Coach still tinkering with fix to Tierney-size hole
SAN JOSE >> One month into the 2018-19 season, the Sharks are still looking for answers to the major question that arose in the aftermath of the Erik Karlsson trade: who will fill Chris Tierney’s skates at third line center.
Adding Karlsson to an alreadydeep blue line forced the Sharks (6-4-3) to open a hole elsewhere in the lineup as they traded Tierney, THE SCORE
SHARKS 4, FLYERS 3, OT
Up next: Wild at Sharks, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., NBCCA
who gave the team one of the league’s deepest center alignments by anchoring the third line.
On Saturday, coach Pete DeBoer held open auditions at third line center. DeBoer sat Antti Suomela, who’s held the job since training camp, giving looks at third line center to Rourke Chartier, and eventually, Joe Thornton. It was a goal by Thornton, his first of the season and 398th of his career, that sent the Sharks into overtime, where they needed just 13 seconds to beat Philadelphia 4-3 on a goal by Timo Meier.
“The answer to (the Tierney question) is internally in here,” DeBoer said after the Sharks morning practice Saturday. “It’s just about guys grabbing that job and that opportunity.”
The third line showed signs of promise after DeBoer replaced
Chartier with Thornton at the start the second period Saturday. The line, which also featured Marcus Sorensen and Kevin Labanc, put together a string of quality shifts and drew the penalty that led to Joe Pavelski’s power play goal at 10:35 of the second.
From the first day of training camp, DeBoer has knocked down the suggestion that center depth could be an issue for the Sharks this season. In addition to losing Tierney, the Sharks failed to sign marquee free agent John Tavares in the offseason, forcing the squad to open the season with Thornton, a 39-yearold veteran coming off two major knee surgeries, as its top line center.
But DeBoer is quick to point out that both Pavelski and Tomas Hertl are capable of playing center if his team runs into trouble down the middle. He also believes the Sharks have three quality candidates for a depth center in Suomela, Chartier and Dylan Gambrell.
Suomela acquitted himself well in the Tierney role over the first eight games of the season, helping the Sharks third line gain clear possession edges on a nightly basis. But DeBoer thinks the Finnish rookie is hitting the common rut that snags a lot of young players by the time they play their 10th NHL game.
There’s a natural letdown once the initial excitement of reaching the NHL wears off. Sharks fans have witnessed it with Kevin Labanc, Timo Meier and Joakim The Sharks’ Timo Meier tries to slip a shot past Flyers goalie Calvin Pickard on Saturday night. Meier scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season, including the winner in overtime.
Ryan in recent years.
“You hit a little bit of a wall. It’s natural,” DeBoer said in reference to Suomela. “We’ll reset. He knows he can play in this league. He knows he can create offense in this league, but there’s a consistency to that compete level every night that maybe in some other leagues you don’t need.”
It’s clear that DeBoer isn’t giving up on Suomela, but Thornton might be the team’s best option at third line center this season. By sliding Thornton down to the third line, DeBoer was able to reunite the trio of Pavelski, Evander Kane and Joonas Donskoi that propelled the Sharks into the Stanley Cup playoffs last year while keeping the line of Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier in tact.
Tierney, meanwhile, is rolling with the Ottawa Senators, racking up 11
points (2g, 9a) in his first 12 games with his new club.
• At least one player on the Sharks regrets that the Flyers didn’t send their internationally-famous mascot along for their road trip to the West Coast this week. Since his introduction in training camp, Gritty has become a popular subject of Internet memes, a “Saturday Night Live” skit and a terrifying Halloween costume. He’s also being used as a symbol of socialism on the political left and the city of Philadelphia passed a resolution last month honoring the spirit he’s brought to the city.
Joakim Ryan acknowledges that he’s a “big Gritty fan.”
“I love Gritty,” Ryan joked. “He’s disgusting and hilarious at the same time. I don’t know if he represents gingers well, but he’s one of us.”
• Hertl left the game in
the second period with an undisclosed injury after colliding with Christian Folin.
• Timo Meier scored the Sharks’ first goal at 3:15 of the opening frame, joining Patrick Marleau (2010, 2013) as the only player in franchise history to open a season with 10 goals in 14 games.