The Morning After: Deja vu all over again
Another big third period gave the Sharks a victory.
Playing the Montreal Canadiens has been a lot of fun for the San Jose Sharks in recent years. San Jose has won six of its last seven games against the Habs and has lost just four times to Montreal since 1999. The Sharks scored three times in the third period to put the Canadiens to bed and put together a two-game winning streak.
San Jose is 14-15-2-4 against Montreal in franchise history, and that includes the first nine meetings between the sides in which the Sharks either lost or tied the Habs. So yeah, the Canadiens are to the Sharks as the Sharks are to the Buffalo Sabres. It feels pretty darn nice to be on the right end of that.
There was a lot to like from the Sharks game against an admittedly depleted team with an admittedly very poor goaltender. San Jose got three-point nights from Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns; right, that Thornton guy has been really, really, really good. He tallied his 62nd game with 3+ points for the Sharks and is currently leading the team with 3.11 points tallied per 60 minutes.
Joe Thornton is 36.
It will never cease to amaze me how he continues to be the offensive leader as he's now actually old enough to become President of the United States. Ignoring the fact that he's sort of not eligible to be President, just think of how many laws Thornton would pass!
What may be more impressive is that Thornton didn't even have best pass of the night. That honor goes to Chris Tierney, who dished this absolutely gorgeous saucer pass in the third period to increase the Sharks lead.
As usual, Thornton's best pass of the night ended up in the back of the net.
That goal is Thornton's 15th of the season — he's just one goal away from matching his total from last season in 16 fewer games. He's scoring 0.78 goals per 60 minutes, which is his highest since the 2008-09 season. Thornton is doing that while posting a corsi-for percentage of 63.45. So... yeah. Thornton is really good.
I guess this turned into a post about Joe Thornton. You're welcome, everyone.