Sharks-Avalanche: Sharks Up Win Streak to Four With Win Over Colorado

If he hasn't said it already, Joe Thornton is saying it now, "Thank you Boston for sending me to San Jose."

The Sharks won their fourth game in a row on Sunday in Colorado by a final of 5-3, and Joe Thornton had a quiet two assists giving him 11 points on the year in 12 games. 

Now Joe is clearly not on his typical pace of 90-plus points for a season, but right now he could not care less. His team is off to a franchise-best 10-2 start, and his line-mates of Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi have been putting the puck in the net with regularity.

One may say that in the photo above, Thornton may be thanking God for his new teammates who have turned this team around. Last season the Sharks heavily relied on Thornton's play-making ability and Nabokov's goaltending. But for the first time since coming over to San Jose, Thornton isn't the main go-to guy.

With McLellan in as coach, and both Dan Boyle and Rob Blake coming as lucrative off-season acquisitions, Thornton can now just do what he does best—feed his teammates with ridiculous passes. 

People used to question whether or not Thornton scored enough goals or if he could show up in the playoffs. But finally he has all the help he needs. 

Sunday in Colorado, Milan Michalek had his first two-goal game of the season, Setoguchi had another two goals, upping his total to seven, and Ryane Clowe added an insurance goal late to give the Sharks their 5-3 lead.  But it's the way this team is winning games that shows they are for real. 

For the past few seasons under Ron Wilson, the team was centered around Joe Thornton, much like the San Francisco Giants were centered around Barry Bonds. But instead of letting Joe do all the work himself, the Sharks have spread the wealth. 

Coach Wilson's system produced only one scorer over 70 points (Thornton scored 96), but McLellan's system is on pace to have five scorers over 70 points. Talk about spreading the wealth.

Thornton, of course, leads the Sharks in assists with 10, but for the first time since he arrived in San Jose, it seems that a Thornton injury wouldn't mark the end of the world for the Sharks. Throughout the last two seasons, an injury to Thornton would have devastated this team, but this year they seem to be rolling despite any injuries or despite which goalie is playing.

Just like Randy Hahn mentioned in one of the recent broadcasts, the Sharks are winning the 1-0 games, the 5-4 games and the 7-6 shootout games.  It doesn't matter the style of the other team, the tempo is always set by the Sharks. 

At home or on the road, Nabby or Boucher, lots of penalties or very few penalties, it doesn't seem to matter for the Sharks as they keep rolling off win after win.

At the beginning of the Colorado broadcast, Sharks' color commentator Drew Remenda had a conversation with Mike Ricci about the Sharks' fast start. Ricci told him "You can't win the cup in October, but you sure can lose it".

These days, the Sharks aren't losing much of anything.