SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks players said Tuesday that they heard general manager Mike Grier’s message loud and clear after two embarrassing losses last week not only left the team winless but shattered its confidence.
Days after seeing the Sharks get throttled by a combined 17 goals in home games against Vancouver and Pittsburgh, Grier made his feelings known Monday in a meeting described by some Sharks players as straightforward and needed.
“The last two are unacceptable, and embarrassing to say the least,” Sharks winger Luke Kunin said. “Everything he said, I agreed with. Now it’s time to go out and compete.”
The Sharks enter Tuesday’s game with the Philadelphia Flyers with a 0-11-1 record and need a victory to avoid becoming the first NHL team to lose its first 12 games of the season.
Grier would obviously love to see his team end its losing skid but indicated he would no accept more performances like the ones he saw the Sharks play against the Canucks and Penguins. Those catastrophic defeats left San Jose with a -43 goal differential, 25 goals behind the NHL’s next-worst team in that respect, the Edmonton Oilers at -18.
Grier said Monday, “There are certain things I won’t tolerate and some of that stuff has been happening, and I kind of let them know that. We’ll kind of go from there.”
“If the response isn’t there and I’m not seeing what I need to see,” Grier said later, “then everything will be evaluated, and I’m sure there’ll be some changes made.”
Sharks coach David Quinn said he and Grier spoke after Saturday’s 10-2 loss to the Penguins, and the general manager determined that it was a good time for him to speak to the group. The coaches were not a part of the meeting, Quinn said.
“From his end of it, he talked about what we’re looking for moving forward here,” Quinn said. “Guys are either part of the problem or part of the solution, and the next week to 10 days is going to say an awful lot about certain guys and certain players.”
Following Tuesday, the Sharks close out their four-game homestand on Thursday against the also-fragile Oilers (2-8-1), losers of seven of their last eight. San Jose ends the week with road games against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
The public will get a clear idea by then — if not sooner — if Grier’s talk had any impact on the way the Sharks are playing.
“Anytime you get the general manager to come in with a different voice, it’s an eye-opener, and it should be,” Quinn said. “It’s an eye-opening time. Obviously, we had two incredibly embarrassing nights, losing in the capacity and the way we did, it’s unacceptable and embarrassing. I thought it was a good time for that, as did Mike.”
“We’ve just got to set a standard,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “The emphasis that (Grier) made at the beginning of camp is the standard that we have to bring to this organization, we just haven’t been meeting that, especially the last two games.
“The takeaway is that we’ve got to create a new standard, we’ve got to raise the standard a lot and not take this stuff for granted. I think a lot of guys took that meaning to heart, as we all should.”
