The San Jose Sharks beat the Vegas Golden Knights, yes the same Golden Knights who won the Stanley Cup last season, to a score of 5-2 in San Jose for the preseason opener.
The Sharks exploded with offense with an immediate goal by Henry Thrun within the first minute as fans were still getting seated.
At 9 minutes into the first, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Hertl roofed it past a tumbling Jiri Patera with a pass from confident Thrun quarterbacking the play.
Not even a full minute later, Nathan Todd scored his first in a teal jersey as the puck broke out of a contested corner slowly drifting towards Todd who was left all alone past the dash marks, moving in for the immediate shot past Patera putting the Sharks up 3-0.
The tenth shot for Vegas ended up going into the back of the net on a backhander from Ivan Barbashev who was left in front of Kaapo Kahkonen’s net beating him on the glove side.
With less than 40 seconds left of play in the first, the Harvard kid Thrun scored once again on the powerplay putting the Sharks up 4-1 and providing fans with free tacos. Thrun is making a name for himself already with Sharks fans in attendance.
Speaking of players who have started to make a name for themselves among Sharks fans is Alexander Barabanov. He was separated from Hertl on the line sheet but made up for it with a nice dish towards a slow-moving Kyle Burroughs on the opposite end of the net to put the Sharks up 5-1. It was the final goal for San Jose.
For the Golden Knights, the last goal came from Brett Howden who tipped in a shot from the blue line from Danil Chayka.
At the start of the third Vegas swapped its goalies replacing Jiri Patera for Jesper Vikman. Patera ended up saving 13 out of 18 shots on net with Vikman being perfect in his small sample size of blocking all three shots he had to face.
Henry Thrun
It would be a disservice to write this piece and not go in-depth on Thrun. Thrun was acquired last season from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 2024 third round pick. When Thrun refused to sign with the Ducks he was traded instead.
The Harvard player scored 2 points in his NHL debut last season for the Sharks. In his first preseason game, Thrun scored two goals and registered one assist for three points and was the first star of the night. Thrun scored his first goal immediately 24 seconds into the game with a wrist shot beating Vegas’ Patera from the blue line through traffic.
Thrun was easily the most well-balanced player in this game by being defensively sound and providing the offense when needed. One play that caught my eye was when the Sharks were in Vegas’ zone with a Knights’ player attempting to knock the puck out into neutral ice. Thrun had his stick on the ground and like a pinball machine, bounced the deflected puck to another teammate for a quick shot. This level of play led to him quarterbacking the first powerplay unit.
New Sharks
Many of general manager Mike Grier’s new assets were in the lineup tonight with notable players being Filip Zadina, Mike Hoffman and Anthony Duclair.
Zadina and Hoffman were on the first line with Tomas Hertl. The first impressions after this game is that other than Barabonov it is nice to see Hertl play with linemates who have the same groove when playing.
The first line, if continued, is something fans should enjoy watching. There were multiple chances thanks to decisive passing that led to opportunities of tapping the puck into an opening through the sides of the net.
Kaapo Kahkonen
Kahkonen was phenomenal tonight as he stopped 32 out of 34 shots, posting a save percentage of .941.
At the beginning of the game, the first goal he allowed Vegas caused a few eyebrows to be raised due to the lack of response on a slow shot. It appeared to be a straightforward backhander right in front of him.
However, afterward, Kahkonen made a strong case as to why he should go into this regular season as the Sharks’ main starter.
Making quick flashes of the leather against Vegas on the few penalties that San Jose received, you could see that as time progressed, Kahkonen got more comfortable in the crease.
San Jose plays its next preseason game against So Cal rivals the Anaheim Ducks at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
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