Jim Matheson’s Hockey World
Young gun Couture takes over as San Jose’s leader
San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson calls it “refresh and reset.”
Refresh is a computer term, of course, befitting a Silicon Valley team. He also could have said it was a reload, which would have an ode to Zamboni-sized defenceman Douglas Murray, who was off-loaded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Refresh and reset is a catchy way of saying they’re changing on the fly. Whatever you want to call it, after eliminating the Vancouver Canucks four straight in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup tournament, it’s working. Maybe it’s time to start looking for the Sharks’ bandwagon again after most of us jumped off a few years ago, when great regular seasons never equated to winning in the playoffs.
Antti Niemi in net? In four games, he had an 1.86 goalsagainst average and .937 save percentage.
Logan Couture? Save the centre an Olympic team spot. He had three goals and eight points.
Joe Pavelski? He’s hockey’s Swiss Army knife with four goals and eight points.
Patrick Marleau on the wing? He’s skating, scoring and excited with Couture as his centre. He scored four goals.
Jumbo Joe? Thornton is doing just fine not being the leader of the band. He scored six points.
What Wilson was able to do at the trade deadline was move out some staples like unrestricted free agents Murray and Ryane Clowe and another thirtysomething role player, Michal Handzus, for draft picks. Then he added Raffi Torres to fill Clowe’s big-body role and added Scott Hannan as a stay-at-home defender, like Murray. Hannan is not as good or as gargantuan, but he is an NHL presence.
The Sharks look faster, and just as big and as deep, but not as dependent on Thornton and Marleau. They are very strong in net, a good puck-moving group, and moving the sometimes risky Brent Burns from defence to the wing gives them a quick, 230-pound body in their top nine. They play more of a north-south game now.
San Jose is the only team in the league which has gone to the final four two of the last three years and they’ve played more playoff rounds (eight) than anybody else, but they still have yet to get to the final or win the Cup.
This group, with lower expectations, may be better than the rest.
“We had tremendous respect for Douglas Murray and Ryane Clowe, both homegrown players, great character, and Michal Handzus also, but we made the decision in a strong draft year to get some picks. Six. In the refresh and reset, you can’t allow those players to walk and get nothing,” said Wilson.
Besides the two secondround draft picks (2013 and 2014) for Murray, the Sharks also got a second- and thirdrounder this June and a second-round selection in 2014 from the New York Rangers for Clowe. Handzus went to the Chicago Blackhawks for a fourth-rounder in this draft. So that’s two seconds, a third and a fourth this June.
Wilson was thinking of tomorrow and today, though.
“You think of the future, but you have to give the group here a chance to win, which is why I went and got Raffi. He’s a good skater and, if you play him with good players ... he was once a fifth pick overall in the draft and this may shock you, but he’s scored more goals in the NHL than Ryane Clowe. More goals in his best year than Ryane Clowe. He’s evolved the last year and (Phoenix coach) Dave Tippett deserves a lot of credit for getting him to play effectively within the parameters. He really fits,” said Wilson.
“Getting Brad Stuart (their one-time first-round pick) back from Detroit allowed us to move Murray. And, for depth, we brought back Hannan.”
Couture had some scouts raising their eyebrows in 2OO7 when the Sharks picked him ninth in the first round because they questioned his foot speed. But this is almost his team now, not Thornton’s or Marleau’s.
“His last year of junior (with the Ottawa 67’s), he was playing with some injuries and some guys would have pulled themselves out of the lineup, but he kept going. We had some pretty good information,” said Wilson, who grew up in Ottawa. “He was cut from the world junior team and you could see his motivation playing against John Tavares the rest of the year (in the Ontario Hockey League).
“We think he can be a special player. He thinks the game so well. As for his skating, the great players don’t play at full speed all the time.”
Thornton, 34, told people there was a changing of the guard. He said it was “Logan’s team.”
“It’s the natural transition. It makes Jumbo better and Logan better,” said Wilson. “You’re a much better team when you’re strong down the middle and when you’ve got Jumbo, Logan and Joe Pavelski as your top three centres, you’re in pretty good hands.”
The Sharks lead the league in centres playing the wing. Marleau has been in the middle most of his NHL career and seems to be benefiting from the more uptempo game. Winger Tommy Wingels, who was hurt (maybe his shoulder?) when checked by Daniel Sedin in Game 4 and flew into the boards, has played centre. So has former Minnesota Wild first-round pick James Sheppard, who’s on the wing with Scott Gomez.
“Centres can play wing,” said Wilson, who is also really high on San Jose’s 2012 first-round pick (Czech centre Tomas Hertl). “I know one thing: The hardest things to find are centres and defencemen. That’s supply and demand. We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve.”
Pavelski is a top-six forward who could easily play the wing, but he’s the best third-line centre in the NHL.
“Being strong down the middle makes teams make a choice. Who are you going to try to stop?” Wilson asked. “Joe (Pavelski) has always been successful in the playoffs. We’re better when we have three dominant centres.”