Sharks Morning Skate 04/13/2026

0:00It's time for the sharks morning skate with all the latest on San Jose Sharks hockey. Here are your hosts Dan Ruzanowski and Drew Remenda. Well here we are. I'm a role last road trip of the year and the final game of the series between the sharks and the Nashville Predators. I'm sitting here Drew at Bridgestone Arena as you are looking out at the moment at the Predators skating on the ice, looking at those uniforms and thinking about the last 15 games the sharks have played this team without a victory. I guess the sharks should do and they might as well do it tonight because they have to. Yeah I'm trying to think is anybody beat us that many times in a row in our existence? Florida had a long streak. There were a couple of other teams pretty close. We couldn't beat Pittsburgh to save our lives for a long time. Rangers early in the career of the sharks. Yeah you're right. Buffalo at Buffalo. Oh, there you go.

1:00There you go. Buffalo or Buffalo was always one or so. But yeah this is amazing really when you look at it. It's a long long long losing skid against a team that honestly Danny the way the sharks have played them lately, they haven't played them that well and I look at it, you know to do comparison that just the way they play, any team that's played the sharks heavy, any team that plays the sharks where they where they track back hard where they play physical and get into them on the boards and pressure them. The sharks have not responded this year. That heavier playoff style game where the Predators have been playing for a while, the sharks haven't been able to respond. You mean the style of hockey that Mike Greer and Ron Worsovsky want their team to play? Yes. I'm trying to get them to play and some guys play it consistently. Some guys, you know keep pushing and understand you've got to play that way. While you've got other guys who just it's not in their DNA yet.

2:01It's just I believe we've seen it before. It's a learned skill. Experience is what gets you to that point where you learn yet. Oh, I have to be able to play as you know the new I have to be comfortable and uncomfortable situations. I've got to be able to play a heavy game. I've got to be able to play with a guy right on my back, but sharks are still learning that. But tonight would be a great time to show some of the the the fruits of that labor. Well, if they do show the fruits of the labor, not only will they end a 15 game win over the streak against the Predators, but they'll also stay alive in the playoff race. And the fact that it's April the 13th and the sharks are still in the playoff race to me as an incredible scenario. And speaking of scenarios, you're the ones that the NHL is putting out today. The Anna Heimducks are idle. They're not playing, however, if the sharks defeat the Predators in any fashion, Anna Heimd clinches a playoff spot. So there are a lot of ducks fans that are rooting for the sharks to get a win tonight. The LA Kings will clinch a playoff birth if they defeat the Kraken in any fashion.

3:02And I hear the Kraken might be using their ECHL gold tender tonight because of all kinds of injuries. Just heard that this morning. We'll see if that happens. So if the Kings win in any fashion and if the sharks win tonight in any fashion, the Kings qualify for the playoffs, but the thing is, we don't need the Kings to win. We need them to lose because they can only get one more point. The sharks can only tie the Kings if they get one more point. And the sharks win the tiebreaker. So there's a lot at stake. A lot could happen. The sharks could be out of the playoffs even if they win tonight. Yes. They could. Yeah. For the sharks, of course, you'd be where you feed are. Your job at hand is to go out win this game. They put themselves in a very precarious situation where a lot of things have to go their away from other entities for the sharks to be continuing to be in the playoff push. But you're still alive. And as you and I talked about before, if you're still in it, you're still in it.

4:04So make sure that you do everything you can to stay in it. I find it really interesting. The sharks recalled Luca Cagnoni from the San Jose Barracuda who have already qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs in spite of their recent woes. And Cagnoni is an offensively minded defenseman who has shown a lot of promise has had a up and down year, a little bit more down than up to be honest in terms of his development, which happens for offensive defenseman at that level. So that's nothing unusual. But it's a sign that the sharks aren't satisfied with the way that their defensemen are moving the puck. 100% the sharks need defensemen who can get the puck up to macro period end of discussion. They need guys who can run a power play, get shots through. Luca does that. Luca's got great skating. He is fantastic on using his edges evading checkers at the offensive blue line. Being able to dance the blue line, find a shooting lane and get shots to the net. He's really good at it.

5:05And his edgework is tremendous. What I want to see from Luca is if he's in this game, we don't quite know yet, but if he's in this game, how he handles the pressure. You're right. You know, doing the Cuda games, you watch all of them like I broadcast them and there has been some great moments with Luca, but as a young defenseman, he's still learning some situations where he's got to be better. What I want to see from him is a little bit more intensity in his own zone away from the puck. But offensively with the puck brilliant. Well, that's a big sign and you know what? That's the process of an adolescent becoming a man, which is what we're talking about with this team anyway. This team is learning to become a hardened club that understands the pressure that can deal with all the challenges that can get to that next level. And this is a gigantic test tonight. I'm really glad to hear you say that you agree with me that Luca's skating has improved this year because if he's going to make it in the NHL at his size, he's got a guy, you can't expect him to be Lane Hudson, but Lane Hudson is an elite skater, but

6:09the one thing that they both seem to have is what they call escape ability. The fact that you got a big guy coming at you, a big forward checker, intimidating fashion, and because of your edgework, you're skating and you're puck handling and passing ability, you're able to escape that situation. If he's going to make it in the NHL, that's what he's got to do. And the other thing is that in terms of his defensive play, he has to do enough, but the best thing he can do is control the puck. Yep. And when he's got the puck, he's very good. He's like Macklin. He's like Will. He's like a lot of skilled, young skilled players. They think they can make every single pass. They think that they can make the pass through over two sticks and underneath the third in order to send a guy in a breakaway. He does that just like Mackin will that Joe Thornton had more giveaways than anybody in the San Jose charts every year he played for the charts. Why? Because he always had the puck. Maybe he would have had more strikeouts. Why? Because he was always swinging for the offensive. That's just the way it is. Ryan Worsovsky talked to us.

7:11There's a certain group of guys that you want as soon as they cross the red line to get the puck behind the Dean Gold. There's a certain group of players that when you, when they have the puck, you know that probably four out of ten times going into the zone, they're going to turn it over because they're going to try to make a play. And you live with that. That's just the way it is. You know, it's like back in the day in 93, 94 when Igor Larry on off was playing for us. And he had the meeting with Kevin Constantine because the famous meeting, the famous meeting we started out. 08 and 1. We didn't even have Mack Makarov and Larry on off together then. 2 thirds of the game. Why? That's just Kevin. 2 thirds of the KLM line where the greatest line is ever. And Kevin and Igor had a meeting and Igor just said to him, Kevin. We've got 15 other guys who can dump the puck in. Let me do with Mack and Garpy and Nordy and the kids, Sanders. Let us do what we can do because we always play units of five.

8:13Kevin let them do it and the rest for that year was history. So those are the things you live with the good or you thrive on the good, you live with the bad and you hope that they learn as they get older. One of the things the sharks can take out of the Vancouver game is number one, they played better. They got something out of Igor, Turner Shoff, a couple of goals, some really good play away from the puck and nice simpatico with the celebrini and Smith. I think that tonight against Nashville, they're going to need all of that, but they're going to need the Wienberg line to really be strong too because Steven Stamcoast's 40 goals score, Phillip Forsberg kills the sharks. This is a tough game tonight and the predators are fighting for their lives too. And think about this lineup, Stamcoast, Forsberg, Soros, Yoshi, O'Reilly, O'Reilly is so good. I mean, Ryan O'Reilly is last game he was so impressive how much pressure he puts on to penalty kill his face offs, he's that driver on that team, he's incredible.

9:16But this is also a team that they're hard to play against. The sharks got to learn to play against teams that are hard to play against. We'll see what happens tonight, Jamal Mayer's and I'll be on it for 30 Pacific time, just in time for your drive home or your last half hour at the office. Make sure that you tune into the shark's audio network for all of the exciting coverage and we will see you then. Until then, that's the Morning Skate Show today. You've been listening to the sharks Morning Skate. Make sure you're listening all season long to the latest sharks news and information right here on the San Jose Sharks Audio Network.