Ryan Warsofsky<\/a> said last Friday, \u201cwe got a long way to go here.\u201d<\/p>\nWarsofsky struck a similar tone on Wednesday, when asked about Will Smith\u2019s risky-but-remarkable pass on Celebrini\u2019s first goal, part of the superstar\u2019s hat trick in a 3-2 OT victory over the Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another level that they can both get to within their game. Not just the points and the goals and the assists, [but] for us to win consistently, and really go on and really start building this thing,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cWe have to have an understanding on how we need to play the game and winning habits and what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call Warsofsky a buzzkill, but he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s his job as a head coach, not to celebrate Celebrini\u2019s hat trick or being one game over .500 again, but to get his team to the next level and the next and the next, until the San Jose Sharks hoist their first-ever Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
His job is to get more out of his prodigiously talented but largely inexperienced young stars, to teach them how to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose will be the foundation blocks when we start winning games,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be because our best players defend right, play the right way, understand when the momentum shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking specifically about Celebrini, that\u2019s polishing his eager but still unpolished defensive game, managing the puck better, and knowing when it\u2019s time to attack, when it\u2019s time to back off.<\/p>\n
Nobody wants to hear that on a night where the 19-year-old wunderkind notched the third hat trick of his career, and became just the fourth teenager in NHL history, after Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux, to score 30 points in 20 games.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n
Even Celebrini spoke to that, when asked about being in the same conversation as Gretzky and company.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really want to hear about that,\u201d the alternate captain said tersely. \u201cThat\u2019s not really what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure that Warsofsky and Celebrini and Smith would agree what\u2019s important is winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll learn and they\u2019ll get better and we\u2019ll keep growing with them and challenging them and pushing them,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken steps, still got a little ways to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini<\/p>\n
Celebrini, on his OT GWG:<\/p>\n
Credit to [Thomas Speer]. He\u2019s our goalie coach. He\u2019s awesome. He always gives us insight into how goals are being scored. Shooting through a screen was the topic today\u2026You saw a lot of our chances, guys were throwing it through screens and stuff like that. That\u2019s just a credit to him. He does his research, and he\u2019s working behind the scenes to try to help our group.<\/p>\n
Celebrini, on how the San Jose Sharks have grown from last year:<\/p>\n
I think coming into this year, all of us wanted to take that next step as a team. This is a game we probably would have lost last year, so I think it\u2019s just showing the steps we\u2019re taking.<\/p>\n
Vincent Desharnais<\/p>\n
Desharnais, who\u2019s played with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, on what we\u2019re witnessing with Celebrini:<\/p>\n
He\u2019s special. I think everyone in here, everyone in this building, sees how special he is as a player, as a human being as well. He\u2019s not just an asshole around and walking around and saying that he\u2019s the best player.<\/p>\n
He always wants to get better every day. I\u2019m sure, next skate, he\u2019s gonna be one of the first guys on the ice to work on something else.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impressive to see. It kind of inspires everyone, [everyone] wants to follow him.<\/p>\n
Small little details that he does in the D-zone and faceoffs, it\u2019s awesome to see that it\u2019s not just offense, but it\u2019s both sides of the puck as well.<\/p>\n
Desharnais, on a 19-year-old leading the San Jose Sharks:<\/p>\n
When you play like that, you\u2019re that guy, it doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re 30, 18, he\u2019s got that maturity.<\/p>\n
And just from last year to this year, we see a big difference, whether it\u2019s on the ice, off the ice, he\u2019s still a clown. He still loves to have fun, and it\u2019s awesome to see, because everyone wants to talk to him and joke around. But when it\u2019s time to go to work, he\u2019s leads by example, like I said, whether you\u2019re 19 or 30, if you play like that, and you have that work ethic and that maturity, it doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n
Collin Graf<\/p>\n
Graf, on why Celebrini\u2019s shot is so elite:<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say deceptive. He\u2019s got every trick in his bag. I assume it\u2019s hard for a goalie, because you don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to do. I think it\u2019s just hard for them, and it\u2019s deceptive, so it\u2019s hard to read.<\/p>\n
Ryan Warsofsky<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on Zack Ostapchuk:<\/p>\n
I thought he was really good. He was probably our best forward. Obviously, Mack has the goals, but Chucky was really good tonight.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on Sam Dickinson on the power play:<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got a little bit of ways to go. To be honest with you. I think he\u2019s going to be a special player. The game speeds up for him. We got to get him to move his feet a little bit more and be a little bit deceptive. Thought he forced some things on the power play. But again, we just put him on it yesterday, so we\u2019ll work with him and get better at it.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky, on what he\u2019d say to Will Smith if that Smith assist on Celebrini\u2019s first goal doesn\u2019t go in the net:<\/p>\n
I would keep those comments to myself. (laughs)<\/p>\n
But those guys have, obviously, you guys see the chemistry and they can make things happen.<\/p>\n
I still think there\u2019s another level that they can both get to within their game. Not just the points and the goals and the assists, [but] for us to win consistently, and really go on and really start building this thing.<\/p>\n
We have to have an understanding on how we need to play the game and winning habits and what it looks like. I\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll keep saying it until I\u2019m blue in the face.<\/p>\n
Those will be the foundation blocks when we start winning games. It\u2019ll be because our best players defend right, play the right way, understand when the momentum shifts.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019ll learn and they\u2019ll get better and we\u2019ll keep growing with them and challenging them and pushing them. We\u2019ve taken steps, still got a little ways to go.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macklin Celebrini is special, and San Jose Sharks fans should absolutely enjoy that. But that\u2019s not Ryan Warsofsky\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1033,3524,93,1035,1036,88,90,89,98,1038,4218],"class_list":{"0":"post-60116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-2025-26","9":"tag-collin-graf","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-macklin-celebrini","12":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-san-jose-sharks","17":"tag-sharks-locker-room","18":"tag-vincent-desharnais"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}