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Sharks Gameday — The Teal Report 03/17/2026. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
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 Sharks 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. The San Jose Sharks Audio Network presents The Teal Report. Here's Dan Ruzinowski. From Rogers Place in Edmonton, the San Jose Sharks expect tense action on the ice as there's a lot of stake between the sharks and the oiders tonight in the Pacific Division. San Jose currently stands in 10th place in the Western Conference with 70 points. Just one point behind the last wild card holder this Seattle Kraken and only five points behind the Edmonton oiders who sit in third place in the Pacific Division.
Edmonton for their parts only one point behind Vegas and two points behind first place Anaheim so you can understand the implications of everything that's about to happen. The sharks are excited about that. McLean Set-Abrini wants to forget about the game in Ottawa and he says that being in the race and being in this situation in Edmonton is something to really look forward to. Yeah, I mean, this is fun. This is our first time through it and I think a lot of us are excited to be in this spot and kind of go through it for the first time and I think we're just, I mean obviously grateful but we want to keep pushing here. From the oiders point of view, head coach Chris Knoblock understands the urgency of this game. Absolutely, it's a four point game. I believe we're, if we can win tonight, we're up seven if they win and it's three. It's a quite a difference in the standings and you know, if we're up seven with, you know, only half of our book, you know, whether it's 13 or 16 games for them,
you know, it's a nice cushion for us and I think it's important that, you know, this is a team for us to make playoffs. We have to keep them behind us. So yes, tonight is an important game. But the other big news surrounding this game and others in the NHL is the decision making process at the NHL Department of Player Safety. George Parros, who runs that department for the NHL, actually met with the media today after some comments on supplemental discipline by the oiders Conor McDavid, the leading scorer in the NHL. You know, I think the player safety has done their best. It's not an easy thing to do. You know, with that being said, I think that there is reason to take a look at how the whole process works. You know, every time there's a suspension, everybody complains about it, well, why don't we take a look at the process and figure out if there's a better way
to make sure that both parties are happy because it seems like there's a lot of frustration there. McDavid added in comments yesterday that he thinks that there might be a change that needs to be made in the process by which the Department of Player Safety arrives at decisions. I'm not an owner. I'm not a GM. I'm a player. And I can say that from the player perspective, I think every time there is a suspension. Most times there's a suspension. There's a lot of frustration from the player side. So why don't we take a look at the process and figure out a way that works for everybody? Parros, meeting with the media today, talked about McDavid's comments and applied them to the job that his department does. We have a process in place that we feel confident in and have been doing it for a long time. You know, we sweat over these decisions and pour over these decisions every night all season long. We have a process in place that's consistent and we have a team that works for me and together with me that evaluates all these plays.
A very experienced team, a veteran team, guys that have been here since the beginning of the department. Not to mention all the former players that have a large set of experiences of playing the NHL games, accolades, some of the best guys that have played the game, worked for this department, helped make these decisions. So our process, I feel very confident in. We've got great guys who make these decisions and I think the players should be confident in this team to do so. Of course, the big spotlight recently surrounds the five games suspension of Anaheim Captain Rontco Goudes who ended, Maple Leaf Superstar Austin Matthews season with a neon knee hit. Paris was asked if he had second thoughts about the way that his team arrived at that decision. No, I feel confident in this decision. We came to it, you know, for a good reason. You know, when we evaluate these plays, we look at the play and not the players. All right, and then we look at,
if we determine that play was worthy of supplemental discipline, we then look at the history of the players involved and if there's an injury or not. This is how we come to make all of our decisions. We did this and made this decision under those circumstances. It felt that this was the appropriate response. And, you know, and so I stand by it. Paros also addressed the idea that he settled on five games to avoid the automatic appeal that was allowed by the Goudes camp. It's a good question. But no, I don't make decisions based on the threat of appeal or the fear of an appeal. You know, we have to stand by our decisions. It's just like, yes, earlier. Like, I stand by the decision and if a feel is something, you know, is close to that threshold where it can go to a neutral arbitrator or not, that's not going to affect my decision at the end of the day. So, you know, whether or not there's an appeal, I can't really worry about that. I have to make what I think is the right decision, the decision that I can defend, and the decision I can sleep with at night. But the bottom line is that George Paros says
the Department of Player Safety has total confidence in the decision-making process they currently have. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, we uphold the rulebook and how it's enforced, those rules are written, and how they're enforced on the ice. And the biggest part of that is ensuring these rules create a safe environment for these players to play the game. So, absolutely, it's our main focus is why this department was started to have that consistency to have people who are dedicated to this every night worried about enforcing the rules, worried about how this game was played, and keeping the integrity of the game. Switching over to the Sharks game against Edmonton, another injury has ended another star player season. Leon Drysaddle was body-checked relatively cleanly by former Sharks' first round pick Ozzy Wiseblatt in an Edmonton 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Sunday at Rogers Place. And so, Edmonton is going to be without the services of one of their best players,
and they will rely a lot more on the aforementioned Connor McDavid for the rest of the regular campaign. Ryan Nujan Hopkins, a former first overall pick, will have more opportunity to showcase his abilities, but the question is, will he play center or wing? For the time being, Coach Noblok says he stays on the wing, but he might see some time at center too because of the face-off situation. Nujan is definitely an opportunity or a guy that can do that, but we feel Samansky can play some center. He's been doing a great job at that. His role will get a little bit bigger right now, and yeah, we have a lot of options, but right now we'll keep our centermen as McDavid, Dickinson, Samansky, and Henry. That teal report will continue in just a moment after this time out on the San Jose Sharks on to your network. Bay Area Sports Legends take center stage May 14th in San Francisco at the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and Trineman Ceremony for the class of 2026. Two-time World Series Champion with the Giants, Brandon Crawford joins four-time Super Bowl Champion with the 49ers Jesse Sapolu
plus a trio of Cal Bears, Missy Franklin, Eddie Hart and celebrated Rugby coach Jack Clark as they're all honored at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero on Thursday May 14th. Get tickets now at B-A-S-H-O-F dot org. 8 stars! 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 Sharks 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. Alex Newdelkiewicz will start for the Sharks and Dole while Conor Ingram begins in net for the Edmonton Oilers. Certainly getting pucks at each goal tender is going to be important for both teams, but dealing with a superstar on each side of the rank is also going to be critical.
Edmonton area native Zach O. Stopchuk talked about the awareness you have to have when Conor McDavid is on the ice. You gotta be aware, that's for saying you're kind of light bulb in your mind turns on a little bit. You gotta kind of play him a little differently, I guess. You gotta make sure you're skating. You gotta make sure you're always above him. So I think it's just more of a heightened sense of awareness that happens when he jumps the boards. For the Sharks head coach Ryan Worcowski, getting numbers around the puck is going to be critical. Yeah, we need numbers especially tonight, this team. We can't give these guys extra time in the offensive zone. That's what they feed off of, feed off that and the rush. So SmartF3, making sure we're getting above them. Those things that we did against Boston and Montreal, almost identical keys for tonight. It's the Sharks and the Edmonton Oilers, and it's going to be an exciting matchup. You don't want to miss it, do you? Of course you don't. Tune in to the Sharks Plus SAP Center app, online at stsharks.com slash listen, and of course on one of our terrestrial radio affiliates.
You can find the Sharks at 530 Pacific time. James Shepard is with me on the broadcast, providing in-science of color commentary. Hope you enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy today's Teal Report. For the complete Teal Report, and more great Sharks content, go to sjsharks.com slash listen.
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