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Wednesday Wake-Up Call: Joe Thornton

San Jose Sharks v New York Islanders

UNIONDALE, NY - OCTOBER 29: Joe Thornton #19 of the San Jose Sharks keeps his eye on the puck as he waits for a faceoff in his game against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on October 29, 2011 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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The Wednesday Wake-Up Call is where we pick a struggling player and kindly ask him to SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY. COME ON. YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS!

Joe Thornton, C, San Jose Sharks

Key stats: 1PPG, 5PPA

Cap hit: $7 million annually

Kudos to TSN’s Scott Cullen for bringing this statistic to my attention. He astutely points out that with six powerplay points this season, Joe Thornton sits behind such luminaries as Tim Stapleton, Corey Potter and Frans Nielsen.

Six points!

To give you an idea of how bad that PP production is -- by Thornton’s standards, of course -- consider where he’s finished in recent seasons:

2010-11: 9G-24A-33PTS, 7th in the NHL

2009-10: 4G-25A-29PTS, 16th in the NHL

2008-09: 11G-24A-35PTS, 13th in the NHL

2007-08: 11G-26A-37PTS, 7th in the NHL

At the time of writing, NHL.com had Thorton ranked 163rd.

With this lack of production, it’s no surprise San Jose has struggled with the man advantage. The Sharks currently rank 16th in the league (17.7 percent), a far cry from their usual top-five placing -- heck, they had the NHL’s second-best PP a year ago (23.5 percent).

This isn’t for a lack of opportunity, either. Thornton’s actually averaging more PP ice time per game this season than he was last season and is still tops among all Sharks forwards in TOI.

So wake up, Joe Thorton. Your powerplay needs you.