BOSTON — The San Jose Sharks echoed the same theme, after a 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins.
“Be better in front of the net,” Will Smith said of four of the Bruins goals, which happened right in front of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. “They’re very preventable.”
Smith wasn’t a pointing a finger at just his defensemen, but at the whole team, including himself.
“We got to help Ned out,” Smith said.
Michael Misa, Kiefer Sherwood, Dmitry Orlov, and Smith scored in the back-and-forth tilt.
In the end, the Sharks came out of a six-game road trip with a 3-2-1 record, but it feels like it could’ve been more, after a 3-1 third period lead at Detroit turned into an OT loss and tonight’s 3-2 third period edge ended in a regulation defeat.
After the game, Smith praised Jeremy Swayman’s play, Nedeljkovic shared the key on how the San Jose Sharks can defend harder, Orlov discussed the expectations for this team, and Warsofsky summarized where the squad is at 12 games into the season.
A deeper game story with micro-stats from Stathletes and game action clips, Sharks Insight, will be published soon.
Will Smith
Smith, on Swayman's save on him, Bruins up 5-4 late in 3rd: "I think I honestly had that one. It was a quick pump fake and backhander. He made a hell of a save, so we got to tip your cap. He's a hell of a goalie and he played good tonight."
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 25, 2026
Alex Nedeljkovic
Nedeljkovic, on all the net front goals that Boston scored:
I think that’s where they scored all their goals except for the Pasta one. All that is, just outwilling guys and wanting to defend harder than the other team wants to score. All it comes down to, no X’s and O’s, and we had bodies in the area, I think, on all of them, it’s just outwilling them a little bit more, just being a little harder on our sticks. I can do a better job, maybe swallowing up another puck or two there and killing plays or putting rebounds in better spots as well.
Dmitry Orlov
Orlov: "On paper, everybody expects us to be a good team. But right now, we have to prove it. Not just be a good team on paper. We have to show up every game and battle."
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 25, 2026
Orlov, on the San Jose Sharks losing net front battles:
We just shoot ourselves in the foot again. It kind of happens almost every game. We [don’t] battle, [don’t] win the battles when we have to. We not playing more hungry, for the battles, for the puck, and lost focus sometimes. It’s why we give up some goals.
Ryan Warsofsky
Warsofsky, on the Michael Misa pass to Ty Dellandrea that led to the David Pastrnak goal:
We make a play on the entry, where we got to be smarter than that. We try to make a cross-ice pass with four seconds left in the power play. Pastrnak comes out of the box, he scores. So we got to be smarter.
Warsofsky, on the 3-2-1 road trip:
We got some results. We still have a long way to go. We’re still good. Some things we got to get better at. Starts with protecting our net front. That’s going to be one. We got to start scoring 5-on-5. That’s going to be another one.
We definitely left some points on the table. That’s for sure. And we’ve also gotten points that we probably shouldn’t have. So, you know, our record says what it is. It is what it is. If we’re going to be a really good hockey team in this league, we got to play a lot better going forward.
Warsofsky, on where the San Jose Sharks are after 12 games this season:
As a coach of the team, we’re pushing this team, challenging this team to be better. I thought we’d be a little bit more consistent. I would say that maybe is the biggest thing.
Warsofsky, on Misa’s performance:
Just his pace. He was holding on to pucks. I thought he was good on the walls and battles. So we’ll have to look at some stuff, but I thought he was better.
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