While the playoffs are highly unlikely, the Sharks have plenty to play for during the final 25 games of the 2024-25 NHL season.
San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky detailed the Sharks' key motivations as they close the season during an exclusive interview with NBC Sports California's Alan Hoshida.
"It's a team sport and I understand that, but we have guys that are playing for things," Warsofsky told Hoshida. "You might be a free agent or a guy that we want back. You might be Macklin Celebrini and you want to win a Calder Trophy, rookie of the year. You might be William Eklund, who's a little disappointed he didn't make Four Nations for Sweden and wants to make the Olympic team for Sweden."
While the individual goals are important, Warsofsky stressed the need to maintain cohesion as a team and not lose sight of the potential for growth as a group.
"I think that's important, that's really important for the individual to have individual goals. Now, to get to those goals, we got to play as a team and you need your teammates to do those things," Warsofsky said. "So the biggest thing is we're going to have to play as a team, we're going to have to compete every night. We need energy every night, we need focus between our brains and our ears to be able to turn it on because we're going to be going against some teams that are in playoff pushes and we got to make sure we can match the intensity."
Despite having an NHL-low 37 points on the season, Warsofsky still sees an opportunity for the scrappy Sharks to play spoiler for other teams seeking playoff positions well beyond San Jose's reach.
"Yeah, I think as we get going and the playoff push comes from more teams, you'll see some teams that are two, three, four points out that we can upset some teams for sure," Warsofsky said when asked if playing spoiler factors into the coach's motivational messages. "For sure, I think that's something to play for. Another thing that we'll add and continue to push toward and have an understanding of where we're at."
San Jose Sharks
San Jose's grit truly isn't reflected by their league-worst record (15-35-7), as the Sharks have had many games go down to the wire before suffering last-minute heartbreak.
As the Sharks seek to build an identity in the continuing stages of their rebuild, playing spoiler down the stretch could provide the perfect opportunity for San Jose's young talent to get a taste of high-stakes action without the pressure of having to deliver victory.
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