SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 25: San Jose Sharks' Tomas Hertl (48) waits for a face-off during their game against the Los Angeles Kings in the first period of their preseason game at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Tomas Hertl was a baby-faced teenager with an infectious smile in 2013 when he left Prague to join the Sharks, playing immediately with Joe Thornton and Brent Burns on a dominant top line for a Stanley Cup-contending team.
Hertl, now 28, was back on the ice in his hometown Thursday, cheered by thousands of fans who showed up to watch the Sharks practice at O2 Arena in advance of their season-opening NHL Global Series games with the Nashville Predators on Friday and Saturday.
“It was awesome,” Hertl said. “I never had practice with a lot of people like that, and it was just great. Coming home after 10 years when I used to play pro hockey here, and now you’re playing for the Sharks.”
Hertl’s smile was still on display Thursday, but the Sharks are in a much different position now than his rookie season.
Rather than contending for a Cup, the Sharks are once again expected to finish at or near the bottom of the Pacific Division.
First-year general manager Mike Grier has been transparent – with the public and the team – that the Sharks are at least another year or two away from legitimately being in the playoff mix like those San Jose teams were from the early-to-mid 2010s.
For now. Grier wants the Sharks to be harder to play against, and he added players who fit a certain hard-nosed profile. But he has his centerpiece in Hertl, who signed an eight-year, $65.1 million extension with the Sharks in March.
“The more competitive people you can have on your roster, the better,” Grier said last month. “That was a goal of ours to build up that foundation here and support some of the other guys that were already on the roster, and hopefully we’ve done that.”
Hertl is optimistic about what this year’s team can accomplish given the additions the franchise made in the summer. But Hertl is also willing to be somewhat patient as Grier and coach David Quinn continue to put their stamp on the organization.
“Maybe if it takes a year or two, I’m still ready for that,” Hertl said last month. “But we still have a couple (veterans) that can fill in on the third and fourth lines. We can be a deeper team.”
Among the additions who are expected to play in Friday’s game for San Jose are Luke Kunin, who will play on the top line with Hertl and Timo Meier, and fellow forwards Oskar Lindblom, Steven Lorentz, and Nico Sturm. The new defensemen in the lineup are Scott Harrington and Matt Benning.
What a moment
@TomasHertl48 brought his son onto the ice at O2 arena in his hometown of Prague for the 2022 NHL Global Series.
: @SanJoseSharks pic.twitter.com/W6sSV02sjm
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 7, 2022
While the new players should help the Sharks become a better two-way team, there is no guarantee they can greatly improve an offense that ranked 30th in the NHL last season with 214 goals.
Meier, Hertl, and Logan Couture combined to score 88 of those goals, and are expected to do their parts again. Now it’s a matter of who else can support them.
The fans in Prague will be the first to find out.
“It’s always tough when just two, three guys are scoring all season long,” Hertl said. “It’s impossible in this league with just a couple of guys scoring. We need a little more than last year from the depth, or even put pressure and spend time in (the opponent’s zone) and wear teams out.
“I think the team’s in a good direction with better depth.”
Before the Sharks went on the ice, Hertl chatted with Czech hockey legend – and his own boyhood idol – Jaromir Jagr. After practice, Hertl later flipped pucks to children in the crowd, and carried his son, Tobias, around on the ice. Tobias, who Hertl said he hadn’t seen in three weeks, turns two later this month.
“Nothing is more special than family,” Hertl said. “The son is close and they can live the moment with me. For my wife and parents to see me with my son on the ice is a special moment.”
FRIDAY’S STARTER: Goalie James Reimer will start Friday’s game with the Predators, Quinn said. In 11 career games against Nashville, Reimer is 7-2-0 with a .928 save percentage. He stopped 23 of 25 shots in his one game against the Predators last season in what was a 3-1 Sharks loss at Bridgestone Arena.
Quinn has said he’d like to see a No. 1 goalie emerge, but through training camp, it didn’t appear there was much separation between Reimer and Kaapo Kahkonen.
Kahkonen went 1-1-0 with a .921 save percentage in two preseason games, although he allowed three goals on 14 shots in the first period of last Friday’s loss in Anaheim. Reimer went 2-0-0 with a .883 save percentage in two games but saved 27 of 30 shots last Friday in Las Vegas.
Reimer and Kaapo Kahkonen each played about half of Tuesday’s exhibition game against Eisbären Berlin and combined for 18 saves on 19 shots. Kahkonen will likely start against the Predators on Saturday unless Reimer sparkles in a Sharks win.
ALTERNATE CHOICE: Quinn on Thursday named forward Nick Bonino as the Sharks’ fourth alternate captain for this season. Bonino, in his 13th full year as a professional and his second with the Sharks, replaces Brent Burns, who was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in July.
Couture is entering his fourth season as the Sharks’ captain, and the returning alternates are Hertl, Erik Karlsson, and Mario Ferraro.
STURM’S RETURN: Sturm, who missed Tuesday’s game in Berlin with an injury, is expected to play Friday as he practiced on the Sharks’ fourth line with Lorentz and Jonah Gadjovich.
Originally published at Curtis Pashelka