JUMBO’S BACK
Thornton returns to the ice after missing nine games with knee infection
SAN JOSE >> Guess who’s back, back again?
No, it isn’t Eminem. The Detroit-born rapper isn’t scheduled to play any shows at SAP Center in the near future. Instead, Sharks fans got to watch another creative force at the Tank Tuesday night, someone more near and dear to their hearts: Joe Thornton.
After missing nine games with an infection in his right knee, Thornton suited up for the first time since Oct. 5 on Tuesday night. The New York Rangers spoiled the party by earning a 4-3 shootout win,
But Tomas Hertl tied the score with less than two seconds remaining in regulation, allowing the Sharks to extend their point streak to six games. Thornton skated for 9:21 in the game’s first two periods, playing a role in a pair of scoring chances as the Rangers kept him off the scoresheet. He caught the webbing of Henrik Lundqvist’s glove with a 33-foot wrist shot in the opening frame. In the second, he almost scored off a one timer on the power play. Brady Skjei blocked Thornton’s shot in front of the crease and the puck nearly trickled in after hopped past Lundqvist.
“I’m still going to be on some antibiotics, but it looks like (the infection) is on its way out,” Thornton said after the Sharks morning practice Tuesday.
The game was Thornton’s
1,496th NHL contest, putting him in 20th place on the league’s all-time games played list.
The veteran forward cleared a hurdle in his recovery Sunday when doctors removed a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line that was feeding antibiotics into his arm. Though he’s still taking antibiotics, head coach Pete DeBoer said his blood work indicates that the infection has cleared.
“If he’s on antibiotics, he’s just finishing the cycle,” the Sharks coach said. “He’s healthy.”
Thornton said that doctors cleared him to play Tuesday morning.
“They were going back and forth, if I can play, if I can’t,” he said. “Yesterday, they just decided to take the (PICC line) out, so it was a good day.”
The infection was the latest setback for the 39-yearold veteran, who’s been battling health issues over the course of the last 18 months. After tearing the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee on April 2, 2017, Thornton suffered an identical injury in his right knee on Jan. 23, sidelining him for the last 35 games of the 2017-18 season and playoffs.
But Thornton skated on the first day of training camp in September and participated in the Sharks first two games before an infection led to swelling in his right knee. Though he’s been sidelined for more than three weeks, Thornton has been practicing with the Sharks since thy returned to San Jose from a five game road trip on Oct. 16.
Thornton’s return is forced the Sharks to re-jigger their lineup at a time when the team was riding a five-game point streak and entered Tuesday’s game with the NHL’s second-highest shot volume per game (37.7) while ranking third in shot differential (176).
Regardless, going back to the white board to reintegrate Thornton into the lineup was a challenge that DeBoer welcomed. Against the Rangers, DeBoer skated Thornton alongside Timo Meier and Joe Pavelski. Kevin Labanc took Meier’s spot on Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl’s line and the Sharks reunited the third line combination of Evander Kane, Antti Suomela and Joonas Donskoi. Marcus Sorensen, Barclay Goodrow and Melker Karlsson skated on the fourth line.
“Trying to put Jumbo back in the lineup is a great problem to have,” DeBoer said. “I’ll never complain about that.”
• As Thornton returned to the lineup, his longtime linemate, Pavelski, hit a remarkable milestone.
Just two weeks after Pavelski become the fifth player in league history drafted later than pick No. 200 to accumulate 700-career points, the Sharks captain suited up for his 900th NHL game. In doing so, he became just the second player from the 2003 NHL Draft selected in the third round or later to play in 900 games, joining Lee Stempniak.
The 205th pick in the 2003 draft took a challenging road to reach game No. 900.
“Looking back on it, I did,” Pavelski said after the Sharks morning practice
Tuesday. “I was in the USHL and Waterloo, and I had a scholarship going to the University of Wisconsin, spent a couple years there and turned pro. Every time I hit that new level I was right where I wanted to be. I didn’t see it as any hurdles being skipped over.
“I’d like to think it was the scouts who made the mistake, I guess.”
DeBoer said that every hockey player who’s ever been overlooked as too small or too slow should look to the example that Pavelski has set.
“What makes him a great captain and a great leader is the road he traveled,” the Sharks coach said. “He wasn’t handed anything. He had to work for everything. He had to pay attention to the details of the game in order to be effective at every level.
“The journey really created the person and the captain that we have here.”
• Kreider put the Rangers ahead 2-1 at 1:13 of the third, blasting a one timer past Martin Jones from the right circle. Later in the period, with the scored tied, Kreider knocked a bouncing puck past an outstretched Jones after Erik Karlsson failed to break up a pass from Mats Zuccarello.
Meier tied the game 2-2 at 8:14 of the third, blasting the puck into the upper shelf on a two-on-one rush with Melker Karlsson. Meier’s team-leading ninth goal extended his point streak to eight games. Brent Burns picked up the assist, his second point of the game.
Burns opened the scoring at 3:22 of the first, slapping in a 60-foot shot from above the right circle. The goal, Burns’ third, extended his point streak to nine games. Marcus Sorensen and Karlsson earned assists on the play.
The Rangers answered just 59 seconds later. Zuccarello tied the game by beating goalie Martin Jones with a 33-foot shot above his glove. The Rangers dominated the rest of the period. They outshot the Sharks 17-6 in the frame, recording nine of the period’s last 10 shots.