Attention to detail has Burns leading the way
Defenseman has at least a point in four games in a row
SAN JOSE >> Sharks defenseman Brent Burns is riding a fourgame point streak going into today’s game against the New York Islanders after he was held off the scoresheet in San Jose’s first three outings.
Burns said he’s not doing anything different, and Sharks coach Pete DeBoer agrees.
But some Sharks players have noticed a slight change in Burns’ game. They feel of late he’s been paying greater attention to detail and been more direct in his approach.
“He just seems like himself, he really does,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “He’s really kind of settled in. Moving with the puck, skating, moving well.
“I think he’s been really good and wherever that leads to. But he’s been direct, he’s been shooting the puck, he’s been moving, roaming around a little bit at times and creating that space that he does.”
Burns is also among three Sharks players with a team-best plus-five rating, and tops the list with six assists in San Jose’s last four games, including two in Thursday’s 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“He’s kind of had a little more attention to detail with things,” Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon said of Burns. “For him, he’s a pretty high-risk, high-reward
guy who is very creative and very gifted offensively. With our back end, it’s kind of allowed him to be in different scenarios that he hasn’t been in the past.
“I think Burnzie, he’s a guy that maybe (opposing teams) sometimes don’t realize how big he is, how good of a stick he has, and how physical he can be. We’ve all known that in this room.”
Burns had a team-high 25:06 of ice time Thursday, collecting an assist on Logan Couture’s power play goal in the first period and another on Pavelski’s goal with the man advantage in the third. The Sharks’ power play was 3 for 7 against the Sabres, a welcome breakthrough after they were 2 for 21 with the man advantage in the first six games.
“The difference between scoring and not scoring is very minimal,” Burns said. “The games that you guys say we (stink) because we’re not getting shots through because they’re getting blocked, or they’re not going in, what happened last night? They went in. Was
there anything different?”
Was the power play more direct, perhaps?
“Nope,” Burns said. “Nothing’s different. Games that you get six shots on net, and there’s six blocks, nothing changes, other than it hits a guy.”
Defensively, Burns was also credited with two takeaways in the third period. The first came in the neutral zone as he intercepted a pass by Rasmus Ristolainen and carried the puck over the blue line, leading
an extended Sharks run in the Buffalo zone.
The next helped defuse a possible Sabres scoring chance, as he calmly poked the puck off Jeff Skinner’s stick to the right of goalie Martin Jones and got it over to Joakim Ryan.
“He’s playing well,” Ryan said. “He’s playing well defensively, too. He’s in the right positions, and it’s always been easy for me. We’ve been doing well together. Last night, it felt like we were in the (offensive) zone a lot, and in the o-zone a lot more than in the d-zone. He’s just been playing well. Fundamentally, he’s been in the right spots.”
Center Joe Thornton skated on the Sharks’ second line Friday with Logan Couture and Timo Meier. Thornton, on injured reserve for the last two weeks as he’s taken antibiotics to treat an infection in his right knee, is doubtful to play against the Islanders.
DeBoer said he didn’t know if Thornton would join the Sharks on their road trip next week through Nashville, Carolina and Anaheim. The Sharks are scheduled to practice again Sunday and travel to Nashville on Monday.
“We’re day-to-day here,” DeBoer said. “He looks good in practice, and we’ll make that decision when we get to Monday.”
Defenseman Erik Karlsson was given a maintenance day Friday, likewise with forwards Tomas Hertl and Kevin Labanc. All three are expected to play tonight. With the game out of reach in the second half of the third period, Karlsson finished with 20:59 of ice time, his lowest total of the season.