Sharks receive ‘great news’ on Joe’s knee
NEW YORK — Pete DeBoer is labelling the update he received on Joe Thornton’s health Sunday night as “great news.”
According to the San Jose Sharks head coach, the swelling in Thornton’s surgically repaired right knee is the result of an infection. The 39-year-old veteran, who returned to San Jose from Los Angeles on Saturday instead of joining the Sharks on their four-game trek along the East Coast, hasn’t suffered any structural damage in the knee.
“Nothing structurally. It looks like an infection, put him on antibiotics,” DeBoer said before the Sharks’ 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders. “He should be fine.”
The infection is the latest setback for Thornton, who has been riddled with knee issues over the last 17 months. First, Thornton tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee on April 2, 2017. Then, he suffered the same injury in his right knee on Jan. 23. Now, he’s back on short-term injured reserve with an infection that will keep him out of the lineup until Sunday at the very earliest.
Sharks fans might be skeptical about DeBoer’s depiction of Thornton’s latest setback. They will recall that Raffi Torres missed the entire 2014-15 season after undergoing surgery to clear out an infection in his surgically repaired knee. The infection flared up more than four months after Torres suited up for five regular-season games and a playoff series following a major surgical procedure on his knee in training camp of 2013.
Torres never returned to full health and he retired at age 34 during the 2015-16 season after attempting a comeback with the AHL Barracuda.
But it would be a mistake to draw a one-to-one parallel between the infection Torres’s suffered and the ailment that is sidelining Thornton.
The Sharks were not specific about the nature of Thornton’s infection, but an East Bay orthopedic surgeon said it was most likely a case of prepatellar bursitis, a bursal infection around the knee that doesn’t affect the joint itself. Dr. Charles Preston of
Muir Orthopedic Specialists in Walnut Creek said antibiotic treatment for prepatellar bursitis usually takes 10-14 days.
The Sharks haven’t disclosed a timetable for Thornton’s return.
“All I can read into this is that the most likely scenario was that it was a prepatellar bursitis, which would be common in hockey guys, banging boards, being in a locker-room, being padded, surrounded in sweat and bacteria,” Preston said.
With Thornton on the shelf, the Sharks struggled to generate offence against a new-look Islanders squad coached by defensive-minded guru Barry Trotz. Although the Sharks produced 35 shots against Robin Lehner, who became the first Islanders goalie to pitch a shutout in his team debut, San Jose failed to create dangerous scoring chances in five-on-five play before DeBoer shuffled his lines in the third period.
“We have to find a way to win with (Thornton) out. He’s not going to be here for a while,” DeBoer said. “We’ve done it before. We did it last year, so I don’t think that was the game.
“They played desperate. They blocked a lot of shots. They were heavy, they were hard. They played a good hockey game.”
DeBoer isn’t throwing spin: the Sharks reached the second round of the playoffs last season while playing the entire second half without Thornton. The bigger problem Monday was special teams play, triggering flashbacks of the team’s opening night loss to the Anaheim Ducks when it surrendered two power-play goals while going 0 for 3 with the man advantage.
The Sharks (1-2) fell behind 1-0 at 14:34 of the second when Anders Lee capitalized on a power play opportunity that the Islanders received after Evander Kane took a retaliatory slashing penalty in response to a big hit thrown by Cal Clutterbuck.
Kane spent the third period skating with fourth liners Rourke Chartier, who was making his NHL debut, and Marcus Sorensen.
The Islanders added a second goal at 5:16 of the third when Scott Mayfield scored off a redirection on a delayed Sharks penalty. Matt Martin scored an insurance goal at 13:02 and Casey Cizikas iced the game with an empty netter at 19:04.
The Sharks best-scoring chances came on the power play, but they failed to cash in, going 0 for 4 as they continue to look for their first goal with the man advantage this season (0 for 10).
DeBoer said the nine shots that the Sharks produced on the power play is “encouraging.”
“But you still have to find a way,” he said. “We got beat in special teams tonight and that’s an important piece of the game that we have to start being on the right side of the ledger on.”