Patrick Marleau made an interesting comment to the media during Day 1 of the Sharks training camp, suggesting that Brent Burns could be moved back up to forward due to the injury to Raffi Torres. Marleau seemed to like the thought adding, “He’s (Burns) a great player. He can have my spot.”
Further to that, head coach Todd McLellan was quizzed about Burns moving back to defense and had this to say:
“It’s a commitment right now.”
Just right now, coach? I don’t think I’m alone when I say that Burns staying on forward is a fantastic, and better, idea for the Sharks as a whole. Burns is worth every cent of his contract when he’s playing the wing and it would keep the Sharks top six group lethal from side to side.
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Marleau and Thornton, not surprisingly, were asked about the comments made by Sharks GM Doug Wilson earlier in the summer that suggested the Sharks were a “tomorrow” team. Marleau provided a pretty diplomatic answer.
"If a club comes together and plays the system the right way, it doesn't matter who you have. We do have a lot of great players on this club."
Thornton, however, wasn’t as diplomatic as Marleau and you might get the sense that he and Doug Wilson aren't on the friendliest of terms right now, if you couldn't already guess that from what transpired over the summer.
“That’s Doug’s opinion. I think if you’d ask anybody in here I don’t think they’d have the same feeling.”
And then…
“I have enough motivation. I don’t need somebody else telling me we can’t do it.”
It’s easy to understand why Thornton might be a tad cold toward his GM but the Sharks need him to put this situation aside when the season opens up next month.
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Here’s what the lines looked like for both groups when they hit the ice today, per Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area:
“A” Group
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Matt Nieto
Tye McGinn – Freddie Hamilton – Tommy Wingels
Micheal Haley – Adam Burish – Mike Brown
Bryan Lerg – Melker Karlsson – Barclay Goodrow
Matt Irwin – Jason Demers
Scott Hannan – Brent Burns
Taylor Doherty – Taylor Fedun
Antti Niemi
J.P. Anderson
“B” Group
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Nikolay Goldobin – Chris Tierney – Tyler Kennedy
Eriah Hayes – Andrew Desjardins – John Scott
Daniil Tarasov – Travis Oleksuk – Ryan Carpenter
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Mirco Mueller – Matt Tennyson
Konrad Abeltshauser – Dylan DeMelo
Alex Stalock
Troy Grosenick
The top line for each group is a good representation of what we can expect the opening night lines to look like in the top six and that’s been no secret for a while now. I’ll make an assumption that the fourth lines for both groups are paired together because they aren’t expected to be anywhere near the final roster and it’s more of a gauge on where they are with their game should the Sharks need to dig deep into the depth bucket.
That leaves the middle lines:
Tye McGinn – Freddie Hamilton – Tommy Wingels
Micheal Haley – Adam Burish – Mike Brown
Nikolay Goldobin – Chris Tierney – Tyler Kennedy
Eriah Hayes – Andrew Desjardins – John Scott
These are the players that will be fighting it out for bottom-six duties with the Sharks. Wingels is the only real lock for a position, along with the injured James Sheppard. Tyler Kennedy should be given a chance but he found himself in the doghouse late last season and hasn't really gelled like San Jose thought he would since his arrival.
The bottom six is up in the air right now and a lot of it has to do with Nikolay Goldobin and whether or not the Sharks think he can make the jump immediately. Doug Wilson said earlier in the summer that Goldobin might be able to do it based on his hockey smarts. Whether or not he still believes that remains to be seen. Without a contract Goldobin is a bigger threat to hop on plane to Russia.
The suggestion of Brent Burns throws a wrench into things as well because that would move Nieto back down to the bottom six, on the third line with Sheppard. Oh, the possibilities.
For the defense I find it strange that Burns is paired with Hannan, who figures to be a very small piece of the puzzle this season. Is that another clue to Burns moving back to forward? Maybe, maybe not, but Mirco Mueller is paired with Matt Tennyson and that could be a realistic pairing if Burns heads to the top six forward group. Vlasic-Braun and Irwin-Demers are also realistic options. Feed the conspiracy.
Interesting first day, it’s great to have the Sharks back on the ice.
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