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About this Episode
Game 70: Sharks at Blues TT: 00:10:00
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
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On the San Jose Sharks Audio Network.
It's time for the sharks morning skate
with all the latest on San Jose Sharks hockey.
Here are your hosts Dan Ruzanowski and Drew Remenda.
Welcome to St. Louis, the San Jose Sharks.
So on the air today at 430 Pacific time
for your drive home from work and you don't want to miss this one.
It's the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues
for the second time this season.
Drew the Sharks coming off one of their most disappointing
games of the year without question.
We had all the hype before the game started.
Biggest game of the year.
Biggest game in Sharks history and all that sort of stuff.
And, you know, we've said stuff like that before.
Unfortunately, even after saying all the right things
in the dressing room and looking like they had the right energy,
they really laid a terrible egg in the first period.
Their worst period of the year, in my opinion,
worse than the five goals against they gave up against Vegas
back in December.
They weren't ready for the moment.
And they weren't ready for the game.
They weren't ready for the moment.
They weren't ready to play the right way.
They weren't ready.
Period.
And I don't put that in the coaching staff.
Usually when you talk about a team being ready,
I will throw stuff to the coaching staff because that is one
of the areas where you can actually affect the game.
But we talked to Ryan Worsovsky.
We talked to the coaching staff.
I knew and you knew what they were saying before the game.
They did all the right things.
They prepped the guys the right way.
And as Ryan Worsovsky said before that game,
if we've got to give you the motivational,
come on, Rod Ross speech for that game,
you're in the wrong business.
And the sharks just weren't ready for that moment.
We weren't ready what Nashville was going to bring.
I did like the fact that they responded in the second
and even for most part of the third.
So they did regroup.
But by that it was too late.
And the biggest thing is, Danny,
and you know, I've been talking about this this morning.
We just talked to Ryan Worsovsky about it,
is that they're giving up far too many goals.
28 goals in the last five losses.
That's too many.
That's not when it occupies me while the St. Louis Blues
since March 10th,
they are averaging 1.6 goals against Per Game.
So what do you think you're going to have to do tonight
against St. Louis?
Well, you're going to have to be a little bit more defensively responsible.
That's for sure.
And the real disappointing thing about this five game losing streak
is there are a couple of games in which they scored three goals.
And when you scored three goals, you should win three too.
Right.
And so we were again talking about that.
This team is going to learn how to grind games out.
They're a great high event team.
They're a fun high event team.
Jesus, we've seen it this year.
You think about that.
Come back at Pittsburgh.
Come back in Toronto.
The game against was a bunch.
We always six five or whatever and turned out to be.
It was fun.
Those are fun games for great games.
We love those because their entertaining is, you know what?
But in the end, when it comes to March and April,
where you're playing meaningful games,
where the sharks want to be and where they are,
they haven't been able to figure out how to grind it out.
Well, they have to figure it out emotionally too,
because obviously everything is at stake right now.
And let's face it, it was a big, big loss against the Nashville Predators.
But the sharks are not out of it.
They have to take this game and say,
let's take the second and third periods that we played against the Nashville
wins, which we were better.
Let's improve on that.
And let's do it for 60 minutes.
Right.
And they can beat, I mean, they lost to the Blues 3-2 and overtime.
And the guy that got the game winning goal, Robert Thomas,
isn't playing tonight because he got hit pretty hard last game
and will not be playing this evening.
So the Blues have to adjust to that.
The thing is, is the sharks also have to make some adjustments.
And it was an emotional game in a sense when Ryan Reeves wasn't available.
We talked about that in the last morning skate show.
That's all behind them now.
Yeah.
So we've talked about this many, many times.
And I know I've said it a billion times.
Is that for every challenge, there's an opportunity.
The challenge is Ryan Reeves is out.
So here's an opportunity for somebody to help pick up that mantle.
I mean, you won't be doing it like Ryan Reeves does.
You won't be that guy, but you can be who you are
and you can help everybody else.
We didn't notice something on the game in Nashville.
Sam Dickinson gives up that first puck on the first goal.
Come back to the bench and John Clingberg's beside him.
And Johnny Clingberg gives him a pat, gives him a couple of taps on the thigh,
says a couple of things for him and then gives him basically a let's go.
That's great.
That's what you need.
You're going to make sure that you bring everybody up.
You've got to make sure that you are helping yourself first,
but then help your line mate, your teammate, your defense partner, whoever.
So I like that.
That part of it.
The guys are still there and they know that they can contribute some other way.
The big part, though, for San Jose, as you just said,
they've got to be ready for this game right off the bat.
It's got to be 60 minutes.
And at this time of the year, we've seen it.
So many good sharps, teams.
That we're playing the big games and we're going to be teams that we're going to be in the playoffs.
Almost automatically with San Jose.
At this time of the year, they were dialed in.
They were ready to grind and this team has got to learn that.
St. Louis is going to be dialed in and they're grinding.
They're playing good defensive hockey.
A lot of that comes from their goal tending.
Joel Hofer just picked up a big shutout.
He's won off the league's lead for shutouts this season.
And I think that Jim Montgomery is always coached with defense in mind.
Oh, it's.
Yeah, Jimmy was always very good 200 foot player.
He was a very responsible guy defensive and a very smart coach without a doubt.
That was been the biggest change for St. Louis.
Is that they have really done a great job in front of their own net.
They're hard to play against.
They track back really well.
They do all the basics.
The stuff that we always talk about, they do all the basics.
There's no there's no big formula or system when it comes to playing defensive hockey.
Kevin Constantine used to say it's attitude and hard work.
That's defensive hockey and that's basically what it is.
What you want to see the sharks do tonight and one of our keys to the game is
make sure that they are aggressive defensively.
Don't shadow box.
Don't mirror drill.
Get after the puck.
And here's something else.
You have to be proactive instead of reactive.
I thought the sharks were awfully reactive in the first period.
They tried to get more proactive against the predators.
But I still think that's an area for improvement.
Yeah, so what does that mean?
How is the team going to be proactive skating off the puck?
One of the best guys on the team to skate off the puck is William Meckler.
It does a very good job.
So if a puck to say on the far side and William's right here on the near side,
what William will do?
He'll skate up through.
He'll push the pace and come across.
And that backs up the defense.
That allows a guy to come in the middle.
And the guy who's got the puck on the on the board can maybe go underneath
or it can go along to William.
William's really good at pushing the pace and being proactive and skating off the puck.
Another guy who's very good at it is Vincent de RNA defensively.
How he gets into a position to be in the middle and then make sure he releases behind to support.
It does a very good job of it.
We've got some guys that can do it and do it consistently in a game.
But everybody's got to get on it.
Everybody's got to think that I'm not just a passer by.
I'm not just a pedestrian here.
You have to make sure that you have an impact.
And by moving off the puck by skating off the puck,
that's where the impact can really help.
It helps create space.
It also makes you open for a support pass.
So you're guys not trying to force the puck up the boards.
There's a lot of things you can do away from the puck to be proactive.
Well, that is some great analysis from coach Drew Remenda.
Now I'm going to ask about Dr. Drew Remenda.
These psychologists, the man who understands the minds of the players.
What is it about when a team says all the right things?
They say there's no room for a B game.
You got to have an A game.
That was the real mantra before this game against Nashville.
And then they don't do it.
Why and how does that happen?
They get into analysis by analysis by analysis.
They get into their head too much.
They get too quiet.
They get intrinsic.
So things don't go their way off the bat.
If you're sinking yourself, I've got to have my A game every time.
And then your first couple of shifts, the A game doesn't go your way.
Then what do you do?
Then why don't have it?
And you just get quiet?
You've got to figure out a way.
And again, when we talked about this last game, you get quiet.
And when you get quiet, you get your thoughts.
And every player has it.
Every coach has it.
Every broadcast.
Exactly.
The thoughts start to creep in there.
And you start thinking about, oh, geez.
And then I don't have it tonight and all this team.
And you're thinking about the result instead of the process.
You have to, again, one of my favorite sayings and sports in life.
Be where your feet are.
Jimbo Fisher.
So stay in the moment.
Stay positive.
See what you can do to help each other out.
Stay involved in the game.
Stop thinking about the past.
Stop thinking about the last shift.
Stop thinking about what if we don't score here?
Stop thinking about the result.
When you're trying to par in from 16 so you can break 80.
Don't think about, I can break 80 if I par in.
Think about standing up, hitting that next shot.
I think that's the most important key to today's game.
Live in the moment.
Enjoy the opportunity.
Embrace it.
Good to see that Will Smith got a couple of goals last game.
I think that's an important part for today to get some extra people putting the puck in the net.
The shocks will be without a couple of guys.
We already mentioned Ryan Reeves obviously.
We'll have to see who else is going to be out.
Looks like there may be a change on defense.
It will be Yaroslav Asker off in goal two.
And that certainly is an athletic positive.
So we'll see how it all works.
Drew and I will be on the air at 430 Pacific with the broadcast of this game with the sharks and the blues.
Until then, that's the morning skate today.
You've been listening to the sharks morning skate.
Make sure you're listening all season long to the latest sharks news and information right here on the San Jose Sharks Audio Network.
Thank you.
