LOS ANGELES — Ryan Warsofsky knew it would never be easy.

For all the excitement that rewarded the recruits Macklin Celebrini And Will Smith brought this summer, the reality was that Warsofsky was taking over a San Jose Sharks club that died a year ago, the only team in the league not to have crossed the bar of 20 victories or 50 points. You have to be pretty bad to fail to do either over an 82-game schedule, but the Sharks went further. Often horrible.

With several other additions made by general manager Mike Grier during the offseason, the Sharks’ roster could look very different, but the opening weeks of 2024-25 look all too familiar. It took them until the 12th game of last season to achieve their first victory. Another 0 for October is in the works after a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings Thursday evening.

Foegele scores again. Absolute domination of Los Angeles right now. #GoKingsGo 3, #TheFutureIsTeal 0 pic.twitter.com/Cm9Q3tHT4d

– TEAL TOWN USA – A San Jose Sharks Podcast (@TEALTOWNUSA) October 25, 2024

With a record of 0-6-2, the Sharks aren’t quite as embarrassed early in the season as they were a year ago, when back-to-back shutouts and two more straight losses — in which they were torched for 10 goals – required a team-wide plan. revival lecture by Grier. But even though there are new faces and a generally stronger competitive spirit, the fact is that they are not much better.

The joy of June 13, when Warsofsky dreamed of leading his own NHL The benching was done, giving way to the struggle and pain of turning around a franchise that is deep in a years-long rebuild. The long game is being played in San Jose, with Celebrini and Smith as the central pieces with an intriguing prospect pool building around them. If the remaining months are as lean as this one, the Sharks will be at the forefront of the James Hagens sweepstakes.

Warsofsky was part of last year’s disastrous start as an assistant to coach David Quinn. Now he’s running the show, and while the scores have been mostly closer, the closer losses have only added to the frustration. It showed in the bowels of Crypto.com Arena, when the 36-year-old coach showed anger over a dreadful first period, a 3-0 deficit that the Sharks couldn’t overcome.

“It’s the National Hockey League,” Warsofsky said. “You worked so hard as a kid to get to this point in your career and now we’re just going to say we’re in a tough situation and walk away? That’s life. You’re going to get punched in the face with some adversity. We have to get through this.

“It’s the best league in the world and if you don’t get joy from playing this game, then you’re in the wrong job and on the wrong team. And we’ll cut these guys out.

Just as brutal Fabien Zetterlund proposed: “This league is the best league in the world. If we’re not ready, it’s going to hit us in the ass. We just have to be ready.

Thursday’s defeat restored infamy to the Sharks. As noted by the Associated Press, the 0-6-2 start coupled with last year’s 0-10-1 start marked the first time an NHL team began consecutive seasons with eight losses since the Boston Bruins did so in 1960-61 and 1961-62.

There was an ugly 8-3 loss in Winnipeg that they were never involved in. But since blowing a three-goal lead in an overtime loss to St. Louis, the Sharks have done enough good things in games to keep most players around. to prevent them from getting out of control. They’ve also done enough wrongs that their popgun attack can’t overcome them.

They went 16 periods without a lead, the last coming in Dallas, where they took one of the best teams in the Western Conference to a shootout on October 15.

If it wasn’t a litany of penalties that derailed a good first 30 minutes Tuesday in Anaheim, it was no match for the Kings’ skating and net play in the first period Thursday.

“We need the guys to step up,” Warsofsky said. “We need a lot of guys to step up. Be more consistent night after night and we’re just not doing it at all. Lots of passengers. And when a guy goes, the next night he doesn’t go. We have to find a certain regularity in our game.”

The Sharks won’t win games on talent alone. Even after adding useful veterans Tyler Toffoli, Jake Walman, Alex Wennberg And Cody Ceci To ice a more respectable lineup, this group needs everyone to be engaged and winning battles from the first minute to the 60th or more if necessary. They don’t need Klim Kostin be Mikael Granlund – they just need him to put in the effort that Granlund does.

“Yeah, it didn’t give us much and that’s why he didn’t play,” Warsofsky said of Kostin, his enigmatic power forward who played only 5:09, and not at all after eight minutes of the second period. .

The Sharks simply aren’t good enough to play well for half a game, or even two periods, like they did Thursday when they pushed and drew seven penalties for the Kings. Granlund converted two of his six power plays to score his goals, although the second on a six-on-four advantage left them just 60 seconds to try to tie the game.

‘We have to be ready to play,’ Sharks forward Luc Kunin said. “You saw the second half of the game, we started to wear them down. I have pucks behind them. I started playing more with our identity. You just have to be consistent in doing that so we can chain it together – really get the first (win). But if we do this consistently, that’s how we’ll get wins for our group.

“We talked about it here afterwards. We can’t start like that. You’re always chasing. We must learn from this. It’s obviously tough right now, but hopefully we can learn from it and make the most of the second half of the game and do it more often.

It hasn’t helped that Celebrini has been sidelined since his promising debut, with a hip injury keeping him out for a seventh straight game for the foreseeable future. Grier told reporters Monday that the center would be unavailable for at least two more weeks.

The Sharks also didn’t have Smith on the ice Thursday. The 19-year-old has yet to appear on the scoresheet in his first six NHL games, but his absence is part of a load management plan. It is similar to the path Anaheim taken last year with Leo Carlsson in his rookie season. Smith also did not appear in Winnipeg’s game in the second of a back-to-back.

With the absence of Celebrini and Smith, Warsofsky’s job is only made more difficult. And the league’s youngest coach is struggling to hide his competitive nature beneath a staid exterior. After their 3-1 loss to the Ducks, Warsofsky said, “We must hate losing more than we love winning right now.” »

On Wednesday, Warsofsky was encouraged by what he considered a great workout and left the arena optimistic. A key part of his job right now is preventing his players from becoming too frustrated.

“As a coach, you have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Warsofsky said after that practice. “The process was pretty good. We played good hockey. Our ranking could be different. Our results could be different. But that’s how it is. This is what we have. We played some really good hockey at times and did some really good things and we just didn’t get rewarded for it. But there are also some things that we shoot ourselves in the foot for. Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, not feeling the momentum of the game. Not playing more consistently with who we are. …

“Look, there are going to be teams that go through these situations. Losing streaks at different points in their season. For some reason, ours is happening again at this point early in our season. Everyone is frustrated. Everyone is trying to find the answers and find the solutions.

This went to the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton last season. The veteran defender made two more conference finals appearances during his 12 seasons. He also had a rough few years in Ottawa earlier in his career. How does a team keep morale high during difficult times?

“We just have to stay together as a team,” Ceci said. “Lift each other up on the ice. It’s hard what we’re going through. We are in strong competition. We work hard. I’m just not getting the results.

After their last defeat, the Sharks looked desperate. Maybe that’s exactly what they need.

“I just want to win a game,” Zetterlund said. “It doesn’t matter what it looks like or how we do it. We just have to win.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)