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Will Sharks, fans, embrace old nemesis Raffi Torres?

torresgetty

James

Raffi Torres’ physical style and suspension history have made him some enemies over his career and the San Jose Sharks are certainly one of the teams he has a rocky past with, dating back to his high hit on Milan Michalek in the 2006 playoffs.

Now that the Sharks have acquired Torres, the question is if his new teammates will warm up to him. Torres obviously hopes so.

“I know if it was the other way around, I’d want some of these guys on my team, whether I liked them or not throughout my career,” Torres said in a CSN Bay Area report. “There are some great players in this room, and I’m just here to do my job and help out. I’m not looking to step on any toes or cause any conflict, I just want to do my job, have some fun and win some games.”

For his part, Sharks captain Joe Thornton “was pretty happy, actually” to hear that Torres would be joining the team.

Sharks coach Todd McLellan is looking for Torres to “continue to use what his strengths are” without crossing the line.

The Sharks will play on Friday, but because they’re on a six-game winning streak, McLellan cautioned that Torres might be scratched rather than make his debut. That may give him more time to learn the Sharks’ system, although the 31-year-old forward doesn’t seem to be embracing that idea.

“You can talk systems to me, but I kind of do my own thing out there sometimes. It’s probably cost me a lot of minutes and playing time, but we’ll go over some things, for sure,” Torres said. “It’s all about trying to keep things simple. When I start thinking too much out there, that’s when it starts to go south.”

Meanwhile, how the Sharks fans feel about Torres is another question mark, as CSN discusses in the video below: