Knights on Ice — Sharks Stick It to The Knights

Actually, it’s more like Joe Thornton who stuck it to Ryan Reaves with his stick around Revo’s throat area in a scrum behind the net toward the end of the first period.

It was an emotionally charged contest in which San Jose used their physicality in their 4-3 OT win. The win assured the Sharks of home-ice advantage in at least the first round, most likely against the VGK. The win snapped the longest losing streak of the season for the Sharks at seven and created the longest losing streak in VGK franchise history at five. Malcolm Subban has been between the pipes for all five of these games.

Yesterday’s game had the look and feel, along with the nastiness, of a playoff game. The Sharks haven’t experienced a lot of success against the Knights in their multiple meetings over the last two years in both the regular season and the playoffs. Last night, the plan was a very physical game and everyone on the Sharks was on board. A total of 80 hits were dished out equally among both teams.

Joe Thornton has a good memory. Back on Nov. 24, Joe and the Sharks were being humiliated by the VGK 6-0 at T-Mobile. Joe was frustrated and embarrassed and got into a chirping match with Ryan Reaves late in the third period. It went on for what seemed like a long time. Eventually, they both returned to their benches and continued to talk trash to each other. Reaves was asked to leave the game, while Thornton had to suffer and stick around until the final buzzer (here’s the video of that tete-a-tete.)

Yesterday, the scrum had all 10 players on the ice looking for dancing partners. Thornton sought out Reaves and instead of dropping the gloves, Joe jammed his stick into Reaves’ neck, trying to make it appear that it was accidental. After the scrum was broken up, Thornton reengaged with Reaves, who again found Joe’s stick up in his face.

If you listen to some of the post-game statements from a few of the Shark players, it’s pretty clear that what transpired yesterday wasn’t just a result of emotions spilling over from the game. It was their plan even before the puck drop in San Jose.

Over the last two seasons and in the second round of last year’s playoffs, San Jose has attempted to skate and play hockey against the VGK and that plan hasn’t been particularly successful for them. But the extra physicality of last night’s game was a prelude for the post-season, beginning April 10 or 11 when the first round of the playoffs commences.

Evander Kane delivered a vicious hit to Shea Theodore late in the game as Theodore was retrieving the puck deep in his own end. It should have been called a charging or boarding penalty, yet no penalty was called. Theodore was clearly shaken up and didn’t return once he left the ice. There’s speculation he was held out due the concussion protocol after being examined off the ice in what’s referred to as the “quiet room.”

“I think we had some fight-back tonight, which I don’t feel we’ve had in the past against these guys,” Kane said after the game. “I thought that was really important to realize as a group, that we know we can challenge them physically.

“I thought that was a good step in the right direction tonight to prove that to ourselves. Then once we can push back in that element of the game, our skill takes over and our game starts to feed off that.”

Tomas Hertl echoed Kane’s sentiments. “It was exactly like a playoff game. Everybody on the bench was fired up. … We helped each other and finished hard. We showed them we’re not scared of them and we can play really hard against them.”

In my opinion, when someone goes out of his way to make a point that he’s not scared of someone else, it pretty much says he is afraid. Kane and Hertl revealed that, in essence, in order to beat Vegas, they had to do something like last night, because the Knights are way more talented than they are.

Playing hard and physical in the NHL is a valid game plan, especially if you can’t match talent against the other team. But what San Jose did yesterday is unacceptable. Thornton’s use of his stick is more than hard physical play; it’s dirty. Evander Kane’s hit on Shea Theodore should have been a penalty, maybe even a five-minute major, since Shea Theodore’s head was the target.

The VGK aren’t a very physical team beyond Reaves and William Carrier and yesterday both were targets in what appears to be the Sharks’ plan to counter the skill of the top three lines that Vegas will put on the ice when they meet in the playoffs.

In yesterday’s game with the VGK backup goaltender, who has not only lost five games in a row, but appears to have lost his confidence, the Sharks managed to beat him only in OT with a goal on a power-play that carried over to the OT from regulation time.

Fleury will be back for the playoffs. No soft goals will be surrendered and eventually Joe “High Stick” Thornton will have to answer the bell and drop the gloves with Revo. But don’t count on that happening, as Joey Boy knows he’s poked the lion and Joey Boy isn’t stupid.

As far as Evander Kane goes, you do remember him skating more than 60 feet after the whistle blew to high-stick Pierre Édouard Bellemare in the face in last year’s playoffs. The Sharks carry their sticks high and have their gloves glued on their hands.

This should be an interesting playoff matchup.

Paul Stastny was scheduled to play and even took warmups, but he was a late scratch. The only update from the team is that it was a minor issue.

Nate Schmidt took a slap shot off the side of his knee and was down on the ice a while. He did return to the game, but was seen testing his knee between whistles.

Mark Stone also blocked a slap shot and appeared to be hampered late in the game.

Malcolm Subban was somewhat better in the net than in his game against Minnesota, but is still giving up long-range goals and doesn’t appear to be picking up pucks quickly enough. The winning goal scored by defenseman Brent Burns from far out beat Subban between the legs and appeared to be a puck he should have stopped.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea, if Fleury isn’t ready to go on Monday night against Edmonton, to let Max Lagacé get a game in. He’s only played in one game this season in the NHL, a 5-2 loss against Carolina.

Playing Subban will not be good, considering his confidence is shaken, but we shall see who emerges out of the helmet on Monday night to lead the Golden Nights onto the ice. My money is on Lagacé. Tomorrow’s game is at T-Mobile at 7 p.m.