With the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 now fully in the rearview mirror, the San Jose Sharks are back to business in the NHL.

The team had a day off on Sunday and watched the game at their various homes. Sharks forward Will Smith told SHD that he watched the game from his bed. Sharks defenseman Sam Dickinson was wide awake for the 5 a.m. PT start and watched from his couch.

“I was up at 5 a.m. and watched the whole thing. That’s one of those games that I would have woken up at any time to watch, and I’m happy I did,” Dickinson said. [It] sucks to walk away with the silver medal [for Canada]. It was a pretty special tournament.”

Smith, who played for Team USA at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, said he didn’t care who scored the game-winning overtime goal for the Americans.

“Anyone to score would have been awesome,” Smith said. “I’ve met a bunch of those guys over the years, some are from Boston, so just rooting for all of them. It was such a cool game.”

There was some controversy over the Gold Medal game ending in 3-on-3 overtime rather than 5-on-5. Smith and Team USA experienced that during the championship game at Worlds.

“I think a lot of people have mixed opinions about it. Three-on-three is exciting, has a lot of offense, but it’s definitely tough when you’re on the losing side of it,” Smith said. “I don’t know if it should be four-on-four or something. It’s up to them and the Olympic Committee.”

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, who coached Team USA at Worlds, shared his thoughts on the overtime format.

“You wish, in that type of atmosphere, in a gold medal game, you would like to play five-on-five. That is my opinion. The rule is a rule. I don’t know if you can complain about it when you’ve won the semifinal game three-on-three format, but I get where [Jon Cooper is] coming from for sure, but that is the rule,” Warsofsky said. “It does change the game a little bit, and it comes down to a flip of a coin and some luck. But [Canada] also had probably the three greatest players in today’s game out there as well.”

Dickinson was able to enjoy the game fully. Like the rest of the hockey world, the San Jose Sharks defenseman was able to forget he was in the NHL and watched as a pure fan.

“It’s one of those games where I don’t feel like a hockey player anymore. I feel like a fan,” Dickinson said. “When [Cale Makar] scored that one, I jumped up off my couch and was fist-pumping and walking around by myself in my place at six in the morning. I felt like a kid watching the game, just a fan.”

Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev rejoined the San Jose Sharks at practice on Monday. Pavol Regenda is stuck in New York during the snowstorm. Macklin Celebrini was diverted to Miami and will be back with the team quickly.