SAN JOSE — Joe Thornton promised he’d be ready for Game 1 of this playoff series between his San Jose Sharks and the Edmonton Oilers. He hasn’t played yet. And, on Sunday morning, he said he’s still a game-time decision for Game 3 tonight.
“We’ll just see if coach will let me take the warmup tonight, to be honest with you,” he said. “We’ll wait till 6 o’clock tonight.”
Wait a second, Jumbo. Your coach, Peter DeBoer, says the decision will be up to you. Now you’re saying the decision is up to him?
“Well, maybe it’s up to the trainer then,” laughed Thornton, a typical playoff subterfuge.
Said DeBoer: “I’m going to stick with, when Joe decides to play, he’ll play.”
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Our opinion? Thornton looks better and skates harder every day. He’ll get into this series at some point. But with the lack of information teams emit about injuries at this time of year, anyone who says they know when Thornton will return is likely guessing.
“I wanted to play Game 1. I wanted to play Game 81,” said Thornton. “As a player you want to play every game, so I’m going to keep telling everyone around me that I want to play.”
DeBoer misses Thornton on his power play, which has gone 1-for-12 in this series. But it should be noted, the Sharks power play clicked at just 16.7 per cent this season, good for 25th in the NHL. Thornton played 79 games, but DeBoer said they don’t just miss him in the power play this post-season.
“We miss him everywhere. You can’t understate his importance to our group,” said DeBoer. That includes on the bench and in the dressing room.
“It’s old school accountability with Joe. Black and white. He came up in an era and around people who weren’t worried about hurting feelings, who said what needed to be said. That’s not always the case now, in the modern dressing room and with modern athletes.
“There’s no greater pressure than peer pressure. Especially from a Hall of Famer like that.”
Klefbom In
Oscar Klefbom limped out of Game 2 after taking a Brent Burns’ blast off the foot, and did not return to the game. He was out there at the Oilers morning skate in San Jose however, and says he is fine to play in Game 3.
“I took one off the foot and it got me pretty bad but it feels all right today. It didn’t feel very nice,” said the Swede. “Burnsie had a pretty good shot, too, and it got me in a bad place. But it feels good today.”
It was quite a scare for the Oilers. Klefbom led all Oilers defencemen in ice time per game this season at 22:22, as well as in goals (12) and points (38). He plays with Adam Larsson on a defence that is vastly improved, but not deep enough to handle injury very well.
“I felt like it was a fracture. I’m really lucky it wasn’t,” he said. “It felt really bad on the bench so we played it safe and went in to take a few pictures. Now it’s just a matter of pain.”
Careful Out There
In a series that has featured just one 5-on-5 goal — Klefbom’s fluky carom off of David Schlemko that opened the series scoring — the Oilers have been in penalty trouble.
They’ve given the Sharks 12 power plays, one more than Anaheim and four more than any other team through two playoff games. They’re lucky the Sharks power play has been anemic, or like Calgary the Oilers would be trailing 2-0.
“I think we need to listen for the whistles a bit better,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. “If we get out of the way when the whistle goes we’re fine. It’s taking the penalty after the whistle that I’m concerned about.
“You have to build into every game (plan) an errant high stick, a trip that you don’t mean, a hook or an interference call… It’s going to happen. If we can take it from six penalties and narrow it down to three, we’ll be OK.”
The Sharks, meanwhile, know they lost the physical battle in Game 2, when Zack Kassian single-handedly steam-rolled them. But for the Sharks to take back that aspect of the game, it won’t happen the same way.
“For me it’s not about big hits. We’re not a big hit team,” DeBoer said. “Our physical play is puck possession, being heavy and hard to play against. Those are the physical battles I am interested in.”
“Our compete level,” said Joe Pavelski, when asked where the improvements need to be made. “For whatever reason we lacked in a few areas, lost too many battles. Whether it’s on our power play or 5-on-5, we can be a little better there.”
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