The San Jose Sharks are still searching for their power play formula for success. They’re also looking for that on 6-on-5.

The Sharks, as of Nov. 10, are 20 th in the NHL with a 20.3 PP success percent rate.

Power play groups have been in flux since opening night, the biggest constants being Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Alex Wennberg, and Ivar Stenberg being on the top unit.

There have been lots of fan questions about why young guns like Michael Misa haven’t been as involved on PP1 and why defenseman Sam Dickinson hasn’t been a part of it at all. On Nov. 7 at the Dallas Stars, it was noteworthy that Misa missed the last 4:45 of the game, including the 6-on-5. The Sam Dickinson question was answered a couple weeks ago.

Generally speaking, encompassing both the 6-on-5 and the power play, keep in mind that every player has a job on the man advantage that the coaching staff thinks they’re best at.

The San Jose Sharks used defenseman Jacob Trouba and forwards Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Ivar Stenberg, Mason Marchment, and Kiefer Sherwood on the 6-on-5 in Dallas.

“Mack and Smitty that can make plays. Sherwood can hunt down pucks. Mush is a big guy that’s scored a lot around the net in this league. Stenny, we’ve seen the poise and the patience on the half-wall,” Warsofsky said.

Trouba has a big shot from the point, and among regular Sharks defensemen, has had the least amount of Shots Blocked Per 60, along with Darnell Nurse.

Best guess, Misa was supposed to take over for Celebrini at 6-on-5, but Celebrini, as San Jose’s clear franchise player, is someone you want out on the ice as much as possible. Celebrini played a personal record 28:05 in Dallas, and honestly, looked consistently fresh doing it. It was just one of those games for the superstar.

So unless you’re throwing out six forwards at 6-on-5, or like Misa’s playmaking over Smith and Stenberg’s, or the 19-year-old’s net front or puck recovery skills over Marchment and Sherwood? That’s a reasonable explanation for sitting Misa, at least.

“Not saying Mies can’t do it or other guys can’t do it. Those are the guys that we’re going with right now. We feel comfortable with. Does that change as we go? Maybe,” Warsofsky explained. “We’re still a young group that’s figuring out those roles. You practice and you see stuff on film. We watch our practices over and over again. That’s videoed as well. So there’s substance there, when you’re playing in different roles.”

As for the power play? Wennberg’s return on Monday changed up power play groups:

PP1: Trouba-Celebrini-Stenberg-Smith-Wennberg

PP2: Orlov-Pohlkamp-Misa-Toffoli-Marchment

Clearly, based on his usage the last three years, the San Jose coaching staff sees Wennberg as the team’s best net front forward. Also, while Wennberg is not dominant on the faceoff circle, he’s serviceable, which frees up Celebrini to set up quicker in his ideal spot on the power play, more on the outside.

Unless you’re looking at the Sharks going back to a five-forward power play, and again, where does Misa fit best on the PP? The left-handed Misa is, once again, arguably competing with left-handers Celebrini and Stenberg on the flanks. I’m not sure you’d put him over Trouba at the point or Wennberg net front.

“Stenny’s been pretty comfortable on those flanks. He’s been playing there a lot in Sweden and coming up. He’s coming off one of his best games in the league against Dallas, he looked comfortable. He sees the ice really well. He’s got poise. He can play both sides. There’s some flexibility there,” Warsofsky said. “Mies is playing well too. On the power play, you can only play five guys, and we got to have two units that can play.”

Speaking of the second unit, Warsofsky outlined a philosophy that they’re trying to get to for both units. The second unit, to some degree, succeeded at this on Monday, with Tyler Toffoli’s goal right after the end of the PP.

“Finding the balance and the identity to both units is critical,” Warsofsky said. “Both units can have two different identities. I think that second unit can be more of a shot mentality with people there in front of the net. The first unit, we’ve got some players out there that have unique skill that can make plays. Just trying to find that balance is the biggest thing.”

“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” is what you hear when there’s a power play just moving the puck around on the perimeter.

But to some degree, and obviously, there’s an extreme to it, but Warsofsky wants his top unit to have more patience.

“You get [the other] team running around a little bit. We don’t need to force something that’s a low percentage chance to execute. If you have to go through three sticks, that’s probably not the play we want to make. It might be a reset up top, get it moving again. Playing with the clock in your favor,” Warsofsky said. “If you’ve got them hemmed in there for 45 seconds, we want to continue to hold on to the puck and continue to exhaust them. Just having that feel and that patience is what we need. That’s most important, what we need to figure out here.”

San Jose Sharks (8-11-1)

The same lines as last game is the projection:

Misa-Celebrini-Smith Marchment-Wennberg-Sherwood Stenberg-Dellandrea-Toffoli Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Graf

Nurse-Kesselring Dickinson-Trouba Orlov-Pohlkamp

Askarov

Pittsburgh Penguins (6-10-2)

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