Did watching the Sharks last week in Denver make anyone long more for the days of Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg, the Avalanche’s former “pick-your-poison” center combination?
With Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, the Sharks still have that elite 1-2 punch in the middle – the sort that is going to be increasingly rare as the salary cap takes its leveling toll. They had power-play goals only 17 seconds apart in the Sharks’ 4-3 victory over the Avalanche Wednesday night.
Thornton, who came over from Boston early last season and ended up winning the Hart Trophy, hasn’t been filling the net himself, but he was off to a decent start, with five goals and 17 assists going into the Sharks’ Saturday night home game against Philadelphia.
Marleau, though, was even more impressive, with 12 goals – within shouting distance of the league lead – and 11 assists.
Thornton is making $6.67 million this season, Marleau $4 million. Both are 27, and they went 1-2 overall in the 1997 NHL draft. Now that they’re teammates, their lines present dilemmas for opponents, and in this era, that mainly means selecting whether to use the top defensive pairing against Marleau or Thornton.
“It’s something that we know is going on,” Marleau, who was raised in frigid Aneroid, Saskatchewan, said in Denver. “It doesn’t really matter who they put up against us. We want to play a certain way. Sometimes, no, most of the time, Joe will be seeing their top ‘D.’ It’s vice versa sometimes, but whichever way it is, we have to take advantage of our opportunities.”
San Jose general manager Doug Wilson said the Sharks are “fortunate they’re at the right age. They’re both coming into their primes. They’re big, they’re physical, they can skate. They haven’t accomplished everything they want to accomplish.
“Again, I think their best hockey is coming up right now, and it’s a fun group to be around. Chemistry is a word that’s used a lot, but they all have goals collectively. They had a taste of it last year. They see teams we have great respect for, the Carolinas and Tampas, winning Cups, and I think they’re thinking, ‘OK, why can’t that be us?”‘
Marleau said the Sharks’ loss to Edmonton in the Western Conference semifinals last season “was a hard one to swallow, definitely. I think it’s still in the back of our minds. This isn’t last year, but we want to learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
