San Jose Sharks Need Childhood Friends to Step Up

Joe Thornton and Brian Campbell grew up together in Ontario, Canada.  It's time they grow up on the ice together.

Joe has been the recipient of a "can't-deliver-in-the-playoffs" tag, and unfairly so to this point.  After getting three assists in the first three games of this series (he is a +1), Jumbo Joe has 25 points in 25 playoff games in Teal.

When he was with Boston we must remember that he was on a team that struggled in the post-season.  It is hard enough to get points or have a plus-rating when your teammates are failing you.  It is even harder when you are an 18-year old rookie ('98) or have torn rib cartilage ('04).

Taking out those years, his postseason stats with Boston read as follows: 47 GP, 41 points (nine goals, 32 assists), -5.  Not great, but not too bad considering he was on a team that could not win.  And that does NOT fall on Joe--they did not even sniff the playoffs the year after he left and look like they're only going to win one game this year.

However, the image I get in game three comes from two plays.  On the first, after Marleau had been handed his lunch by Sarich, Joe ducked away from a hit behind the Calgary net.  On the second, he was standing there--just standing--in front of Nabokov while the game-winning goal was scored.

Brian Campbell, meanwhile, has not gotten the same label because his team has had more success.  He played 34 post-season games in Buffalo, recording three goals and ten assists while recording a -5 rating.  He is also remembered for a crushing hit in the series with Philadelphia.

He has an assist and is +1 this post-season.  However, he has struggled along with the rest of his blue line mates with Calgary's forecheck.  And like his childhood buddy, the image burned into my brain is not a good one: giving away the game-winner on a turnover to Jerome Iginla.  Hey, Bri, if you have to give the puck away, avoid doing so to numbers 12 or 40, but especially 12!

If San Jose is going to rise from the ashes (unlike the last two years, when this kind of adversity signaled they had won their last post-season game), Jumbo Joe and his sidekick will have to grow up fast.