Jabber Jaws: Quinn, “We stunk, we sucked.”

Though the game was a much different story from Thursday’s against the Detroit Red Wings, the San Jose Sharks fell to the New York Rangers in a 2-1 loss.

The game went scoreless through the first 54 minutes, partly in thanks to James Reimer making incredible saves to keep the Rangers off the board. However, Julien Gauthier would tip in a shot from the point by Jacob Trouba to get scoring started. Adam Fox netted the game-winner after a few empty net misses and goaltending efforts made by Logan Couture.

That was a crazy sequence. Mika Zibanejad deflected Karlsson’s outlet pass as Reimer was coming off the ice, the Rangers over-passed looking for the ENG like three times … and then Adam Fox scored from the top of the zone despite Couture’s best effort to keep it out.

2-0 NYR

— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) November 20, 2022

Though the captain would dash Shesterkin’s hopes of a shutout with 17 seconds to go in regulation, it was too little too late.

Following the loss, head coach David Quinn, goaltender James Reimer and forward Nico Sturm took to the mic to address the full 60 minutes, dropping off in the third period and getting more contributions up and down the line-up.

Here’s what they had to say:

David Quinn

On the full 60 minutes: We sucked in the third period. They beat us to every loose puck, they out-battled us, they out-competed us. Our puck management wasn’t great all night long, but we were at least hanging around in the first two periods. Took some penalties that put us behind the eight ball — you give that team a power play, they surely can turn the tide on you, and we survived it, but it’s just really disappointing how we played in the third period. To me, that’s as bad as we played since the New York Islanders game.

That being said, I don’t want to take it away from them. They were good tonight, they were on pucks, they competed — we weren’t. One of the reasons they looked as fast as they did is we didn’t compete hard enough. We didn’t win enough battles and get into people, which hasn’t been the case. Just disappointing the way that game unfolded — I know it was 1-0, but they deserved the win because of the way they played in the third, and the way we didn’t.

On why play dropped off in the third: That’s a great question — you hadn’t seen it for a long time. You could feel even in the first and second, our turnovers were alarming, coming out of our end just a little too casually. Like I said, that hasn’t happened in a long time for us, so that’s something that’s disappointing. Even though we didn’t play well and certainly got out-played in the third period, it was still 0-0 with six minutes to go. We give up a face-off goal where guys don’t want to block a shot — we don’t want to block a shot, we don’t get coverage, and a guy gets a tip that should be covered, and it wasn’t. It was a problem for us early in the first. They had all those flurries where they picked up rebounds and we were soft at our own net. We were better in the second, but we paid the price for it in the third.

On what was lacking: It was a little bit of everything — lack of effort, lack of compete, lack of energy. It’s surprising in the way we’ve played — you guys have watched, it hasn’t been how we’ve been. That’s the disappointing part.

On James Reimer: He played great, I wish we could have done more for him.

On depth scoring and contributions: It wasn’t just one guy, our group of forwards didn’t have a great night tonight. We were slow, we were indecisive with the puck, we were hesitant. There wasn’t any puck movement, we didn’t complete passes the way we have. It was just a bad night for us. Again, [the Rangers] played well, and some of it had to do with the way they played, but it was disappointing.

On offensive holes: Turnovers, they just didn’t play hard enough. There was no “oomph” in our game, there was no “F you” in our battles, we were just soft.

On evaluating the first 20 games: I talked with Cooch this morning, and our guys are pissed after what happened against Detroit because I think there’s a level of expectation — we feel like we’ve played good hockey, put ourselves in a position to win hockey games. We feel like we’ve been digging ourselves out of the 0-5 hole that we started with. It was a step back tonight. With 82 games, you’re going to have nights off — okay, let’s see how we respond, that’s the key — we stunk, we sucked. It hasn’t happened in a long time, so let’s see how we respond on Monday.

James Reimer

On the full 60 minutes: Obviously, you thank the good Lord for allowing me to play well and get the bounces — He’s the reason I do what I do. Wasn’t too happy with my performance last time we were here, and any time the coach gives you the chance to get back in there, you want to prove him right. When he gives you the respect, the honor, the privilege to get back in there, as a competitor, that’s what you want.

You just want a chance, right? That’s what every guy says, “just give me a chance.” If you fall on your face, you fall on your face, but you want to go out swinging — you’re grateful for the chance to get back in there. You just want to have a good game for the boys too. Didn’t feel good about my last performance, felt like I let them down, so I wanted to come in here and just play my heart out and try to give them a chance. It’s a really good hockey team over there and we stayed right there with them. We were just one small chance and four seconds away there, so I’m proud of the way we worked, just happy with our battle.

On getting second chances with Quinn: Yeah, you just want that respect — you want to earn it too, right? Every single day when you’re at practice, morning skate, when he gives you an opportunity to play — whether it’s five games in a row or one every two weeks, in and out of the line-up, whatever it may be, when he taps you on the shoulder, you want to go out there and prove him right. When it comes down to how you do that, it’s nothing special — you just play your game, focus on what you need to do, what makes you succeed. You go out there and try to execute your game plan to the best of your ability and then let the chips fall where they may.

On preparing for tonight’s game after Thursday’s: Usually, I watch video, but there wasn’t much to watch from that game. I didn’t watch any video, didn’t go to the rink, just hung out with my family, had some family from out of town here. I did some things, talked to some people to make sure my mind was in the right place, but then it was just spending time with the family and forgetting about hockey, just trying to have a fresh mind for tonight.

Nico Sturm

On the full 60 minutes: We had some good chances. Tonight was actually how we wanted the game to be — close game, that’s how we were talking about it earlier today. When you’re trying to win a game, you’re not going to get in a scoring race with a team like that, right? Maybe we gave up a little too much and Reims had to bail us out a few times too many, but other than that, we had our power play opportunities, we just didn’t score. In a game like today, you have to try and find a way to win with one or two goals, and we didn’t.

On the first half of the third period: It was a whole lot of nothing, really. A lot of neutral zone back-and-forth, both teams just dumping pucks in, not really generating much. I’m content with a game like that against a team like that, but overall it’s the old story of giving up a goal and leaving at least a point on the table. It’s extremely frustrating how it probably adds up to about 10 points that we’ve left out there this year that were very manageable to win. We could be somewhere else in the standings, but we have to learn.

On evaluating the first 20 games: Every time we do play close to a 60-minute effort, we’ve been able to hang with pretty much every team. We saw it against Carolina, Florida, Minny, Vegas, we won in New York, tonight, it was a close game. We have to find a way to swing those games in our direction and maybe score a goal with five or six minutes left instead of giving one up, right? Again, we’re pretty close, but we have to find a way to get a couple more points in the bank.

On Erik Karlsson: Everybody else has to step up — he’s not going to have two or three points every night. Obviously, the other team’s looking at the pre-scout, looking at who’s generating all the offense, so everyone’s a bit tighter on him. Someone else has to step up, and tonight we didn’t, so we didn’t score.

On what made the Rangers tough to play against: They kind of got the wall set up on the blue line — against a team like that with high-octane offense, they try to feed off of those turnovers. It’s frustrating because you can’t really carry the puck into the zone when they have three guys planted on their  blue line, so you feel like you have to dump in every puck and it’s tough to get those back sometimes. That’s just the game you have to play against them — you don’t want to get into a run-and-gun game with a team like that. We played it pretty tight up until the end. Just not enough tonight.

*Lightly edited for clarity.