Forwards moving on from miscue
MONTREAL >> Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier haven’t been exiled. They’ll still be in teal and white uniforms tonight in Montreal, playing important top six forward roles for the Sharks in their game against the Montreal Canadiens.
But both players plainly understand that the mistakes they made in overtime of the Sharks’ game against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday simply can’t happen again.
An untimely line change by Meier and Labanc — after they both had been on the ice for over a minute — led to an odd man rush the other way and Jack Eichel’s goal with 1:47 left in overtime that gave the Sabres the 4-3 win.
“Me and Kevin obviously know
that we made a mistake. That’s how it is,” Meier said. “I think we’re (mature) enough to (accept) that. Those things happen and you try and learn from it.”
After the game, the unmistakably honest Logan Couture said it was an “inexcusable change,” adding that Meier and Labanc stayed on the ice for too long looking for a scoring chance.
“It’s a selfish play that doesn’t need to be a part of this team,” he said.
“I don’t take it personally,” Labanc said of Couture’s comments. “He’s being a captain, and he’s just holding me accountable. Me and Timo. We made a bad change, but we just have to learn from it, move on and make sure that down the road we’re not making mistakes like that again. Me and Timo, I think we’re going to come back stronger.”
“We’ve got 23 big boys in here, so they can handle the criticism like they can handle the accolades,” Sharks center Joe Thornton said when asked about Couture’s comments. “I had no problem with it.”
It was the first overtime game of the season for the Sharks, and Meier and Labanc haven’t historically spent a lot of time playing 3-on-3 hockey together. Last season when either of them were on the ice in those situations, they were typically skating with a more experienced forward.
Tuesday, Meier and Labanc both came on the ice after Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane came off with just over three minutes left in overtime. There were no shots on goal either way for over a minute before Meier and Labanc headed off the ice for a change as Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt skated back inside his own end.
Mittelstadt stopped skating as he saw Meier and Labanc heading off the ice. He then found an open Rasmus Ristolainen with a long pass through the neutral zone.
With only Brent Burns back, Ristolainen came in with Eichel on a 2 on 1 and fired a shot on goal that Martin Jones stopped. With the puck still loose under Jones, Eichel skated in and poked it over the goal line for his second goal of the game and his fourth point of the night.
“I talked to (Meier and Labanc) before in the dressing room right after the game and I talked to them today” Couture said. “Coaches talked to all of us. We saw it. We saw what happened and those guys will learn from it.”
The Sharks liked a lot of things about Tuesday’s game, particularly how they regrouped after Jeff Skinner’s goal early in the third period gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead. Erik Karlsson scored at the 11:27 mark of the third period to tie the game and help the Sharks salvage at least a point.
Meier and Labanc each have two goals and two assists in nine games this season. Meier made a nice pass to Patrick Marleau that lead to a Marc-Edouard Vlasic goal in the first period against the Sabres and Labanc later set up Karlsson for his third period goal.
In Wednesday’s practice, Meier was again on the Sharks’ top line with Couture and Patrick Marleau. DeBoer had Labanc on the second line with Hertl and Kane, moving Noah Gregor to the third line with Thornton and Barclay Goodrow.
“I think Logan has always spoken his mind. I don’t have a problem with it,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said of the captain’s postgame comments. “Our group built on accountability to each other. It’s nothing he wouldn’t say directly to them behind closed doors. It looks like a big deal on the outside, but it’s not a big deal.
“That kind of accountability is going on in our room on a regular basis.”
• DeBoer said he hasn’t decided whether he’ll start Jones or Aaron Dell in goal tonight.
Jones is 8-1-0 with a stellar .937 save percentage in nine career games vs. the Canadiens. He has also been terrific against the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom the Sharks play Friday. Jones is 7-1-1 with a .932 save percentage in nine games against Toronto. Dell has played one game against both teams, beating the Canadiens on Jan. 2, 2018, and losing to the Leafs on Nov. 28 last season.