Marleau’s return also a Cup preview?
Ex-Shark is just one of the subplots between top teams
SAN JOSE » When the puck dropped Thursday night at SAP Center, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the Sharks playing the Toronto Maple Leafs in a dream matchup for the Stanley Cup Final.
The prospect was even juicier at the end of a high-spirited affair that the Sharks lost 5-3. (For more on the game, please see mercurynews.com/sharks.)
Both teams are considered favorites in their respective conferences, they play highly- entertaining styles of hockey and they’re loaded superstar- caliber players.
But the intrigue doesn’t end there. Here’s five storylines that would make a SharksLeafs final truly unforgettable. 1. JOE THORNTON VS. PATRICK MARLEAU » Two friends. Two marvelous careers. One Stanley Cup.
After 20 NHL seasons, the first and second- overall picks in the 1997 draft are still looking to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup for the first time. Only one of them will get the honor if these teams meet in the final
Marleau skipped town in 2017 to give himself a shot at winning the Cup with the Maple Leafs, who boast a talented-young core of players with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly. After battling back from two major knee sur-
geries, Thornton is hoping that the Sharks acquisition of Erik Karlsson on the eve of training camp will give him his best shot at finally sipping champagne from the world’s most celebrated trophy.
Making things even more intriguing is the fact that Thornton and Marleau spent 12 seasons together pursuing that elusive goal together in San Jose. In fact, the Maple Leafs tried to lure Thornton to Toronto along with Marleau two summers ago, but the future Hall of Famer decided to stick it out with the Sharks.
A win over the Maple Leafs in the final would certainly validate that choice. 2. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
» After losing Marleau in 2017, John Tavares put the Sharks in the bridesmaid role with the Maple Leafs again last summer when he decided to sign with Toronto in unrestricted free agency.
Tavares said Thursday that the Sharks made an “impressive” pitch when they were among the five teams that met with him during the NHL’s listening period last June. By signing Tavares, the Sharks could have reset their clock by a decade. General manager Doug Wilson replaced Marleau with 27-year- old Evander Kane last season and Tavares would have been the perfect fit to takeover the role performed by Thornton over the last decade.
Alas, it didn’t happen and now the Sharks are trying to make things work with a center alignment featuring Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Thornton and Antti Suomela. 3. PLAN B. » Tavares’ decision to sign with the Maple Leafs gave birth to the Sharks trade for Karlsson.
After the Sharks fell short in the Tavares sweepstakes, Wilson took a different route toward filling the team’s need at center. He acquired a game- changing defenseman with Karlsson.
If you can’t have the deepest center group in the league, you might as well stack up the blue line with two Norris Trophy winners.
At this point, Karlsson is still adjusting to his new squad and vice versa. But if the Sharks reach the final that means Karlsson is hitting his stride, and when he’s on, boy is he fun to watch. 4. NAZEM KADRI VS. THE BEARD » One of the more entertaining moments of the 2017-18 season came during the Sharks visit to Toronto last January. After exchanging words prior to opening faceoff, Kadri and Thornton went to blows as soon as the puck dropped.
The fight was particularly memorable because Kadri ripped out a large chunk of Thornton’s bushy beard.
Thornton shaved off the beard in training camp — he’s now at whiskers stage — but by June it should be back to full growth and ripe for a Kadri plucking.
Barclay Goodrow did try to get some revenge for Thornton on Thursday night. Coach Pete DeBoer sent Goodrow out for the opening faceoff to pick a fight with Kadri, but the Maple Leafs agitator didn’t bite. Instead, Goodrow drew a roughing penalty and the Maple Leafs scored two seconds after the power play expired. 5. HOMETOWN HERO » Well, not quite.
Though Matthews grew up in Arizona, he was born in San Ramon, so Northern California can lay some claim to the rising superstar. Either way, Matthews is on his way to becoming the greatest U. S.-born player in the game’s history. It would be fun to see him take center stage in a Stanley Cup Final in San Jose.
• Marleau, who’s the Sharks all-time leader in points (1,082), goals (508) and games ( 1,493), shed tears last October when he received a thunderous ovation of “Patty, Patty, Patty” chants during his first visit to San Jose as a member of the Maple Leafs. On Thursday, Marleau, who left the Sharks to sign a three-year, $18 million contract with Toronto in July 2017, left the emotion in the dressing room as he recorded his first point against his former-squad, an assist on Kasperi Kapanen’s goal in the first period.
Tavares also haunted the Sharks Thursday night. He scored the Maple Leafs’ first goal just two seconds after Goodrow’s roughing penalty expired. Still, the Sharks went into the first intermission leading 3-2 off of goals from Kevin Labanc, Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
The Maple Leafs took a 4-3 lead in the second, scoring a pair of goals off oddman rushes.
In addition to Pavelski, Karlsson recorded a twopoint night for the Sharks, earning a pair of assists. Martin Jones finished the game with 29 saves.