ANAHEIM — When you’re losing, no one wants to talk about the lessons learned.

The San Jose Sharks may have received a different lesson than usual though, after a 6-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. This comes on the heels of a 5-2 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers the night before, losses which put San Jose’s playoff hopes on life support.

The lessons learned may be the only positive takeaway from all this losing.

The Sharks are now four points out of the last wild card spot in the West, held by the Los Angeles Kings, four games left, no games in hand on the Kings, three teams to leapfrog.

The different lesson tonight?

San Jose, curiously, has come out flat in back-to-back nights, in the biggest games of the season. Whatever the reason, pressure, fatigue, line-up decisions, youth, you name it, there’s a better way to handle a lack of energy to start a game, which is a fairly normal thing, especially in the second half of a back-to-back in an 82-game season.

“Everybody has these games this season, because the way the schedule is, no excuses,” 2018 Stanley Cup winner Dmitry Orlov said. “You have to still show up. You don’t feel great, but play short shifts, play simple and then during the game, you’re still gonna get to your game. Get a feel.”

The San Jose Sharks lead the NHL with 16 back-to-backs, tied with the Kings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins.

So when you don’t feel great? KISS: Keep it simple, stupid.

“That’s something that’s going to have to be worked on going forward, not just this year, but even into next year. Back-to-back’s aren’t good enough, and we need to learn how to play back-to-back’s in tough situations,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Every team goes through it. It’s not an excuse. We got to get in better shape. We got to have an understanding mentally, how to approach games and play the game the right way.”

This points to something that the Sharks haven’t quite learned to do, 78 games into the season. San Jose hasn’t figured out how to play when they’re off their A-game, when they’re not playing as fast as they want, when they’re not forechecking like they want, when they’re not getting the stops that they need.

As Orlov suggests, it’s possible to find your game in-game, even if you start slow, as long as you stay patient and don’t shoot yourselves in the foot.

“How hard it is to play right now, this time of year. How detailed you have to be, how competitive you have to be. And we’ve probably fully haven’t grasped that yet,” Warsofsky said. “So we’re learning that right now, and we’re getting punched in the face with it right now, in this moment, probably last night as well.”

The Sharks will now need some help to make their first playoff appearance since 2019: There’s still a chance, but it’s not all in their hands anymore, like it was before the loss to Edmonton.

“Let’s see if we can, we have four [games] left, if we can try to learn from it and move forward and try to find that extra little gear,” Warsofsky said.

Kiefer Sherwood

Sherwood: “It’s not good enough this time of the year. We can’t be outwilled or outworked, it’s unacceptable. It doesn’t matter if it’s a back-to-back. You saw it last night. The other team wanted it more and same thing tonight. We have to learn from it, and we got to look…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 10, 2026

Tyler Toffoli

Toffoli, on back-to-back disappointing efforts from the San Jose Sharks:

There’s nothing you can do now. You just got to go out and play. It is what it is. We put ourselves in this position. You can look at it, good or bad, and on Saturday, we have to be ready to go.

Dmitry Orlov

Orlov says when you don’t have a lot of energy, you have to simplify your game, which Warsofsky agreed with: “Probably not a lot of energy, [you] probably can see. But everybody has these games this season, because the way the schedule is, no excuses. You have to still show up.…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 10, 2026

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on how the San Jose Sharks are hurting themselves:

We really complicate the game, I would say, with some execution, the way you have to play the game this time of year, especially. We make it difficult on ourselves. We really beat ourselves. That’s no disrespect to the Anaheim Ducks, they completely outplayed us tonight, but we make it really easy for teams to play against us.

Warsofsky spoke up for Dickinson: “Me going in there and screaming and yelling at him doesn’t do any good. He understands. He’s a smart hockey player. He’s a smart kid. He’s gonna have a long NHL career. We got to help him through his challenges that he’s going through.

“We saw…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 10, 2026

Warsofsky confirms that Chernyshov, Gaudette & Klingberg were all healthy scratches tonight.

Wouldn’t be shocked to see a couple of these guys back in the line-up on Saturday

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 10, 2026

This is a good question, please don’t mind the long explanation.

So at home, I’m one of a pool of reporters who selects them. On the road, same thing, unless I’m the lone Sharks reporter on the road, which I was tonight, and often am.

So relatively a lot goes into it, depending…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 10, 2026