “In the second period, we shouldn’t have a change like that.”

If you watch the entire clip, you see William Eklund (72) and Jeff Skinner (53) change prematurely. Puck carrier Schaefer recognizes this, and from blueline to blueline, the Islanders have a 4-on-3.

Adam Gaudette (81) and Collin Graf (51) jump on, but because it’s the second period on the road, they have a long change.

The San Jose Sharks are on their heels at this point.

If you don’t want to listen to Warsofsky, maybe you’ll listen to San Jose Hockey Now consultant Jack Han, an ex-AHL coach himself.

“The line change was the root cause of everything,” Han said.

This isn’t to excuse the San Jose Sharks vets though.

Han didn’t love Alex Wennberg (21) reaching on Anthony Duclair (11) behind the net, granted to block a pass: “He reaches against a guy behind the net who can’t possibly score.”

Wennberg opening up almost blocks the Duclair pass but puts him, the nearest man, out of position on Schaefer.

As for Leddy, the 34-year-old defenseman shouldered the blame: “I think I could have collapsed a little better. Not sure I should have gone out. I have to re-watch it. I’m just basing it off of live time.”

That said, the reality might be, a younger and quicker Leddy perhaps could’ve both shaded toward Palmieri (which is not wrong defensively) and recovered to take Schaefer’s stick.

But it all goes back, like it or not, to an undisciplined line change from both a veteran in Skinner and youngster in Eklund.

“On a 3v4, you’re looking to buy time to get all five guys back, which the San Jose Sharks almost did,” Han said. “This is the type of play that leads to losing in this league: People half a step slow and half a second late recognizing situations.”

It takes a village to give up a goal, it’s not just a youngster or veteran or goalie thing.

“It’s not a big gap,” Han said, “but then again, it’s what separates 60-point and 90-point teams.”

Well, we know what the Sharks are closer to right now.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on playing so well, but still losing:

I thought this was probably our most complete game of the year. I liked our effort. We had some good scoring chances. I think we only had them for nine chances against 5-on-5. Those are wins, more times than not.

Warsofsky, on Yaroslav Askarov’s performance:

Asky would say that himself. He’s a competitive guy. If you look at it, Sorokin makes that save on Eklund and Mack on the 6-on-5, they got the save.

He did respond. He had a good second and third period. But we also have to continue to work with this young man. He knows that. We know that. This is part of the process.

He’s going to keep working with Thomas [Speer] and just keep battling and grinding and getting better. You got to get better every single day, even if it’s just 1%, let’s get better everyday and learn from it and move on. So he’s got the right temperament. He’s a competitive kid, but we obviously need more from both goaltenders going forward.

Warsofsky, on the Matthew Schaefer goal:

It wasn’t so much on Leds, it’s more of our line change.

In the second period, we shouldn’t have a change like that.

Warsofsky, on Sam Dickinson’s performance, from the Casey Cizikas goal to the Gaudette score:

A young man making a mistake in a fast game. So we’re going to continue to work with him with his puck decisions and balance [on] the ice and angles and what have you.

But he also did some really good things on the flip side of it.
We made some young mistakes in areas tonight, and very minimum mistakes, really. A lot of times you win these games.

Kept that puck alive [on the Gaudette goal].

Has a really good chance there. I think it was Smitty on the rush.

He gets up on the rush. You can see he’s getting more and more comfortable. So we’re seeing progress, we got to clean up some things.

It’s funny, like you feel for the kid, because he makes maybe one mistake and it ends up in the back your net.

Nothing against Schaefer, but he probably made some mistakes and they don’t end up in the back of his net. That’s just the way it’s going right now.

Michael Misa

Misa, on his first NHL point:

It was a good play by Graffer to find me, no-look pass. I saw Gauder coming down for a 1T, so fed it over, it was good play.

Misa, on scoring his 1st NHL point: “It feels good to get the first point, but it’d be better if we won. It sucks. We know it’s gonna come, so just got to keep working.”

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 22, 2025

Collin Graf

Graf, on how frustrating it was to play so well, but still be defeated by critical mistakes:

It’s, like, the worst thing ever, basically. It sucks, especially when you play like, I thought we played well, especially a good road game, and to play really well the [first] period and still be down. It’s sort of frustrating. We as a group, we still battled through the second and third periods.

Graf, on what he’s learning from all this losing:

It’s a mental battle. Honestly, a lot of the times, you think it’s physical, you play a lot of games, you get hit, you hit, stuff like that. But for me, it’s just mentally making sure that I’m…it’s frustrating. It sucks to lose, and you got to go home and sort of forget about it, basically. I just sort of learned that the mental part of the game is hard as well.

Nick Leddy

Leddy, on the Schaefer goal:

I think I could have collapsed a little better. Not sure I should have gone out. I have to re-watch it. I’m just basing it off of live time. It hit one of our sticks, kind of laid right there for him, and obviously, he capitalized.