Thornton set to join Sharks on road
Injured star not ready to play, but ‘getting closer’
SAN JOSE >> Joe Thornton will join the Sharks on their three-game trip this week but coach Pete DeBoer did not know as of Sunday when Thornton might be able to play again.
Thornton, who was placed on injured reserve after the Sharks played in Los Angeles on Oct. 5 with an infection in his surgically repaired right knee, remains day-today as he continues to receive treatment.
Thornton has missed the last six games, but has skated the past few days while the Sharks have been at home.
Sunday, Thornton skated on the second line with Logan Couture and Timo Meier, and skated for an extra 20 minutes after practice.
“It’s good that I can still skate and still stay in shape, so that’s a good sign,” Thornton said. “I’m not just doing stuff up in the gym, I’m actually skating. It keeps the mind busy that way, too.”
DeBoer said Thornton continues to receive treatment through a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line, used to deliver antibiotics. Thornton said his blood tests have been encouraging and DeBoer said there haven’t been any setbacks.
“He’s getting closer, but we’re not there yet,” DeBoer said. “I actually think this might be a blessing, because when they took another look at it when he got the
infection and confirmed that structurally, it looks fantastic. So there’s nothing else we’ve got to do.”
Thornton said he knew something was wrong with the knee before the Sharks played the Kings at Staples Center, but was hoping it was nothing major.
“You always try and think positively,” Thornton said. “But it’s getting better and I talked to the trainers and doctors (Saturday) night and it’s kind of day-to-day. We’ll see how (Monday) is. But we’ve got it under control, so that’s a good thing.”
The Sharks, who just completed a 2-0 homestand, play the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday before they return home.
Thornton has played in 1,495 NHL games and is three goals away from 400 for his career.
“Oh, yeah, I’m eager,” Thornton said. “I would have liked to have played last week, but it’s something you can’t screw around with. So we’ll just kind of let it do its thing and get me better and then get back on the ice, so I don’t have any more setbacks.
“It’s on the right track. We just have to be patient.”
The Sharks’ trip, playing in three time zones, is somewhat unique in that they land in the Central Time Zone first, head east, and then fly all the way back to the West Coast to face the Ducks. To
try and combat fatigue, the Sharks are staying overnight in Nashville on Tuesday and Raleigh, N.C. on Friday to help keep everybody on a somewhat normal sleep cycle.
After they went 1-8-1 in their first game back at home after a trip of two or more games in the 2015-16 season, the Sharks decided that if they were traveling back to California over two or more time zones, and if they had just completed a night game, they were going to stay overnight in the city they were in rather than fly right back.
The result over the last two-plus seasons has been a 15-4-1 record in their first game back at home after a trip of two or more games.
The Sharks will log more than 4,300 miles in the air going to the three cities before they come home.
“I think last year we had a few of those situations. This year we’ve got a few of them,” DeBoer said. “It seemed to work, we seemed to be better coming back here after those situations. We seemed to have more energy.”
• Tomas Hertl, as has been the case throughout this past week, did not practice. He had four assists, all at even strength, in the Sharks’ wins over the Islanders and Sabres.
• Center Dylan Gambrell was reassigned to the AHL on Sunday morning and played for the Barracuda in the afternoon in its game against Stockton at SAP Center. Gambrell has not dressed for a Sharks game this season but entered Sunday with five points in two games with the Barracuda.