Who are the real San Jose Sharks?

Is it the more professional group that had the Vegas Golden Knights on the ropes on opening night, before a series of unbelievable circumstances resulted in a 4-3 OT loss?

Speaking of the off-season addition of 30-something blueliners Dmitry Orlov, Nick Leddy, and John Klingberg, head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, “Their experience really helps in crucial situations and momentum swings.”

Or is it the frazzled group that was outshot 42-23 by the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, on the way to a 7-6 OT defeat?

“We need some poise. Chucking pucks around in the defensive zone, on breakouts, out of D-zone structure, just chucking it around,” Warsofsky said. “They were all over us.”

This wasn’t a youngster versus veteran problem against the Ducks.

Just for example, sophomore sensation Macklin Celebrini had a career-high three assists, but he was frankly careless with the puck throughout the game, not just on his OT-losing turnover. Veterans Leddy and Klingberg, hard-matched against the Cutter Gauthier-Mason McTavish-Beckett Sennecke line, struggled to get out of the zone, managing a roughly 15.0 Shot Attempts For % at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.

After opening night, it felt like the San Jose Sharks just needed a couple tweaks, i.e. Sam Dickinson for Shakir Mukhamadullin and Yaroslav Askarov for Alex Nedeljkovic.

Tonight? Well, you can’t bench an entire team.

“You name it,” Warsofsky said, “we got a lot to work on.”

Perhaps both games are the real San Jose Sharks.

They’re a team, on paper, that looks both too young and too old, and not enough in between.

So? It’s probably going to be another long season in San Jose. Buckle up, and hope for small-but-meaningful gains.

After the game, Warsofsky spoke on the Sharks’ defensive woes and on Dickinson and Yaroslav Askarov’s performances, Dickinson shared what he can improve, Celebrini addressed his OT turnover, and Klingberg faced the music too.

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on Celebrini’s OT turnover, and the Sharks’ general lack of winning hockey:

Yeah, awful. Winning habits were not good. Not just Mack. Really, our whole game wasn’t great, let’s be honest. So gotta keep working with these young guys and our team here to have an understanding of what that looks like.

Warsofsky, on the San Jose Sharks’ poor team defense:

We need some poise. Chucking pucks around in the defensive zone, on breakouts, out of D-zone structure, just chucking it around. They were all over us.

I think our execution starts with our breakouts and coming out of our D-zone. When you play your D-zone a lot, because you turn over the puck a lot, you’re going to eventually break and that’s what happened tonight.

We’ve gotta play through people and slow them down. They’re quick, run and gun. They’re going, they’re on the attack.

But the biggest thing is, we got to hit them to slow them down. We didn’t do much of that.

Warsofsky, on Yaroslav Askarov’s performance:

I thought he was okay. He made some big saves to keep us in the game…Sure there’s a couple that he wants back.

Warsofsky, on Sam Dickinson’s NHL debut:

Did some good things. Game’s quick for him.

Sam Dickinson

Dickinson, on how he can be better in his next NHL game:

Getting even quicker with my decisions. Decision-making is the biggest thing here. I got to be prepared to have a guy on me before I even have the puck and still be able to make the outlet pass, make the play. That was a big one for me. A big thing for that’s just going to be repetition and practice and getting better that way. In the game, just get more and more comfortable with such a different speed than I’ve played before.

Dickinson, on his San Jose Sharks teammates seemingly giving him an extra-long solo lap:

Yeah. Like, I finished a couple [laps], I thought they were coming, I’d take a shot, turn around, look back, and they weren’t coming. I didn’t know if they’re going to come at all at that point.

My goal was to just not fall over or fan on a shot or anything like that. And I succeeded with that. So I’d say it’s pretty successful.

Dickinson, on if his teammates left him out there longer in his solo lap:

I didn’t ask. Maybe I’ll find out later. It’s definitely really exciting.

I spotted my parents up in the crowd when I was going around. So it’s pretty cool.

Macklin Celebrini

Celebrini, on his turnover to Leo Carlsson that led to Carlsson’s OT winner:

I got it, and he was coming out with probably more speed than I thought. I kind of found myself in a position where I felt I need to try to make a move, get a good angle. It can’t happen. I can’t turn over the puck there. I can’t give up that chance to them. Got to live to fight another day sometimes. That’s a mistake, I’m gonna have to sleep on it.

Celebrini, on how the San Jose Sharks can improve defensively:

They had like [42] shots. We’re just giving away too many shots.

They funnel everything to the net. We did a pretty good job of playing how we wanted to, keeping them to the outside, a lot of those were nothing shots, but still a lot of volume and a lot leaving to chance.

John Klingberg

Klingberg, on not being able to tie up Cutter Gauthier in front, especially on Gauthier’s second goal:

That’s my guy. He gets a stick on it, so that’s on me. We’re up two goals. I got to be better than that. I think I take the right route to keep him in front of me and try to control his stick. I don’t know if he’s one-handing it or something, but doesn’t matter. I need to grab that stick so he can’t score.