As Ryan Warsofsky led the Sharks through their morning skate Thursday at TD Garden, you’d have to forgive the San Jose coach if he was experiencing a major case of déjà vu.
He has definitely been here before.
A former standout at Marshfield High and Curry College, Warsofsky has enjoyed a rapid rise through the coaching ranks. He started behind the bench back at Curry, moved to the ECHL then the AHL before joining the Sharks staff in 2022 and getting the top job two years ago.
It was a morning skate a few years back that fueled Warsofsky’s passion for the game. Fellow Marshfield native Mike Sullivan, now the Rangers bench boss, was the Bruins coach at the time.
“I remember the first time I came to a morning skate. It was Patrice Bergeron’s first year [2003-04]. He was out there and it was an optional skate and Patrice was out there. Sergei Samsonov, who I had become really close with from Carolina’s organization, [was there]. Being around those guys and just being in the dressing room and talking to Sully,” Warsofsky said before the Sharks pinned the Bruins with a 4-2 loss, snapping Boston’s 13-game home winning streak. “And that was probably my biggest memory. That was probably the best day of my life looking back.”
Coming full circle, Warsofsky smiles as he thinks about the number of times his son has hung out with his NHL players.
“And now I see my son being around our locker room and he thinks it’s just part of his life and he doesn’t really know how special he has it,” said Warsofsky. “But, yeah, so that was probably a big day for me. I remember I got to get out of school early and came down to morning skate.”
At 38, Warsofsky is the youngest coach in the NHL and the older brother of David, who played 10 games for the Bruins during his five-year run with the organization.
With the win over the Bruins, Warsofsky’s young club improved to 31-26-6 and vaulted ahead of the Kraken by 1 points for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“Yeah, we’re learning. We’re going about this. And we talked about it before the Olympic break [that] we can’t get wrapped up in looking at the standings and what other teams are doing,” said Warsofsky, asked how his team has responded to being in a playoff chase. “We just got to play. And we got to compete. And that’s why we had success early in the year because we were kind of ignoring that outside noise and we weren’t looking at the standings. We just got to play and just compete and enjoy this ride that we’re on.
“And it’s a roller coaster. You win a couple in a row, and everyone is thinking you’re the best team in the NHL, you lose one and everyone’s thinking the world’s coming to an end. So, we just got to control our emotions and just play and compete.”
Back in the lineup
Alex Steeves drew back into the lineup, replacing Mikey Eyssimont as the left winger on the third line with Fraser Minten in the middle and Morgan Geekie on the right. . . . David Pastrnak skipped morning skate as he spent time with his wife, Rebecca, and their newborn daughter. . . . .. Massimo Rizzo, we hardly knew ye! The Bruins traded Rizzo, whom they acquired last week from the Flyers, and fellow forward Dalton Bancroft to the Predators Thursday in exchange for forward Navrin Mutter. The rugged 6-foot-3-inch, 213-pound Mutter has played 27 games for the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals this season, collecting one assist and 72 penalty minutes. . . . The Sharks signed New Hampshire goalie Kyle Chauvette to an amateur tryout agreement. He served as the backup to Alex Nedeljkovic after Yaroslav Askarov tweaked a lower-body injury before morning skate. Chauvette, still in his Wildcat mask and pads, was in net for UNH’s season finale — a 7-3 loss to Northeastern in the opening round of the Hockey East tournament just 24 hours earlier.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.