Grading the Sharks’ Line Changes After Loss to the Bruins

The San Jose Sharks outplayed the Boston Bruins for the majority of the game, yet they came away with a 6-3 loss at home. 

The Sharks have struggled so far this season scoring at even strength, so head coach Ryan Warsofsky shook up the lines to help his club generate some offense. 

From beginning to end, the changes worked. The Sharks came out of each period hot, playing downhill. That’s not why the team lost. They lost because their play between the pipes sunk their efforts against a Bruins team that took advantage of every gift that was given to them. 

The line changes provided a lot of encouraging play. Here’s a grade for each line in the Sharks loss to the Bruins. 

1st Line: Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith

The Sharks first line led the offense boost, continuously generating chances. While this line did a great job possessing the puck, they routinely got too cute by making an extra pass leading to turnovers instead of shots. 

Will Smith opened the season firing, scoring two goals against the Panthers. He has a great shot and he showed what can come from him firing the puck on net. He fell back into some bad habits from his first two years by forcing passes and passing up prime shots far too often. 

If Smith can return to being aggressive and taking shots as they come to him, the Sharks offense will prosper.

Igor Chernyshov, however, did not disappoint in his return to Celebrini and Smith’s line after a lot of success together in limited action in 2025-26.

He used his plus size and speed to position himself in great spots to score, which is great because the Sharks sometimes fall into lulls where no one wants to shoot. Chernyshov is like a basketball player who knows just when to cut to the hoop. He crashes the night in the right moments, he wins battles and he is smart about when to shoot and when to pass.

Celebrini turned in another fantastic game, recording a goal and an assist. His beautiful primary assist set up Ivar Stenberg backdoor for his first career goal on the power play. Then in the third period, Stenberg returned the favor. He snapped the puck to Celebrini, who sniped a one-timer to bring the Sharks within a goal of the Bruins before the game fell apart.

It’s safe to say that Chernyshov, Celebrini and Smith have earned more time together as a line, even if they didn’t connect for a goal even strength.

Grade: B

2nd Line: Marchment-Wennberg-Toffoli

San Jose’s most experienced line played solid as a whole. Overall, they were the second best line for the Sharks in a positive effort. Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg were the two that stood out. 

Toffoli has rebounded so far early in the season after a down year in 2025-26. He looks even better now that he is separated from Michael Misa.

That isn’t a knock on Misa, but the young center is reliant on speed to get his game going. Toffoli has never been a speed demon, especially now at age 34 and almost 1000 games into his NHL career. His cerebral play style is a better fit with two other players who don’t rely on physical quickness. 

Alex Wennberg is doing a good job operating in the middle, helping facilitate and move the puck for his wingers. Wennberg’s play has been steady this season, making good decisions and being clean with his possession. The only thing that is pressing for him is to win faceoffs outside of neutral zones. He has struggled so far winning them on the power play or in the defensive zone.

Mason Marchment brings the muscle on this line by winning battles in the corners and on the edges. He didn’t particularly stand out against the Bruins, but he wasn’t awful either. 

This line generated some chances, but they are going to get knocked for having too many shots blocked.

Grade: B-

3rd Line: Stenberg-Misa-Sherwood

San Jose’s project line after one game together was easily their worst against the Bruins. Misa, Kiefer Sherwood and Stenberg finished -3, -4 and -4 for the game. A defensive effort that simply is not good enough.

The whole game, they looked like they were figuring out each other’s timing, which isn’t the end of the world considering that it has two 19-year-olds on it. 

Misa and Stenberg each created chances, obviously with Stenberg cashing in two points on the power play, but their youth showed up in a bad way defensively not being tight enough when they needed to be against an experienced group from Boston. 

Sherwood added an assist on the Jacob Trouba goal in the first period, playing a solid game by doing what he does: bringing physicality and speed. It didn’t translate to immediate success tonight, but Warsofsky shouldn’t blow up this line after one bad game. They should be given a chance to build chemistry, but they also shouldn’t have the longest leash either.

Grade: D+

4th Line: Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Graf

The 4th line of Barclay Goodrow, Zack Ostapchuk and Collin Graf had a great game, helping the Sharks control offensive possession for most of the game.

They brought energy, they hit and constantly applied offensive pressure. So what went wrong?

Goodrow gave away the puck which led to a Bruins goal scored by Charlie McAvoy in his first game since his suspensiond. The Sharks, especially their veterans, cannot be giving the puck up so easy. They need to graduate from being the team that gives the opposition freebies every night to the team that is buttoned up, being careful with the puck in their own end.

Aside from that awful turnover, the Sharks should be happy with how their fourth line played. Their problems aren’t because of that unit, that’s for certain. 

San Jose out-shot Boston 38-26, but lost 6-3 in large part because Yaroslav Askarov struggled from the start. 

Whenever San Jose needed a big save, the Bruins lit the lamp, killing the momentum the offense had mounted. 

In their loss to the Oilers and the Bruins, there were a lot of things to like about the way the Sharks played. San Jose just needs to capitalize more on their opportunities and have their goalie make a save every now and then.

The goals will come if they can do that, especially with how the offense dictated play against the Bruins. 

The Sharks hit the road for a six-game road trip beginning with a battle versus the Nashville Predators on Oct. 15.