Buy-In or Communication? What’s Sharks Issue & How Is It Being Worked On?

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky told reporters he needs more buy-in from his team after Saturday’s ugly loss.

The team knows it needs to be better on the ice, and one of the best ways to help each other is through communication. Sharks captain Macklin Celebrini refuted the coach’s comments, saying he believes the team is bought in, but they need to be connected more. The 20-year-old isn’t actively disagreeing with his coach; he sees the request for buy-in as a message to be better together.

“I can’t really put words in [Warsofsky’s] mouth. I don’t speak for him. But from what we’re feeling in the room, I think we’re all bought in, and we all want to win,” Celebrini said Monday morning. “Obviously, we’re all competitive, and we all want to do the right things and win and have fun. That’s the best part of hockey. We have a different group, and we need to find a way to gel.”

So which is it? Buy-in or better group communication?

“Had a great meeting today. Good morning, skate. Tried to work on some things, so [a] step in the right direction today,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We just couldn’t get to our game in all different areas. We’ve seen it, just not consistently enough.”

Warsofsky added that better communication will help the team gel overall, and his captain agreed.

“I think just talking, talking on the ice, talking on the bench, talking in the room. It can’t always come from the coaches,” Celebrini said. “We gotta talk to each other and just tell each other what we’re seeing.”

This team is 7-7-1, and still very much in the thick of it for important games late in the season. But as the team’s leader, how is Celebrini taking his group through a hard part of the season?

“All of us are frustrated. There’s no really hiding that. I think our record is decent for how we’re playing. We don’t need to panic. We don’t need to hit the fire alarm,” he said. “We’re still in it. I mean, we’ve not gotten the points that we wanted to get at this point. But I mean there’s so much room for improvement. Just so many steps we need to take. I think we just need to build day by day and not really look too far down the road.”

Warsofsky believes there is a big of a new-age issue with player communication, but he addressed his group about it and says the message was heard.

“There definitely can be more, can be better communication,” Warsofsky said. “I think hockey back in the day [there] was probably a lot more communication than there is today for whatever reason, so we got to obviously work on it.”

“God gave us mouths for a reason; let’s use them.”

Having strong communication is the biggest thing the San Jose Sharks can do as they search for connectivity. Regardless of the systems they are playing, Coach Warsofsky says he wants things simple and connected against the Calgary Flames.

“Just having five guys connected is really what it comes down to,” Warsofsky said.

Warsofsky is aware of the noise surrounding the Sharks’ struggles. It might be loud, but he and the rest of the team understand they have expectations to perform this season. He knows the only way to change that narrative is to play better.

“That’s the business we’re in. There’s going to be a lot of noise wherever you play. We’ve got some good veteran players that have been around that understand that. But the only people who can really change it are the people in the locker room, and we’ve got to continue to work on that.”

Warsofsky didn’t get into how he’s communicating his message to the San Jose Sharks, but he repeatedly said he is ready to see it improve on Monday.