GDT: Game 1: Sharks vs. Blues 7:30pm ESPN+/Hulu. It begins!

[coooldude]

5-4 sharks OT.

Toffoli, KUNIN, Celebrini, Zetterlund, thrun!?!?!?

In similar fashion to the Sharks, it was a bittersweet start to my SNOG season with a near miss, but I'm very happy with my "three points" and being close. Thank you thank you.

My take from the tank:
+ good start to Macklin's career... Some good defensive plays and forced turnovers, but the creativity also came with a few rookie plays, blind passes to center ice that turned into odd man rushes, etc. Still, one of our best players and looks like he belongs. Didn't think he should have been benched to close the game out.
+ Thought that all the big question mark players looked pretty good actually. Kunin had a very solid game and was a half inch from a great snipe. Goody looked very solid. Gushchin looked okay, don't fault him for the Suter goal, was Thrun's turnover, and the high stick seemed fluky. Still, reality check that he's not some savior.
- breakout system is to fly the zone. I don't like it. Many times a defenseman had simple d to d plays open to them but went with stretch passes. It worked a few times, but many times it was a turnover. just like last year, we need more poise from our D when we get possession in the DZ.
+- I thought Smith looked okay at times, had a few chances, but does look a bit deer in headlights. Hoping he realizes how much faster you have to play off the puck to be in position. Was surprised he got demoted in the last 10 though.
- Rusanowsky said that Smith and Celebrini were a combined 2 for 23 at the dot. This is definitely wrong, I was paying close attention. They combined for at least 8 wins, maybe 10. The last loss in OT was rough, but the minus here is for the stat keepers.
+ The team had energy and played with more pride than last year. Giving up 4 straight was definitely a young/bad team thing but it's okay, I think they'll learn.
+++ The vibes at the tank were great. Not quite a sellout, bummer at the end, but was rocking for the first two goals and the rookie lap for 71/2 was a really cool moment. The cuties each gave each other a one timer per lap

My biggest problem I have with Wars tonight was... turtling
Why are we turtling instead of pushing? Why did we bench Celebrini and Smith to protect a lead? Why are we sending Kunin out there? Also Blackwood imploding did not help matters

I agree, warso put his fingerprints on this game a little too much with mixing up the lines and turtling in the last 5. Why not just stick with the 70s? A little threat couldn't have hurt. I disagree about Kunin, thought he looked solid today.

 

[GRANdSharks]

Obviously disappointing ending, but were a young team and we showed flashes of a functional hockey team just need to continue to gel and we should be upgraded from dumpster fire to watchable this year.
Are biggest issue was getting the puck out clean and we all knew that was gonna be the case going in, I like walman but would be nice to have muhk or someone take a step to help move the puck. Baby steps tho we're going in the right direction for a change

 

[sampler]

Just got home:

This falls squarely on Warsofsky. Sharks stopped skating. You can see in the second what happens when the sharks work hard, more their feet, and play with pace and urgency.

In the third, they quit playing hockey. No skating. No effort. Like a 20 min pk. That’s a coaching failure and continuation of the Quinn garbage. Warsofsky is new. He cannot allow this to happen again.

Also, As predicted, smith belongs in the Ahl. He created next to nothing. Great pass to granny in the first but after a gift turnover. He wasn’t bad per se, but created nothing with two good players. He needs to home his game in the A.

gush is a waste in the fourth line. He needs skills on his line.

Warsofsky has work to do.

 

[Tw1ster]

Just got home:

This falls squarely on Warsofsky. Sharks stopped skating. You can see in the second what happens when the sharks work hard, more their feet, and play with pace and urgency.

In the third, they quit playing hockey. No skating. No effort. Like a 20 min pk. That’s a coaching failure and continuation of the Quinn garbage. Warsofsky is new. He cannot allow this to happen again.

Also, As predicted, smith belongs in the Ahl. He created next to nothing. Great pass to granny in the first but after a gift turnover. He wasn’t bad per se, but created nothing with two good players. He needs to home his game in the A.

gush is a waste in the fourth line. He needs skills on his line.

Warsofsky has work to do.

This whole post seems like an overreaction to the first game of the season. Smith had some good looks and some good defensive plays, thought he played a very nice albeit safe first career game

 

[weastern bias]

Just finished the game, man the Disney streaming infrastructure is not friendly to catching up late

That was quite an indicative game for what the 2025 Sharks are going to be like

There were 3 teams on the ice tonight

There's the Blues

There's the Sharks

And there's the Sharks with the Celebrini line on the ice

He's transformative, they're a different team when he's playing, but past the top line most of this team is still utter dog shit and we're gonna lose a whole big bunch of games again this year

Positive takeaways beyond the obvious:

William Eklund looks f***ing GREAT, he's bigger and more physically engaged while also being more confident in his decision making, he's so good that Toffoli (who has been a really good top-6 NHL player for a long time) is the 3rd wheel on that line

Zetterlund looks really good, he's checking and playing hard and making smart decisions, he's looking like he could be a keeper

Granlund had his moments, he also had bad plays but he was consistently good enough that we almost have an entire legit looking top-6 right now

Walman and Ceci are NHL caliber defensemen, and we haven't seen a ton of those over the past 18 months, they are NOT top-pairing players, but they're what we have and it's an improvement

But the elephant in the room, Macklin Celebrini is absolutely incredible, every time I watch him I love him more and more, it's like he was created in a lab

But, good god, the problems are still there, the Blues are not a particularly good team and they dropped 40 shots on us, we're going to be the worst defensive team in the league again by a margin and it's going to wear on the collective psyche as the season drags on, the bottom-6 is mostly just utter trash (you all KNOW who I'm looking at) and after what I thought was a really tight second period where they played tight defensive team hockey I was unimpressed by Wario's effort to shorten the bench in the 3rd, he leaned on his "reliable vets" who are mostly just bad depth NHL players and it cost the team the game in the end

Super fun game, I wasn't even upset at the choke job because you just felt it coming after the Suter goal, but these are the kind of hard-learned lessons I was talking about, this season is going to be a humbling experience for the young talents looking to make their mark on the league

 

[tiburon12]

Good thing they're all on short term contracts and can easily be turned over within 1-2 seasons.

Arizona/Utah went from having 0 signed defensemen to acquiring Sergachev, Marino and Cole while re-signing Durzi and Valimaki.

When it's time to level up, we can do something similar as long as we continue accumulating assets. We're still a long way from that stage.

I'd love to pinch a dude like Durzi off a team that has no room for more D. Like Berhens or Morrow

 

[sampler]

Western bias: Agreed on the very single word!

Walman was great. Ceci was boring, which is great.

Celly was spectacular. I can’t believe he is barely 18!! What a stud. Even this nothing play at the whistle at the end of the first where he patiently held the puck at the blue. His patience and confidence is obscene for a little kid.

And Warsofsky blew it in the third. His philosophy echoed the whole team. “Protectvhe lead at all costs” philosophy. Hence no offensive push. Bench cells, in favor of vet garbage who just dump it out and wait for wave after wave after wave of attack. It doesn’t work.horrific coaching, so hopefully he learns that you gotta play consistent, hard working, puck possession aggressive hockey for 60 mins, not 20 or 40.

Lots of good lessons to learn.

 

[LadyStanley]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1844620857152295235

 

[DG93]

The good: 70s line and Celebrini looking as good as advertised, Wennberg looks like a solid 3C (please get him some help though so he doesn't keep passing pucks into the ether), Walman-Ceci is a legit 2nd pair that will hold its own against mediocre/bad teams' top lines and will get crushed by actual contenders' top lines, Zetterlund looked solid, and a few other guys like Granlund/Dellanderea/Sturm looked okay

The bad: Blackwood letting in some bad goals (...can't have that happen with the defense being atrocious), Smith looked overwhelmed but showed some flashes (all good, he'll get better with each game I think), Rutta is probably an okay bottom pair defenseman with the right partner but not with Ferraro, Goodrow is an okay 4th line winger who PKs and brings intangibles but is definitely playing too high up in the lineup (should be 4th line LW)

The ugly: Kunin still blows (surprise!) so please stop using him to protect leads, Warf turtling was a bad move (he seems to have learned from it based on post-game comments), and the rest of the defense (good lord are Thrun, Benning, and Ferraro terrible...oof)

Oh well, the rebuild rolls on! Still fun to watch, and Celebrini is f***ing awesome. Onto the next one!

 

[Jargon]

Finally finished the game. That was definitely a young team thing to do, I think they panicked a little and then their defense just isn’t good enough to bail them out. I also agree that sitting Celebrini at the end of the game was foolish, I get the thinking but the 70s line was consistently good and worth keeping together at the end.

-Macklin is fantastic and already our best player, he’s going to be truly amazing.

-You can see it with Smith but he just seems slightly behind. That said, I feel like people said the same thing about him when he started in college. I think he needs time in the NHL to just figure it out. He will, he had some really nice plays.

-Eklund is a stud. Playing with Toffoli and Celebrini really helps him shine, the three of them have good chemistry.

-Our defense was much better, particularly in the 2nd. And I mean overall team defense. It also helps that we have skill players who can defend - both top 2 lines had moments where they saved us from our own zone cause a forward broke up a play and skate it out. I feel like we literally couldn’t do that last year.

-Zetterlund looked fast, and tenacious and he was everywhere. He looked better than last year.

-Goose should be on the 3rd line but he did what he could.

-Wennberg was whatever but I liked Goodrow. Still, that 3rd line feels like a 4th line. I’d like to see some changes in the bottom 6.

Honestly, that game was more fun than 95% of last season and I can’t wait to see more.

 

[CanadienShark]

In similar fashion to the Sharks, it was a bittersweet start to my SNOG season with a near miss, but I'm very happy with my "three points" and being close. Thank you thank you.

My take from the tank:
+ good start to Macklin's career... Some good defensive plays and forced turnovers, but the creativity also came with a few rookie plays, blind passes to center ice that turned into odd man rushes, etc. Still, one of our best players and looks like he belongs. Didn't think he should have been benched to close the game out.
+ Thought that all the big question mark players looked pretty good actually. Kunin had a very solid game and was a half inch from a great snipe. Goody looked very solid. Gushchin looked okay, don't fault him for the Suter goal, was Thrun's turnover, and the high stick seemed fluky. Still, reality check that he's not some savior.
- breakout system is to fly the zone. I don't like it. Many times a defenseman had simple d to d plays open to them but went with stretch passes. It worked a few times, but many times it was a turnover. just like last year, we need more poise from our D when we get possession in the DZ.
+- I thought Smith looked okay at times, had a few chances, but does look a bit deer in headlights. Hoping he realizes how much faster you have to play off the puck to be in position. Was surprised he got demoted in the last 10 though.
- Rusanowsky said that Smith and Celebrini were a combined 2 for 23 at the dot. This is definitely wrong, I was paying close attention. They combined for at least 8 wins, maybe 10. The last loss in OT was rough, but the minus here is for the stat keepers.
+ The team had energy and played with more pride than last year. Giving up 4 straight was definitely a young/bad team thing but it's okay, I think they'll learn.
+++ The vibes at the tank were great. Not quite a sellout, bummer at the end, but was rocking for the first two goals and the rookie lap for 71/2 was a really cool moment. The cuties each gave each other a one timer per lap

I agree, warso put his fingerprints on this game a little too much with mixing up the lines and turtling in the last 5. Why not just stick with the 70s? A little threat couldn't have hurt. I disagree about Kunin, thought he looked solid today.

Maybe it was just mixed up changes, but it seemed like he put Wennberg out in place of Celebrini a few times throughout the game. I honestly was wondering if Celebrini was injured at one point. Not the greatest showing by a new coach, but I'll give it time. Fun game until the end.

 

[LadyStanley]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1844626819867374038

https://x.com/i/web/status/1844624912197320898

 

[CraftyVeteran]

GG Sharks, that should have gone your way tonight. That being said, I never want to see Celebrini again. He made our team look ridiculous Patrick Kane style on that goal. Speaking of, how much will you take for him in trade?

 

[coooldude]

I really think we need a pinned "fight about Kunin and Goodrow / fourth liners" thread. the convos bleed into every other thread. But I don't get the hate tonight, Kunin and Goody both looked good to me.

 

[timorous me]

I thought Thrun showed some good stuff tonight. Yeah, one bad turnover, but overall he looked like his skating has maybe improved a bit and he was a little more poised. Being stuck with Benning is a tough task! But Thrun was pretty good about getting his head up and looking for breakout passes.

I have no problems at all with Smith's game. He looked like a normal rookie trying to process a lot of stuff; it's not his fault he was overshadowed by the second coming. There's absolutely no reason to even talk about him spending time with the Barracuda right now.

 

[Star Platinum]

Just finished the game, man the Disney streaming infrastructure is not friendly to catching up late

That was quite an indicative game for what the 2025 Sharks are going to be like

There were 3 teams on the ice tonight

There's the Blues

There's the Sharks

And there's the Sharks with the Celebrini line on the ice

He's transformative, they're a different team when he's playing, but past the top line most of this team is still utter dog shit and we're gonna lose a whole big bunch of games again this year

Positive takeaways beyond the obvious:

William Eklund looks f***ing GREAT, he's bigger and more physically engaged while also being more confident in his decision making, he's so good that Toffoli (who has been a really good top-6 NHL player for a long time) is the 3rd wheel on that line

Zetterlund looks really good, he's checking and playing hard and making smart decisions, he's looking like he could be a keeper

Granlund had his moments, he also had bad plays but he was consistently good enough that we almost have an entire legit looking top-6 right now

Walman and Ceci are NHL caliber defensemen, and we haven't seen a ton of those over the past 18 months, they are NOT top-pairing players, but they're what we have and it's an improvement

But the elephant in the room, Macklin Celebrini is absolutely incredible, every time I watch him I love him more and more, it's like he was created in a lab

But, good god, the problems are still there, the Blues are not a particularly good team and they dropped 40 shots on us, we're going to be the worst defensive team in the league again by a margin and it's going to wear on the collective psyche as the season drags on, the bottom-6 is mostly just utter trash (you all KNOW who I'm looking at) and after what I thought was a really tight second period where they played tight defensive team hockey I was unimpressed by Wario's effort to shorten the bench in the 3rd, he leaned on his "reliable vets" who are mostly just bad depth NHL players and it cost the team the game in the end

Super fun game, I wasn't even upset at the choke job because you just felt it coming after the Suter goal, but these are the kind of hard-learned lessons I was talking about, this season is going to be a humbling experience for the young talents looking to make their mark on the league

And the thing is, why bench your young guys anyway? What are you playing for that you are afraid to let them play and learn from those situations? Were those two points that important for a team that still needs a couple of years worth of high picks to fill out the top end skill this team needs so badly? Sure it would have made the fans happier if they went home with a win in Celebrini's debut instead of an overtime loss, but literally no one would have been calling for the coach's head for keeping his regular line rotations in the third and losing the game and you lost the game anyway by playing your least talented players more minutes.

Just play your normal game and remember that this season is not about proving to the league that you are such a brilliant coach that you eked out 10 more points than anybody thought you could with this roster. It's about developing your young players so that better players will want to come here to play with them because they think they can win with them.

 

[mogambomoroo]

I think it was okay that Warsofsky let Celebrini and Smith watch the final minutes from the bench.
It was like a live tutorial of how NHL teams play in pressure situation and see what you can learn from it. Could be a good move in the long run for them to not get all the pressure right away.
They'll be even more hungry to show what they can do next game, with getting more time as the season goes on. It's good to transition the responsibility slowly but surely. Celebrini will be there faster, but Smith is hungry to prove he is not far away.

They are 18 and 19 respectively, they still need time to develop even though Celebrini was in god mode couple of times. (edit)

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

GG Sharks, that should have gone your way tonight. That being said, I never want to see Celebrini again. He made our team look ridiculous Patrick Kane style on that goal. Speaking of, how much will you take for him in trade?

I don’t know if I would trade him for a retroactive 2019 Cup. But I’d consider it.

 

[Star Platinum]

I think it was okay that Warsofsky let Celebrini and Smith watch the final minutes from the bench.
It was like a live tutorial of how NHL teams play in pressure situation and see what you can learn from it. Could be a good move in the long run for them to not get all the pressure right away.
They'll be even more hungry to show what they can do next game, with getting more time as the season goes on. It's good to transition the responsibility slowly but surely. Celebrini will be there faster, but Smith is hungry to prove he is not far away.

They are 18 and 19 respectively, they still need time to develop even though Celebrini was in god mode couple of times. (edit)

It was a live tutorial of "Don't do what these guys did."

 

[tiburon12]

GG Sharks, that should have gone your way tonight. That being said, I never want to see Celebrini again. He made our team look ridiculous Patrick Kane style on that goal. Speaking of, how much will you take for him in trade?

First step would be for all blues fans to admit they headshotted their way through us in 2019

 

[LadyStanley]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1844634617376018623

 

[mogambomoroo]

It was a live tutorial of "Don't do what these guys did."

Yep, I would agree with that.

Also for them to see it from the opponent perspective of what they did to get to that point. I think it will take Celebrini a very short time to actually learn the NHL tempo and style of play, he is a lot closer than I thought. Very close. Smith is the one that needs a lot of reps before he can take over, I would say he needs a similar approach as Leo Carlsson did with the Ducks last year. Smith will probably sit couple of games this year just to view the game from outside.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

There were 3 teams on the ice tonight

There's the Blues

There's the Sharks

And there's the Sharks with the Celebrini line on the ice

.....and that's ok by me for now. I would love to think he will lead the Sharks to the 8th seed and a miracle season, but I think that's a great comment

 

[karltonian]

Just finished the game, man the Disney streaming infrastructure is not friendly to catching up late

That was quite an indicative game for what the 2025 Sharks are going to be like

There were 3 teams on the ice tonight

There's the Blues

There's the Sharks

And there's the Sharks with the Celebrini line on the ice

He's transformative, they're a different team when he's playing, but past the top line most of this team is still utter dog shit and we're gonna lose a whole big bunch of games again this year

Positive takeaways beyond the obvious:

William Eklund looks f***ing GREAT, he's bigger and more physically engaged while also being more confident in his decision making, he's so good that Toffoli (who has been a really good top-6 NHL player for a long time) is the 3rd wheel on that line

Zetterlund looks really good, he's checking and playing hard and making smart decisions, he's looking like he could be a keeper

Granlund had his moments, he also had bad plays but he was consistently good enough that we almost have an entire legit looking top-6 right now

Walman and Ceci are NHL caliber defensemen, and we haven't seen a ton of those over the past 18 months, they are NOT top-pairing players, but they're what we have and it's an improvement

But the elephant in the room, Macklin Celebrini is absolutely incredible, every time I watch him I love him more and more, it's like he was created in a lab

But, good god, the problems are still there, the Blues are not a particularly good team and they dropped 40 shots on us, we're going to be the worst defensive team in the league again by a margin and it's going to wear on the collective psyche as the season drags on, the bottom-6 is mostly just utter trash (you all KNOW who I'm looking at) and after what I thought was a really tight second period where they played tight defensive team hockey I was unimpressed by Wario's effort to shorten the bench in the 3rd, he leaned on his "reliable vets" who are mostly just bad depth NHL players and it cost the team the game in the end

Super fun game, I wasn't even upset at the choke job because you just felt it coming after the Suter goal, but these are the kind of hard-learned lessons I was talking about, this season is going to be a humbling experience for the young talents looking to make their mark on the league

Wario lol

 

[karltonian]

I thought Thrun showed some good stuff tonight. Yeah, one bad turnover, but overall he looked like his skating has maybe improved a bit and he was a little more poised. Being stuck with Benning is a tough task! But Thrun was pretty good about getting his head up and looking for breakout passes.

I have no problems at all with Smith's game. He looked like a normal rookie trying to process a lot of stuff; it's not his fault he was overshadowed by the second coming. There's absolutely no reason to even talk about him spending time with the Barracuda right now.

Agreed on both. I was going to shout out Thrun as well, he did not look like he was in over his head tonight, and he moved the puck better than most of the other D. Smith was playing his 1st NHL game as the center of a pretty legit NHL line with 2 legit NHL scorers, not that surprising he isn't yet on their level but he wasn't a tire fire or anything.

There was a play in I think the third where Celebrini got leveled pretty hard near the benches. Welcome to the NHL kid. He might be a bit sore from that one, it was a pretty good thrashing.