DENVER — So the San Jose Sharks aren’t the Colorado Avalanche yet.

That much was clear, after the Stanley Cup contenders dominated the young upstarts wire to wire 6-0.

But for the first time in a half-decade, led by the likes of Macklin Celebrini and Yaroslav Askarov and company, it feels like the Sharks, out of the playoffs since 2019, are going to get to where the Avs are.

“It took them however many years to get there,” Celebrini said. “I think it just takes some time.”

Of course, it takes many steps from the literal cellar last year to Cup contender. But what’s the next tangible step for San Jose?

19-year-old Sam Dickinson was on the same page with his head coach.

“Just seeing how hard they compete, line one through four, all 60, it seems like they’re always pulling their weight, doing their job,” Dickinson said. “And I think that’s the key to a lot of really good teams is having everybody on the team going every single night.”

The Sharks, like many a young and talented squad, lack consistency.

“As a team, having more of an understanding of how we need to play against top teams,” Ryan Warsofsky said. “Every night, it’s a challenge in this league. And you got to go out there and you got to play the right way. You got to compete. You got to be mentally engaged, and again, just starting the game on time.”

So far this season, San Jose has done all this some of the time, and goaltenders Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic have papered over the rest of it. They may have a winning 11-10-3 record, but that’s not a winning formula.

They were a step behind from the drop of the puck tonight.

Good thing, the Sharks know it.

“I think we just came out tonight and got a little too into the mindset of maybe he’s just gonna win us another game again,” Dickinson said of Askarov, the best goalie in the NHL in the month of November, before tonight. “It’s just not how it works.”

Macklin Celebrini

Celebrini, on what it means to be an “everyday’er”:

Show up every day, compete, do everything you can to win.

Celebrini, on next, immediate step for Sharks to get closer to Avs’ level:

It took them however many years to get there. Obviously, they’re the best team in the league, and they have one regulation loss this year, so I think it just takes some time.

Celebrini, on anything that he learned from tonight:

We got waxed. They’re a great hockey team.

Sam Dickinson

Dickinson, on San Jose Sharks’ slow start:

Just didn’t really come prepared. I mean, that’s the best team in the league, and that’s where we want to be. So just shows how much work we’ve got to do and put into it to get to that level.

Dickinson, on next step for Sharks to get closer to Avs’ level:

Just seeing how hard they compete, line one through four, all 60, it seems like they’re always pulling their weight, doing their job. And I think that’s the key to a lot of really good teams is having everybody on the team going every single night. It just seems like that’s what they get every night.

Dickinson feels “terrible” for Askarov: “He’s won us a lot of games. I think we just came out tonight & got a little too into the mindset of maybe he’s just gonna win us another game again. It’s just not how it works. Hung him out to dry, feel terrible for him.”

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 27, 2025

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, if he’s encouraged at all by the shot mentality that his power play showed tonight:

I thought our power play, besides scoring, had some really good looks. I thought they did some good things actually, we’ll go back and look at it, but maybe a step in the right direction.

Warsofsky, on what Sharks can learn from the Avs:

We’ve obviously probably taken a step in the right direction as far as total, sample size of the season.

But obviously, we have a ways to go. Going through something like that for Sam Dickinson, for Asky, Ostapchuk, even Eklund and Mack and Will and our young players, I think it’s a good learning experience.

That’s one of the best teams. Good chance, they’ll be there at the very end.

The way they play, shift in and shift out, they go, they get in your face. They win pucks. I mean, it’s 6-0, Malinski is chasing down our guy at the half wall like it’s 0-0 in Game Five of the Stanley Cup Final. We need to get to that mentality.

Are we there yet? No, but there’s certainly some things we can learn from.

Warsofsky, on next immediate step for Sharks to take to get closer to Avs’ level:

Individually, to continue to push to get better each and every night and get a little bit better, learn our lessons here as we go.

As a team, having more of an understanding of how we need to play against top teams. And look, this is not gonna be the last time we play these guys. Won’t be the last time we play a top team.

Every night, it’s a challenge in this league. And you got to go out there and you got to play the right way. You got to compete. You got to be mentally engaged, and again, just starting the game on time.

Jaroslav Bednar

Bednar, on the San Jose Sharks:

They’ve made huge strides in just one year, right?

They’ve got some young guys that have developed into impact players, and they’re only going to get better. I think they’re still just scratching the surface.

As good as Celebrini and Smith and Eklund are, they’ve got some young D that are still coming. First year for Askarov starting in goal, I think all those guys are going to continue to get better and round out into, not just really good players, but like franchise-type players.

And then, as they get to that point, they’ll fill in some other guys around them.

I like the mix of their team. They play hard, they check hard. They’re dangerous on the offensive side of it. They’re still building like a real deep four-line team for me, but huge improvements in one year, and you can see by the record, they were 7-3 in the last 10, after the real slow start, they’ve got themselves right into the playoff mix so.

It’s not going to happen overnight. There’s lots of work to go. But I think that they’re a good team, and you can’t sleep on them because they can score, their power play and special teams have been good. This is a team that’s up and coming quickly in our conference.