Programming note: Sharks-Flyers coverage starts today at 3:30pm with Sharks Pregame Live on CSN California.
PHILADELPHIA – After their final practice early last week in San Jose just before they departed for the road, there wasn’t any panic in the voices of Joe Pavelski or Pete DeBoer. Despite losing eight of their previous 11 games, the captain and the coach felt their team game wasn’t too far from where it needed to be.
Three games into the trip – all wins – perhaps now we know why.
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“We felt like we were doing a lot of good things, giving ourselves a lot of opportunities [to be] in position to win, and we weren’t finding that way to win,” Pavelski said on Thursday morning. “It’s good to see it’s turned a little bit and we’ve found ourselves on the top of one-goal games.”
Joe Thornton said: “We felt like our game was right there. Pete kept on showing us clips, and said: ‘Hey, your game is there, you’ll be fine. Just keep going with it.’ Here we are, three games in a row that we’ve got wins.”
The Sharks will try to keep their road trip perfect against a struggling Flyers team at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. It may be the most winnable match on the six-game slate.
[KURZ: Morning Skate: Sharks out to keep it rolling in Philly]
San Jose Sharks
DeBoer saw Philadelphia plenty of times when he was the coach in New Jersey for a three-and-a-half seasons. He’s had Flyers captain/leading scorer/former Hart Trophy finalist Claude Giroux in the World Championships, too, and knows fully well that Giroux can singlehandedly take over games.
“Claude Giroux is one of the top five players in the world, in my mind,” DeBoer said. “Any time he’s on the ice you have to know that and be aware of that. He can hurt you in a lot of different ways.”
Still, the Sharks will concentrate more on replicating what they’ve done so far on this trip.
“Message tonight is just let’s keep this rolling,” DeBoer said. “Let’s remember why we’re rolling. This is more about our game than what the other team is going to do. When we show up and we compete and we get 20 guys pulling in the same direction and play our game, we’re a hard team to beat.”
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The Sharks lineup will remain the same against the Flyers. Mirco Mueller will skate in his third in a row in place of Matt Tennyson, while Patrick Marleau will stay in the middle of the second line, where he's been for the past three games.
DeBoer said that when Logan Couture gets healthy Marleau will shift back to his more familiar place on the left wing, but he likes what he’s seen of Marleau lately. The franchise’s all-time leading scorer has goals in back-to-back games, and enters Thursday with 999 career points.
“It frees him up to skate a little bit more,” DeBoer said. “His best asset is his legs, still, at [36]. I think it allows him to get his speed going a little bit. … It’s been pretty seamless.”
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Dainius Zubrus remains with the Sharks on a tryout, and indications are he’s moving closer to signing with the club.
[RELATED: Still with Sharks, Zubrus never lost will to keep playing]
DeBoer, who initiated the invite, likes what he’s seen so far from the 37-year-old veteran that was bought out of the final year of his contract by the Devils in July.
“He looks good. He looks close,” DeBoer said. “It’s tough to find six-foot-four, 215-pound guys who can play. … He’s an easy guy to play because he’s defensively reliable. He plays a big possession, heavy game. There’s a lot to like there.”
If Zubrus agrees to a contract prior to the end of the road trip, expect Nikolay Goldobin to be reassigned to the Barracuda. The 20-year-old rookie will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game in Philadelphia after he was benched for the third period of last Saturday’s game in Buffalo.