New forward Gabriel making a big impression
SAN JOSE >> As he’s done on several other occasions this season, defenseman Brent Burns asked forward Kurtis Gabriel to help get everybody get fired up before the Sharks’ March 6 game with the Vegas Golden Knights at SAP Center.
Gabriel had no problems with that request. During pregame warmups — in which teams go through the same, familiar routine — Gabriel had rookie defenseman Nikolay Knyzhov run him over in plain view of everyone else on the team.
“When I asked him to run me
over, (Knyzhov) kind of looked at me a little crazy. He was like, ‘You have no helmet on.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve done this before, we’re good,’” said Gabriel, who did it often when he was in AHL.
“Just something to change it up, get out of the monotony. It’s a shortened season, but still, the games are emotionally draining, and you want to want to bring something every night that gets the boys going.”
Monotony has not been an issue with Gabriel in the Sharks’ lineup over the last few games.
Relatively unknown out west when he was first signed by the Sharks to a one-year deal in November, Gabriel is making a big impression, especially after he rejoined the big club earlier this month after a short stint with the Barracuda.
Gabriel’s fought two of the toughest customers in the NHL in recent games, scrapping with Ryan Reaves of the Vegas Golden Knights on March 5 and Kyle Clifford of the St. Louis Blues three days later.
Gabriel’s outgoing personality has also meshed with a Sharks team that’s maybe a bit more on the quieter side this season without the presence of Joe Thornton.
“That’s not a bad thing. I’ve played with a ton of leaders and ton of great players that weren’t rah-rah kind of guys,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “But he is one of those guys in the room that makes you engage in the game.
“He’s ready to play. He understands what he needs to do out there to be effective, and I think that guys enjoy having him around.”
“Day one of training camp, I hadn’t even seen a human adult on the ice in 10 months and he ran me over the first drill,” Burns said of Gabriel. “He’s just a high-energy guy that makes it fun to be out there.
“So it’s not just the second (Vegas) game. I try to get him to get the boys going every day, and if he misses the net once, I let him hear about it. He’s a fun guy to have around.”
Gabriel is expected to be in the lineup for the fourth straight game Friday when the Sharks open a two-game series with the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. It’s not something he takes for granted after spent all of last season with Lehigh Valley
of the AHL and played in only one of the Sharks’ first 20 games this year.
“I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch but it’s a lot of fun, I’ve got to be honest,” said Gabriel, who played in just 38 NHL games over his first seven pro seasons. “I didn’t get to play in the National Hockey League last year and being up here, it’s incredible. This group of guys has been awesome and it’s a lot of fun being around the rink.”
Gabriel’s willingness to take on players like Reaves and Clifford has earned kudos from his teammates, who used that energy to help earn points in those games against the Golden Knights and Blues.
The Sharks came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime against Vegas, and beat the Blues in overtime to close out an otherwise disappointing 2-4-1 homestand.
The Sharks have had players in the recent past like Brenden Dillon and Barclay Goodrow who were willing to stick up for teammates. But they really haven’t had an enforcer, so to speak, since Micheal Haley was with the team in 2019.
“He provides a different element that we didn’t have and I like that,” Boughner said of Gabriel. “Especially if we have a young team and we’re going on the road, it’s important that guys feel comfortable. He drags his teammates into it, and, personally for me, I think that’s a good thing for our room.”
“Most of the time, those guys that bring that added element of toughness are some of the best teammates that you’ve had,” Burns said, “and that’s such an important part of a team. They just make the atmosphere great.”
In regards to the game with the Blues, Gabriel considers St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington a good friend. Still, he felt something needed to be done following Binnington’s antics
during a game between the two teams on Feb. 27.
So he exchanged words with Clifford near center ice during pregame warmups when the two teams met again at SAP Center on Monday. Shortly after the game began, the two exchanged haymakers, bringing the energy level up a notch inside the arena and perhaps some closure to the Binnington matter altogether.
Gabriel doesn’t plan on fighting every game or always having pregame meetings at center ice with the opposing team’s toughest player. But those specific games brought about opportunities to right what he felt were previous wrongdoings.
That’s something that probably wouldn’t have otherwise happened.
“Ryan Reaves, obviously there’s history here with him acting up when there’s nobody on the team to kind of push back against him,” Gabriel said. “So I just wanted to make sure over those couple of games that he knows that I’m here now, and we’re not going to put up with that.
“With the Blues, Binnington’s a good friend of mine, but he can’t be disrespecting our team like that. I had to set the tone there as well. But when there’s nothing to really talk about, I really won’t be.”
The Ducks have their own experienced fighter in Nicolas Deslauriers, but that doesn’t mean the two will automatically drop the gloves this weekend.
“I’m not necessarily here to be the toughest guy in the league,” Gabriel said. “Obviously I want to stick up for my team, but I’m still here to play hockey.”
And he can get his teammates fired up along the way, all the better for the Sharks.
“I tell (Gabriel) every day to get us going. I’ve already told him today to get us going,” Burns said. “I think he just brings that element of excitement and energy, and it kind of just happens.”