The San Jose Sharks looked good in the first period in Detroit, with the return of Will Smith seemingly giving the team a boost. But maintaining that pace through a 60-minute game against the Detroit Red Wings, another team in a playoff position in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, was not to be. Ultimately, the Red Wings beat the Sharks 4-2 in a game that was filled with miscues and missteps that cost San Jose in the end.
Natural Stat Trick’s GameFlow chart in all situations shows how Detroit took control of the game midway through the first and then really stepped on it in the second and third.
The Sharks were not careful with the puck last night. NHL.com reports that San Jose had 22 giveaways to Detroit’s 11 and just two takeaways to Detroit’s five.
At least two of those giveaways led to goals in the other direction, such as the Red Wings’ second goal.
With a bit of pressure on him, John Klingberg tossed an errant pass off the boards, a soft pass that looked like he was trying to connect with Michael Misa in the neutral zone. A Red Wings’ player gobbles up the puck instead. Klingberg tries to close along the wall to prevent the player from making a break the other way, but gets blown through. Meantime, Misa scrambles back and while it wasn’t a strong back check I can’t be super mad at a kid playing in game 10 of his NHL career. Dmitry Orlov is stuck back playing the 2-on-1 the other way and can’t block the passing lane. The pass gets through and it’s an easy tap in for Detroit.
This is what Klingberg had to say about the play after the game.
“The second goal, I thought Mis [Misa] was coming up on the boards, so I was going to give it to him,” said Klingberg. “I’m just making a bad read. I try to pinch. Eventually, I ended up on the outside, and he jumps on the inside.”
In much of this game, Detroit had its way with the puck, as San Jose allowed easy passing lanes. I will admit, not having a stick on the penalty kill during Detroit’s first goal of the game (Alex Wennberg’s stick broke) certainly made scoring easier for Detroit, San Jose also didn’t make life difficult for the Red Wings. This was a game played by a young team and it showed.
The future is now
But let’s talk about the fun stuff to come because with the contracts no longer a problem, it seems as though the Sharks have decided that the training wheels are coming off for Misa. The young forward played in his 10th NHL game yesterday meaning he’s here to stay. The Sharks went with an overall younger lineup against the Ref Wings, choosing to sit Ryan Reaves and Jeff Skinner.
Looking at the HockeyStatCards Game Score Breakdown, the kids did alright. In fact, it was some of the more veteran players that had tough outings in Detroit, a fact that Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky talked about after the game.
“Some guys had some tough nights,” said Warsofsky when San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng asked about Pavol Regenda, William Eklund and Klingberg’s nights. “It’s going to happen through an 82-game season. How do you respond?”
Highlight
Since this isn’t a game we want to spend too much time on, we’ll jump right to the highlight. Will Smith’s goal in his first game back from injury!
They can’t all be pretty, but the fact that Smith drove straight to the net with no fear shows he’s feeling no ill effects of that injury. It’s a good sign for the Sharks moving forward and it also proves that the Macklin Celebrini-Smith connection is back.
Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Detroit Red Wings Jan. 16, 2026
First period
6:18 DET Alex DeBrincat from Lucas Raymond and James van Riemsdyk on the power play
9:54 SJS Will Smith from Macklin Celebrini and John Klingberg
Second period
1:58 SJS Collin Graf from Nick Leddy and Sam Dickinson
6:55 DET J.T. Compher from Marco Kasper
Third period
4:41 DET Dylan Larkin from Lucas Raymond and James van Riemsdyk
18:28 DET Marco Kasper from Lucas Raymond into the empty net
