Marleau’s return to Toronto spoiled by former teammates
TORONTO — Patrick Marleau spent only two seasons in Toronto, but he made quite an impression.
On Friday, Maple Leafs fans treated Marleau warmly as the forward, back in his familiar Sharks teal, skated during warmups. They then cheered during a video tribute shown during the first TV timeout.
His exteammates weren’t quite as generous.
Morgan Rielly broke a tie with 5:29 left and the Maple Leafs beat the Sharks 41 to spoil Marleau’s return to Scotiabank Arena.
Marleau, 40, waived his nomovement clause to facilitate a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, who tried to convince him to join them, but was bought out and ended back in
San Jose on a oneyear deal. He spent his first 17 seasons with San Jose, and is in his 20th season overall. Friday night was his 1,500th game with the Sharks.
Toronto was 121 in its previous four games, losing in overtime loss to Columbus on Monday night and falling at Boston on Tuesday night, while San Jose was coming off a 42 victory in Montreal on Thursday night.
“We were motivated,” Rielly said. “When you look back at our past couple games, there’s room for improvement. We’re aware of that, we talked about that, been pretty open about that.”
Kevin Labanc scored in the first for San Jose, and Martin Jones stopped 23 shots.
“We put ourselves in a position to win,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. “You’re going to have nights like tonight where you’re not feeling it and you’re not getting much offensively.”
Ilya Mikheyev had a goal and an assist, Jake Muzzin and Auston Matthews added goals, and Frederik Andersen made 16 saves for Toronto.
On the winner, Rielly took a pass from William Nylander off the rush and went upstairs on Jones.
“Just an allaround group effort,” Rielly said. “It’s important that we focus on that moving forward … and try to do it again.”
With Jones off for an extra attacker, Kasperi Kapanen inexplicably missed the empty net from in tight, but Mikheyev iced it with 47.5 seconds left. Matthews then scored his ninth with Jones back in goal.
Matthews took a big hit from defenseman Brenden Dillon midway through the second period after delivering a pass at the offensive blue line. The Toronto center headed to the locker room a short while later, but returned for the third period.
“I felt like it was a hit to the head,” Matthews said. “It’s a fast game. Refs are trying to make the best judgment, but I know what I felt. We picked up two points. It’s all that matters.”