SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks have completely turned around their season during the last two-plus weeks, and right now, coach Ryan Warsofsky and his players cannot wait to see what’s next.
Will Smith scored a go-ahead goal with 4:21 left in the third period to lift the Sharks to an impressive 2-1 victory over Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets on Friday at SAP Center, giving San Jose its sixth win in its last nine games.
Macklin Celebrini assisted on Smith’s goal and also scored one of his own on a dazzling first-period effort. He now leads the NHL with 23 points, one point ahead of Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves as San Jose now has a 6-6-3 record after starting 0-4-2.
The Sharks host the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Saturday. With a win over Florida and a little help from a couple of other teams, the Sharks could actually find themselves in a playoff spot by the end of the day.
“What better place to be. Saturday night, here in San Jose, at the Tank against the defending champs,” Warsofsky said. “Great test for us. I’m excited, and I know our team is.”
This recent stretch for the Sharks includes wins over playoff-contending teams like the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, and now the Jets, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners.
The Sharks largely outworked the Jets, especially in the second period when they created over a dozen scoring chances.
“I think you have to have that mentality,” that you can beat anybody, Smith said. “You can’t go into a game scared of anyone. You obviously have respect, but anyone could be anyone in this league.”
With Friday’s game tied, Philipp Kurashev controlled the puck behind the Jets’ net before he put a pass out to Smith, who slid the puck over to Macklin Celebrini. After a moment, with the puck resting behind Hellebuyck and just in front of the goal line, Smith poked it across for his sixth goal of the season.
“It was kind of an extended shift,” Smith said. “We had a nice zone entry, and then Kurashev had a great forecheck, kind of stopping behind the net. I saw (Celebrini) out of the corner of my eye, and honestly thought he scored. Then I just saw the puck kind of lying there.”
The Jets opened the scoring at the 12:34 mark of the first period on a goal by defenseman Josh Morrissey. But Celebrini answered right back just 1:12 later, as he took a long pass from Tyler Toffoli, went in alone on Hellebuyck, and beat the reigning Vezina and Hart Trophy winner with a forehand to backhand move for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
Celebrini entered Friday in a three-way tie for the lead in NHL scoring, as he, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, and Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel all had 21 points. Celebrini was coming off a three-point game on Wednesday when the Sharks romped past the Seattle Kraken 6-1 for their fifth victory in eight games.
“He’s definitely taken a huge step here, let’s be honest, and in all facets of the game, not just on the point side of it,” Warsofsky said of Celebrini, who was being examined after the game after one of his front teeth was chipped by a high stick in the first period. “The way he plays without the puck, the way he competes, the way he drags guys into the fight.
“I sound like a broken record, because I say it every single day, but I would say those conversations that we had, and then at the start of the year, you could tell he was on a mission.”
Celebrini is among many players his age who grew up admiring Jonathan Toews, who signed a one-year deal with his hometown Jets in July. Toews, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks who was named one of the NHL’s top 100 players of all time in 2017, had missed the past two seasons for health reasons related to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and long COVID-19.
Celebrini said the first hockey jersey he owned was a Blackhawks jersey with Toews’ name and number.
“It’s tough to emulate a player like that, he’s just so unique,” Celebrini said. “Talk about one of the best defensive forwards, his ability to win face-offs, and just how he tied that (Blackhawks) team together. Obviously, he was the captain, but he just did all things exceptionally well.”
The last time the Sharks owned a .500 points percentage this late into a season was March 30, 2022, when they were 29-29-8. Over the previous three years, the Sharks had gotten off to such poor starts that they never gave themselves a chance to reach that mark.
Now the Sharks, in a stark contrast to recent years, can’t wait to see where they can go from here.
“It’s great, obviously,” Nedeljkovic said. “I mean, we’re playing some really good hockey in all three zones right now, and we’re getting rewarded with it in different ways. Ultimately, we’re racking up some wins here and putting some points on the board.
“So we just have to stay disciplined with how we’re playing, stay detailed, keep learning from our mistakes, and just enjoy the moment, enjoy winning. Everybody wants to win. Nobody likes losing. If we can just go out there with that mindset, that we can play with anybody, when we have our A game, and even if we have our B game, we can still hang with some of the best. And I think it’ll go a long way.”