Big Joe 2-0 with Sharks

Thorton gets two assists as San Jose turns Toronto into Maple Laughs

TORONTO — There are 13 NHL teams that oddsmakers figure have a better chance of winning the Stanley Cup than the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The San Jose Sharks are one of them, and they laid bare the Leafs’ defensive shortcomings in rallying from a twogoal deficit to beat them 5-4 Saturday night.

That makes San Jose 2- 0 since acquiring big Joe Thornton, whose home debut with his new team will be in the Shark Tank against Atlanta on Tuesday.

Toronto stays home to play Los Angeles the same night, and a much tighter defensive performance will be required if Ed Belfour is ever going to get that 448th win to move ahead of the late Terry Sawchuk into second place on the all-time goaltending wins list.

Oddsmakers are listing the Ottawa Senators at about 7- 2 to win the Stanley Cup.

Philadelphia is 9- 2, Detroit 11- 2 and Vancouver 9- 1.

Calgary is 10-1, Los Angeles 12-1, Nashville 15- 1, Tampa Bay 16- 1, the New York Rangers 18- 1, and Carolina, Colorado, Montreal and San Jose 20- 1.

Toronto, New Jersey and Dallas are 30- 1.

Anaheim, Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Edmonton and Pittsburgh are 40- 1.

The remaining eight teams have about as much chance of going all the way as Johnny Bower has of walking on the moon.

Getting back to the Sharks, they are finally getting a stretch of home games after a most unfavourable first-quarter schedule.

They’ve played 17 on the road and only nine at the Shark Tank, officially known as the HP Pavilion. They’d gone 10 in a row without a win before the blockbuster that saw Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart shipped to Boston.

“We’d talked for the last two weeks about reaching a state of urgency and I think it took the trade to wake guys up,” said Alyn McCauley, who scored two goals against his former team.

Now that they are awake, coach Ron Wilson expects better days are ahead.

“ We’re slowly starting to get our swagger back,” he said.

Wilson’s biggest concern right now is goaltending. Evgeni Nabokov pulled a groin muscle during a 5-0 win Friday in Buffalo. Backup Vesa Toskala, who missed most of November with a groin injury, got his first win of the season Saturday.

The Sharks’ speed was too much for the Leafs, and it allowed them to convert botched Toronto checking assignments into goals.

“We had a slow start in the first but the boys played great in the second and third,” said Thornton, who picked up two assists for the second night in a row. “It was another good two points for us.

“ Playing back- to- back games, to have an effort like this was great.”

The Leafs are on a two-week home stand. After the Kings visit Tuesday, the Leafs are off until Dallas visits on Saturday. Anaheim is in next Monday, and a showdown with the Senators looms in Ottawa the following Saturday. Canadian Press