Patrick Marleau Making Management Look Good in San Jose

Five games into the season San Jose Sharks veteran Patrick Marleau is making team management look like geniuses. To the surprise of fans Sharks GM Doug Wilson and coach Todd McLellan stripped Marleau of his captaincy this off- season and at the end of training camp gave it to defenceman Rob Blake. To the credit of Marleau who is an 11- year veteran he didn’t pout or demand a trade. Instead he has continued to work hard and as a result has gotten off to a stellar start. When this former 1997 second overall pick of the Sharks had the ‘C’ removed the reasoning was that management wanted to take pressure off of him and that could be a strong reason why he already has five goals and six points in the opening five games of the season. Marleau who had two goals against the Minnesota Wild last weekend got his name in the San Jose record book that night when he scored his second goal of the game nine seconds into the third period during a 4-2 Sharks victory. With that goal Marleau who was rumored to be on the trading block tied former Shark forward Bob Errey for fastest third period goals in franchise history. Errey scored his third period goal in nine seconds back in 1993 against the St. Louis Blues. Another star for the defending Presidents Trophy Sharks on this night was their goalie Evgeni Nabokov who stopped 38 of 40 Minnesota shots and in the process earning some strong praise from Coach McLellan. “I thought Nabby made some tremendous saves tonight,” McLellan said. “He was very good making big ones when we needed them. He gave us a chance to find our way back in. He did his job tonight changing momentum.” Besides for Nabokov whose 38 saves were a personal high since November 15, 2006 when he stared down 40 in a 4-3 Sharks win against the Colorado Avalanche, another huge momentum swing was when the Sharks wiped out an early 2-0 deficit by scoring four goals in just under nine minutes. Besides for Marleau with his two other San Jose scorers included Dany Heatley and Jed Ortmeyer with his first for the Sharks. Still the talk after the game was about Nabokov. “He made some key saves for us and held us in there,” Marleau said referring to the second period when the Wild had five power play opportunities and scored only once.. “We had a parade going to the penalty box and he held us in there.” Scoring for the Wild were Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette. ?We had a couple of mistakes and those are ending up in our net right now,” Wild Coach Todd Richards said. “It was disappointing. We started the third down by one. It’s tough when you give up a goal, first shift, nine seconds in. It kind of deflated us.”