San Jose is coming out the other side of a complete rebuild and has changed its mindset as the season has gone on.
“That’s probably the biggest thing we transitioned in our season,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’ve gone from having a chance to now going into games with the expectation to win them and to also carry the play and carry the momentum for longer stretches. I think we’ve done a really good job of that since the beginning of the year and it’s probably where we have grown the most.”
Though the Sharks have an eye on a playoff spot, the journey to this point has been a valuable experience for a young roster.
San Jose is hoping as Celebrini continues to develop as a star forward, it will become a Stanley Cup contender.
“It’s super important to go through this and what we’re going through and the ups and downs of hockey at this time of year,” Warsofsky said. “It’s important to learn from it and learn lessons as we go and also not take it for granted.
“You don’t know when you’re going to be in this position again. Sometimes it takes years, obviously you hope that it’s not. You learn a lesson the other night in Ottawa on a back-to-back and tough travel and that situation, you really have to get ready and grind one out and get some points. We didn’t do it and hopefully we learned our lesson, but it’s very valuable for our team to go through this for sure.”
Last season, the Sharks finished last in the NHL standings, 44 points out of the final playoff spot in the West. They were just playing out the string at this time a year ago.
“This is super-exciting, it’s definitely different than last year when we were kind of out of the race at this point,” forward Will Smith said. “So being able to be in it, it’s a lot more fun. It’s definitely growing every year. This only my second year and being able to be in this type of playoff race is definitely a big step from last year.”