Postseason berth finally in the bag
With help from L.A ., Sharks officially clinch playoff spot
SAN JOSE >> The Sharks are going to the playoffs. They clinched a spot Monday night when the Los Angeles Kings beat the Colorado Avalanche.
Now the questions are when, where, against whom and will Joe Thornton be ready to play. The first three will be answered no later than Sunday, and likely sooner. The Thornton question will linger.
Thornton, who hasn’t played since undergoing knee surgery in late January, skated throughout the Sharks’ 30-minute practice Monday. It was another step in his recovery, but coach Pete DeBoer said it’s “doubtful” that the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer will play in any of the three games that remain on the regular-season
schedule.
Thornton offered nothing, declining comment and sneaking out of the locker room with his skates on.
“Whether it’s at the beginning of playoffs or partway through the playoffs, he’s making good strides,” DeBoer said. “We’re seeing him here, he’s on the ice with us, so we know that’s on the horizon.”
The playoffs are on the horizon, too. This will be the Sharks’ 20th postseason appearance, and one of their most gratifying.
As Logan Couture said recently, “We weren’t picked to make the playoffs this year by a lot of people.” Then in reference to the Thornton injury, he added: “After Jumbo went down, a lot of people wrote us off.”
The Sharks found a way to get by without Thornton initially, producing a 7-5-1 record without him over a four-week span. But in the week leading into the trade deadline, it became evident that the team had done just about all it could do without him, going 1-2-1 on a four-game road trip through the Central Division.
That’s when general manager Doug Wilson brought in reinforcements. He acquired Eric Fehr on Feb. 20, solidifying the team’s fourth line. Six days later, he swung the deal of the winter, acquiring Evander Kane for two conditional picks in the 2019 draft (a first-rounder and a fourth-rounder) plus prospect Danny O’Regan.
The Sharks are 11-3-1 since that trade, and Kane is going to his first playoffs largely of his own hand. In 16 games with the Sharks, he has nine goals and 14 points.
Before any of that, though, the Sharks needed to figure out how to play without Patrick Marleau for the first time in 20 years. The Sharks’ all-time leader in games, goals and points left in the off-season for a three-year, $18.75 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sharks struggled in his absence during the first 20 games of the season, ranking dead last in goals (49) and evenstrength goals (35) while producing the league’s fourth-worst power play efficiency (15.1 percent).
But things turned around in the second quarter of the season as the Sharks started getting contributions from up and down the lineup. The youngsters stepped up and the team got snap-back seasons from several key players.
Timo Meier scored 17 goals after Dec. 1. Mikkel Boedker chipped in with 12 goals and 26 points in 39 games after the Sharks returned from the bye week on Jan. 13 and Chris Tierney emerged as a bonafide third line center, putting up 17 goals and 40 points. Defenseman Joakim Ryan also surfaced as a legitimate top-four defenseman, Kevin Labanc produced 39 points and earned his way onto the top power play unit and Jonas Donskoi bounced back with 13 goals and 30 points in 63 games.
Twelve Sharks have reached double digits in goals this year, tying a franchise record set in 1993-94, the season they first made the playoffs and shocked the Detroit Red Wings as a No. 8 seed.
• Evander Kane missed Monday’s practice with an undisclosed injury. DeBoer said Kane will be a “gametime decision” for Tuesday’s game against Dallas.