It’s official: The San Jose Sharks will not have a player wearing the ‘C’ - at least not for tonight’s season opener against the defending Stanley Cup champions and rival L.A. Kings.
Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski will be wearing an ‘A’ on their jerseys, with defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic rotating into that group as well, the club announced just prior to puck drop on Wednesday.
Jumbo, Patty and Pavs take the ice for warmups with As on their sweaters. Vlasic will also rotate in this year. pic.twitter.com/wlP6LuYA7h
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 9, 2014
This development continues the long saga that was the Sharks’ off-season. You’ll recall they had a 3-0 series lead over the Kings in the opening round, only to cough that up, losing the series 4-3.
The Kings went on to win hockey’s Holy Grail just months later. The captaincy was then stripped away from Thornton. He’s certainly not happy about the talk from San Jose’s general manager Doug Wilson about the Sharks being a “tomorrow team.”
Tonight, you might consider this a revenge game for the Sharks after a tumultuous summer.