How are the San Jose Sharks playing “the easy way”?

That’s how head coach Ryan Warsofsky described Tuesday night’s 2-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The Sharks were outshot 41-23.

“You want it the easy way,” he said. “It’s not the easy way in the National Hockey League.”

One thing, of many, that Warsofsky was referring to?

The San Jose Sharks relied too much on the stretch pass yesterday. When it works, it works — see Tyler Toffoli’s stretch to Igor Chernyshov against the Los Angeles Kings on October 3. And when it doesn’t work, this is what it looks like.

Per Stathletes, a successful stretch pass is a “pass with control where the receiver is 50-plus feet up ice from the passer”.

The pass from Jacob Trouba (65) is picked off with ease by Olen Zellweger (8) in the neutral zone, which leads to a minute of Buffalo offensive zone possession and four shot attempts. Notably, Macklin Celebrini (71) has to spend all that time defending, a waste of your best offensive player. This turnover also led to Darnell Nurse having to play a 3:35 shift.

The San Jose Sharks had a dismal 24.44 5-on-5 Stretch Pass Completion % yesterday, one of their worst marks of the season.