MORE FANCY PASSING
Before bringing him to San Jose, DeBoer checked with Jets boss Maurice
The Sharks’ Kevin Lebanc, right, passes the puck between the legs of the Jets’ Mark Scheifele at the SAP Center. The right wing entered Thursday night’s game fourth on the team in assists and tied for second in power play assists. The game was in progress at press time. For the full story and Sharks analysis, go to WWW.MERCURYNEWS.COM/SPORTS/SAN-JOSE-SHARKS/
UP NEXT: Kings at Sharks, Saturday, 1 p.m., NBCSN INSIDE: Jets coach explains why he vouched for Kane.
SAN JOSE » Last winter’s Evander Kane trade raised eyebrows in Sharks territory because of coach Pete DeBoer’s relationship with Winnipeg Jets bench boss Paul Maurice.
Maurice gave DeBoer his first coaching job with the Ontario Hockey League’s Detroit Junior Red Wings back in 1994- 95 and they remain close pals to this day. Surely, DeBoer would know a thing or two about Kane’s tumultuous relationship with his teammates in Winnipeg and be hesitant to bring the embattled forward into his locker room.
Instead, the Sharks insists that the opposite is true. Any concerns he had about bringing Kane in the Sharks dressing room were mollified by his conversations with Maurice.
Apparently, the Sharks coach isn’t blowing smoke. Maurice confirmed after the Jets morning skate Thursday that he spoke highly of Kane in his conversations with DeBoer.
“I didn’t have that experience (with Kane). I don’t have a Twitter account, so that eliminates 90 percent of the issues, I think,” Maurice said. “He comes to the rink in good shape. He works really hard. His recovery is very possibly the best I’ve ever seen in a player. He can go hard for 45 (seconds) and be ready to go 20 (seconds) later, and he’s a gifted athlete.”
Maurice’s Twitter joke is clearly a reference to Kane’s infamous money phone tweet in December 2012, which ignited a backlash against him in Winnipeg. Kane tweeted out a picture in which he was holding a large wad of cash up to his ear at a time when businesses in downtown Winnipeg were struggling to make ends meet because of the NHL lockout. The picture made Kane seem out of touch with blue collar city in which he played.
But it wasn’t the money phone that got Kane shipped out of Winnipeg. The Jets traded Kane to the Buffalo Sabres in February 2015 one week after defenseman Dustin Byfuglien allegedly threw his tracksuit into a tub after he showed up to a meeting in violation of a team dress code.
Though Kane’s attitude and behavior clearly rubbed his teammates the wrong way in Winnipeg, Maurice, who took over as coach in January 2014, insists he never experienced it first hand.
“I think what happened is I got there after some of the potential issues. I didn’t ask a lot of questions,” Mau- rice said. “I try to treat the guys as I see them and as they treat me, so I didn’t have that kind of experience with him.”
• Sharks rookie Antti Suomela got a big endorsement from one of the NHL’s top-goal scorers. Jets sniper Patrik Laine is familiar with Suomela having played against him in the Finnish Liiga during the 2015-16 season.
Laine is quite sure that Suomela’s reassignment to the AHL Barracuda last week is just a bump in the road on his way to big things in the NHL.
“He has what it takes to make it here,” Laine said. “He’s already had some success earlier this year. He’s just got to work hard, and when he finds some success, it will build his confidence again.”
Though Suomela led the Finnish Liiga in scoring last season, Laine said there’s a natural adjustment period to playing on the smaller ice surface in the NHL against the world’s best players. He said Suomela, who recorded eight points in 28 games with the Sharks, will likely benefit from seeing time down in the American League.
“It’s just the speed. Every play happens so much quicker here than in Finland,” Laine said. “For him, that’s probably the biggest challenge. It is for everybody who comes from Europe. But once you learn it, it becomes a lot easier.”