New-look Sharks have Golden Knights in their sights

After a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames last Saturday, San Jose Sharks winger Jannik Hansen was asked if his team was eyeing the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the standings.

"Of course," Hansen said without hesitation. "We look both ways right now. There are teams chasing us. It seems like every night teams are winning... If you can catch them, great."

That makes perfect sense, of course, and despite losing to the St. Louis Blues in overtime Tuesday, Team Teal rode an eight-game winning streak to come within five points of the new Vegas squad in the Pacific standings. It's a far cry from this point last season, when the Sharks had a dismal month of March that saw them nearly free-fall from the top of the division, then get sent home in the first round of the playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers.

Make no mistake, San Jose's recent success has the team poised for an entertaining playoff run — that is if the Sharks can remain as consistent as they have since the trade deadline and stay healthy.

It's no secret that the Sharks' lineup was bolstered a great deal at the deadline, headlined by the addition of Evander Kane — who has made all the established Sharks around him play better. Take Joonas Donskoi, for example, who was having a so-so 2018 campaign before Kane came to town, then exploded offensively when the two were paired with Joe Pavelski on the top line. Kane has added speed and physicality that this team didn't consistently put out on the ice before.

However, the newfound success doesn't stop with Kane. Adding Eric Fehr to the fourth line — and the league-topping penalty kill — has made the Sharks' bottom six a threat to be reckoned with. The entire fourth line, for instance, found the back of the net in the Sharks' 6-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on March 20. For the first time this season, San Jose has been able to roll out four offensive lines every night and get contributions.

Now, that doesn't mean the Sharks get to cruise into the playoffs without a hitch. Their last stretch of regular-season tilts will be tough, and a couple players have gotten banged up over the last week or so, altering the makeup of each line.

San Jose has been fortunate with some of the line shuffling, at least in the short term. Donskoi was sidelined with an upper-body injury, but the top line didn't slow down when Melker Karlsson was moved up into his place.

The Sharks aren't going to want to see the injury bug bite again though, especially with Fehr suffering from a lower-body malady, messing with the fourth-line mojo. The key is to get everyone healthy before the playoffs, especially since the prospective opponents — likely the Los Angeles Kings or Anaheim Ducks — will present physical matchups.

Then, there's the subject of Joe Thornton and when he will return to the ice. Jumbo Joe and his infamous Zeus beard have been practicing with the rest of the team recently, although it's still unclear when he will return. When he does, where will he be slated? Will bench boss Peter DeBoer instinctively slot him back onto the top line with Pavelski and Kane? As Paul Gackle of the Mercury News points out, that trio looks fantastic on paper and should thrive if Thornton returns and instantly regains that momentum he began generating back in December.

However, slotting him onto another line makes more sense for both the 38-year-old Thornton and for the offense as a whole, potentially, as Gackle suggests, putting him on the third unit to help keep the top two chemistry-driven lines intact.

Clearly, a big goal for the Sharks — like the rest of the league — is to stay as healthy as possible over the last five games of the season. It's the best way to take their recent success into the playoffs with them, and getting a player of Thornton's caliber back sooner rather than later is just another added bonus to a surging club that's already been bolstered by Kane and company — a club that now has the top seed in the Pacific in its crosshairs.