Sharks Morning Skate 04/06/2026

The San Jose Sharks Audio Network is on 24 hours a day.

Whether you're in the office or on the co,

make sure that you download the Shark's SAP Center app

and hit listen anytime.

You can also find us on your computer

by going to sjsharks.com slash listen.

If it's a game broadcast breaking news

or a player feature, the place to find it is right here.

On the San Jose Sharks Audio Network.

It's time for the shark's morning skate

with all the latest on San Jose Sharks hockey.

Here are your hosts Dan Ruzanowski and Drew Remenda.

Well, the San Bones on the ice,

but that doesn't mean the game's over.

The game's about to start today.

The San Jose Sharks against the Chicago Blackhawks

for the second time this year.

Drew, I want to talk about the last game

against the Nashville Predators.

If I may put you through that pain,

so many good things happen in the game,

but they're totally masked by what went badly for the team.

You know, as usual,

when the San Jose Sharks don't play well

or they're struggling in the game,

they have caused their own problems.

And they weren't ready for the game

in the sense that how Nashville played

in that first period especially.

They weren't ready for the push.

They weren't ready for the heaviness.

They weren't efficient through the neutral zone.

They made it too easy for Nashville to come out of their zone.

I love what Ryan Ruzanowski said at the end of the game,

which was you can't play at the end of your stick.

In other words, you've got to get up.

You've got to get through guys.

You've got to take away time and space.

There was far too much from the San Jose Sharks point of view

of allowing Nashville to play the way they want to play,

which is forward, which is heavy,

which is get back as quickly as possible.

The Sharks allowed that to happen.

But I'm going to ask you something that could be a little bit overly critical.

But in that situation, don't you think a big saver, too,

would have helped?

Yes.

I didn't think I asked you play a very good game.

I didn't either.

I thought that he struggled in that.

Yarslav asked her off again.

She had it before and I'll keep saying it.

23 played 60 games.

But when you're looking at for goal tenders,

all I want for them is to make the save you're supposed to make.

At least the one we deem you're supposed to make.

The game is a hell of a lot more difficult for him than it is for us

for where we sit in our privileged position.

But he is still the guy that the San Jose Sharks have been on.

He is still the guy that's supposed to be the San Jose Sharks future net.

He is still the guy that's supposed to be going out there and making those saves.

And yeah, he didn't give the sharks enough saves.

And I looked at Detroit's game yesterday.

Cam Talbot had a 763 goals against or a 763 save percentage.

He allowed five goals on 19 shots.

And there were some where you just, dude, you got to have that.

It's just the NHL.

Now again, it's easy for us to say.

But yeah, the sharks need every team needs goal tenning this point of year if you're going to win.

But it didn't really help that Patrick Cain took that penalty at the end of the game.

No, it didn't.

It didn't.

Again, but that's a great lesson to learn for the sharks tonight.

For the sharks tonight, they can't take bad penalties.

They can't be lazy with their stick.

You can't be selfish.

This is the time of year that when you are playing,

it's all about what can I do to help the team not take away from it.

But also when you have the power play, you really got to take advantage,

which the sharks didn't do either.

They gave up a shorthanded goal.

And I wanted to go back to that shorthand to go because the number of things went wrong.

But the thing that jumped out at me was the way that the puck came off the boards in the defensive zone there,

can't the sharks put that in their back pocket and learn to use that.

Something like that, if the boards are going to be that lively to their advantage going the other way.

I'm going to say something really controversial right now, Dan.

Is that that's why I would love to see them practice at SAP.

Yes.

Game day.

Yes.

Yeah, that's one of the things that I'll tell you a quick story though.

So Calgary used to have the liveliest mores in the world, right?

Yeah, they were in the Joe.

Yeah.

And we're playing them in the playoffs.

And Kevin Constance says to me, take our turns out before the game,

before the morning skate and just showing the bounce off the board.

So we go out and we get to center.

I said, already, come here.

And he goes, yeah.

And I slap one into the corner, comes off the boards and jumps right out to the front of the net.

Okay.

And I said, get it.

Yes.

Yep.

That night, we're playing them.

We get out to the lead, late in the game.

They have come back to make it a one goal game.

We had to lead that thing.

Late in the game, Calgary banks it off the m boards.

Come straight out.

Arties thinking about going to get it.

He goes out to get it.

He's late.

I think it's right.

And gets the puck and slides it right to the net.

If Ronnie Stern wasn't celebrating because his hands up thinking it's going to score,

he tips it in.

Okay.

We'll go past the front of the net.

And after the game, I think we'll remove it.

It's just furious with Artie.

Artie.

Didn't I not show you that today?

And he went, what?

I said, the puck coming off the boards like it does here in Calgary had a lot of

the boards there.

And how it would always come stuck to the middle.

And he goes, oh, that's what you're showing me.

I thought you just showing me your shot.

And I went, why not?

What I show you, my shot.

And he goes, well, you look like you've been working on it.

And it was a great coaching lesson.

Explain yourself 100% fully at all times.

Don't assume that the goal tenderer or the any other player knows what you're talking

about.

But that is why you always, I would always like to see them practice at SAP on game day.

Well, I've been kind of making a push for that quietly.

And I'll talk to Coach Ryan Horsowski about this on Coach's chalkboard, too, to ask him

the same question.

But I also talked to some of the young defensemen of the team.

Sam Dickinson's really coming along this year.

And I asked him about putting that in his back pocket, both defensively and offensively.

And I said, is that something you might remember for the game?

And he said, well, I might.

But that play was, that play that was made off of those corner boards is a pretty

tough play to make.

So I better be sure that I'm going to do it.

And that's a good answer.

Yeah, it is a good answer.

Yeah, the thing is you can't put the puck into the pads of the defender coming out when

you're at the power play.

And that's how it starts.

That's how it starts.

And also, you've got to get your ass back.

You've got to get back into the zone.

You can't take a shift off.

Eric Holler should not beat you down the ice period.

End of discussion.

And that's, again, that goes back to making life a little bit too easy for the national

president at that point.

I'm pretty eager tonight to see Anton Frandel of the Chicago Blackhawks.

He scored his first goal of his NHL career coming here from your garden of the Swedish

hockey league this season.

He was the pick right after Michael Measer was selected in the draft, two picks after Matthew

Schaefer of the New York Islanders.

This is a young man that a lot of teams considered to be one of the best prospects in that draft.

Of course, now that we've seen Schaefer, we know why he was selected first.

But do you think this is a good measuring stick night for those two young men against each other?

Yeah, well, I mean, when you look at how these young draft choices are out there,

and really great players, I always think they love to do this test.

I always think that they want to have this test.

When you saw a fighter in boxing or in MMA or anything, they always want to go up against the best guy.

Yeah, that's the matchup that brings you to the fight.

And I think that's the matchup that Felisa and for Celebrating the Villains for Dard,

and Frandel, these are the guys.

This is what they want.

They want to test themselves against the other great ones because they want to,

that's the type of person they want to come out and say, I'm better than that.

Or at least I was tonight.

That's going to be one of the big matchups tonight that I'm going to look at.

And before we get in any more about tonight's game,

I do want to send a special shout out to John McCarthy and the San Jose Barra Cruder

for clinching a playoff spot in the American Hockey League's Calder Cup playoffs.

That's a big deal.

And it's, I think, even a bigger deal to Kyle Hadole and Louis Moss and also to John McCarthy

for the job that they've had to do with recalls of some of their best players,

with injuries to some of the best players that they've had

to try to integrate guys on ATOs and PTOs.

And they've managed to do that and qualify for the playoffs.

And I think that that's just a fantastic achievement.

Yep, they've done a great job this year.

We've got so many more points than they had last year.

The squeak thing we've played off this last year,

this year they have been absolutely outstanding in their best teams in the league.

Very interesting how their penalty kill at the start of the year was dead last,

and that was one of the best in the league.

This is a very good team.

It's their fun to watch.

We had a chance to watch Kudauki tomorrow, by the way,

on the clock at TechCU.

San Diego.

It's San Diego, one o'clock.

And so it is a situation where Johnny has done a great job with that team.

And those players are playing their, you know what's up.

I think it would mean a tremendous amount to the shark's organization.

If this team can make a big run in the playoffs and even going beyond that

and saying, what if they won the Calder Cup?

And how much would that mean for the future of the San Jose Sharks

for those young players to go through those best of sevens all the way through?

Well, it's a longer for the AHL.

It's five runs, not four.

So you're going to get through that first round first and then,

and then it gets heavier and heavier.

I'll tell you what, there's some really good teams.

There's some really good teams out there right now.

They're going to be up against it.

But this is a team that has a lot of belief systems going through right now.

And the way they're playing, the young guys have been great.

The veterans have been super and the guys in that are now stepping up at the right time.

Sure are.

And the sharks are going to need to do that tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Jamal Mayors and I will be on the air starting at 630 Pacific time

with all of the exciting play by play coverage.

Of course, it's Macklin Setabrini against Connor Bedard.

It's Nick Lardis against Will Smith.

It's a lot of great action tonight.

Michael Misa against Anton Frontel and much, much more.

So make sure you tune in 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.