Sharks ready for camp in Arizona
The San Jose Sharks had a horrible training camp last season.
They won only one of their six preseason games. None of the rookies made a strong impression on management or the coaching staff. The roster was thin, and the chemistry that had helped carry the Sharks to the Western Conference final four months earlier had evaporated.
The poor camp bled into the season. When the pandemic shut things down for good in March, the Sharks had the worst record in the Western Conference.
Avoiding a repeat of that, any and all of that, will be the focus when training camp opens Thursday at the Ice Den in Scottsdale, Arizona. The players will need to adapt to the coaching staff’s way of doing things, as Bob Boughner takes over after serving 37 games as interim coach last season. He and GM Doug Wilson also need to find some less- experienced players who can contribute at the NHL level.
All while trying to stay safe and healthy in the midst of a pandemic.
Here are the Sharks’ top five questions going into training camp.
1. CAN THEY GET THROUGH CAMP WITHOUT AN OUTBREAK? » MLB had its share of issues with the coronavirus after it started its season in July and the NFL continues to have problems every week. Heck, the Warriors had issues recently with both Draymond Green and James Wiseman missing most of camp for COVIDrelated reasons.
With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine the NHL not experiencing similar problems, especially in the early going.
Before Christmas, the Sharks were still figuring out protocols and what they could and could not do once camp began. It is fair to assume, though, they will be in a fairly restrictive environment, with most — if not all — of their days spent either at the rink or their nearby hotel.
It’s obviously critical that the Sharks adhere to these rules. Not only for their physical wellbeing, but to get the most out of this time before the Jan. 14 opener vs. the Arizona Coyotes. The last thing they can afford is to have groups of players sitting out for days at a time for COVID-related
reasons. It stands to reason that if every player can stay healthy and eligible during camp, then the Sharks will have a better chance of getting off to a good start once the season begins.
2. CAN THE GOALTENDING BE FIXED? » We start the onice questions here because without solid goaltending, all of the coaching and personnel changes the Sharks have made during the long offseason won’t matter. They will have no chance of making the playoffs if Martin Jones and Devan Dubnyk are unable to improve on their numbers from last season.
Jones had a .891 even strength save percentage in 41 games last season, 57th and last among all goalies who played at least 20 games. Dubnyk wasn’t much better with an .899 even strength save percentage, although off-ice issues with his wife facing a serious medical situation could have played a role in his onice struggles.
Evgeni Nabokov starts his first full season as the Sharks’ goaltending coach, a role he over in December 2019 after Johan Hedberg was fired. Jones seemed to benefit from working with Nabokov on a daily basis, and Dubnyk said he was looking forward to working with the longtime former Sharks goalie.
Although some intrasquad scrimmages are planned, there are no exhibition games, making it more of a challenge to evaluate how both goalies are performing. We may have to see how things go during the first few games of the season before we know if Jones and Dubnyk are really making progress.
Waiting in the wings, of course, will be Alexei Melnichuk, who stands to be the Sharks’ third goalie, at least for the first part of the season. Then, once the AHL starts in mid-February, the Sharks will have a decision to make whether to keep Melnichuk as their third goalie or have him play on a regular basis with the Barracuda.
3. CAN THEY LEARN THE NEW SYSTEMS IN TWO WEEKS? »
Bob Boughner is looking to implement style changes, associate coach Rocky Thompson wants to put his stamp on the defense corps and the power play and assistant coach John Madden needs time with the forwards and the penalty kill unit.
Can it all be perfected in a two-week span? Probably not. Can the Sharks get close enough, though, to where they can hit the ground running once the season starts? That remains to be seen. With the exception of the players who were on loan to European clubs, and forwards like Ryan Donato and Matt Nieto who played in the playoffs, most Sharks players haven’t been in a game since March 11.
In Pete DeBoer’s first season in San Jose, it took the Sharks almost half of the season before they started to feel comfortable in a new system. It shouldn’t take the Sharks that long in 2021 considering they’re already familiar with Boughner, but there will still be an adjustment period.
“There’s going to be quite a bit of change, but we’re not recreating the wheel,” Boughner said last week. “We’re definitely looking at getting our (defensemen) involved a lot more into the offense. That’ll be one of our biggest changes.”
4. CAN THE SHARKS BUILD COHESION? » Boughner stressed the importance of building and maintaining chemistry within the room. Far too often last season, guys went off on their own when adversity struck.
From that standpoint, perhaps it’s a good thing for the Sharks to be spending so much time together for the next month. With many observers doubting whether the Sharks can get back to the playoffs, perhaps an ‘us versus the world’ mentality will bring the team closer together.
5. WHICH YOUNG PLAYERS CAN CRACK THE OPEN
ING NIGHT ROSTER? » The Sharks had this same question at the start of camp last season after Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi and Gus Nyquist all departed via free agency.
Certainly, today, there’s the issue of who is going to take over as the Sharks’ third line center after Joe Thornton signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and who might their sixth and seventh defensemen be after Tim Heed, Dalton Prout and Brandon Davidson were not resigned.
The positive thing for the Sharks is that they know more about the potential candidates to fill these jobs than they did at last year’s camp.
Forwards like Joel Kellman, Noah Gregor, Antti Suomela and Alexander True all gained NHL experience last season, as did defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov, with Jake Middleton and Trevor Carrick also getting another taste of life in the NHL.
There’s also a question as to who will start the season on the 23-man roster and who will be on the taxi squad. Looks for players who do not have to go through waivers to be on the taxi squad since the Sharks can bring them up and down with impunity.