Pavelski’s play makes absences less painful
Two things stand out this week for the Sharks. One is obvious, the other not so much.
Players generally enjoy a boost of adrenalin when traded to a new team, and Evander Kane is showing that with his first two games in San Jose. The other is the subtle but impressive leadership displayed by Joe Pavelski, who has excelled since Joe Thornton went down to injury on Jan. 23.
“This is his time of the year,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said of the team’s captain. “He always finds another level this time of the year.”
This early spring, however, Pavelski has picked his game up without his usual running mate Thornton, while adapting to the center position after years of playing on the wing.
Without Thornton, Pavelski has eight goals and 10 assists (18 points) in 18 games. He wasn’t averaging a point per game with Thornton; Pavelski had 10 goals and 34 points in 47 games with Thornton on the ice. In addition, Pavelski is a plus-4 defensively since moving back to center after charting a minus-7 on the wing.
“I think he was excited about the acquisition,” DeBoer said of Pavelski’s reaction to adding Kane to his left wing. “And he’s getting used to playing center. It takes some
time; he hasn’t played (there) in a while.”
And it’s not just the numbers.
With Patrick Marleau long departed and Thornton sidelined, this is the first time since accepting the captaincy in 2015 that Pavelski has had to lead without two of the team’s former captains in the room to provide support. He’s done it with his play on the ice and even-keel demeanor off of it.
Now, thanks to him getting the team to and through the trade deadline when Kane’s arrival added a jolt, the Sharks basically only have to go .500 in their final 17 games to reach the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 seasons.
Kane has made an immediate impact with his hard-nosed, go-to-the-net style of play that quite frankly was missing in San Jose’s lineup. He definitely adds to the team’s identity, and is a tough player to play against.
“He’s fitting in real well,” DeBoer said. “I like his 200-foot game. The offense and the physicality are things you know he brings, but he’s working really hard away from the puck defensively and he’s been solid in his own end.
“Everybody in today’s NHL is looking for speed, but you can’t just have speed. You need speed that understands how to play. That’s the thing with him, he gets it. He knows when to slow down and when to turn it on. He can make plays. He’s a world-class player.”
Kane’s insertion into the top line — and the addition of veteran Eric Fehr to center a fourth group — helps to make all the pieces fit for DeBoer even without Thornton. There’s scoring punch throughout the top three lines, and the fourth group can hold its own while popping in a few here and there.
Expansion coming: Seattlearea residents and corporations needed only 12 minutes to gobble up the goal of 10,000 deposits during Thursday’s seasonticket drive, which reached 25,000 after only 60 minutes. Clearly, Seattle is well on its way to convincing the NHL to grant the Emerald City an expansion franchise, which could begin play as early as the 202021 season. Big wind: Not great timing with challenging weather hitting the Eastern seaboard this weekend when the Maple Leafs and Capitals are scheduled to meet outside on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. While the area is sustaining 70 mph gusts, the winds are expected to die down to around 16 mph for the puck drop on Saturday night. Briefly: After recently coming out of retirement, 37-year-old Mike Fisher made his return to the ice for Nashville on Friday and scored in the second period against Vancouver. … Regardless of how respected Joel Quenneville is as a head coach, if the new norm for the Blackhawks was exemplified by the way they played in San Jose on Thursday (a 7-2 loss), he’s clearly lost the room. … The NHL entry draft is returning to the West Coast in 2019 (Vancouver) for the first time since 2010 (Los Angeles) and for only the third time ever.