CSN Bay Area

SAN JOSE – The stat sheet didn’t exactly reflect his impact, as Joe Thornton was scoreless with a -3 rating against the Rangers on Saturday in a 3-1 Sharks loss.

But San Jose’s top center was dearly missed during the four games he was sidelined with an injured left shoulder, and that was reflected in the defeat to an impressive New York club.

“I felt good. I felt like I didn’t miss any time at all,” Thornton said. “I felt really good, comfortable.”

Nowhere was his return felt more than on the power play. The Sharks were just 1-for-19 with a man advantage with Thornton out of the lineup, and looked generally lost much of the time. Although his unit didn’t score (Melker Karlsson tallied a power play goal on the second unit on a James Sheppard rebound), they were able to set up in the offensive zone and had some looks, including five shots on goal with him on the ice.

“It felt good,” Thornton said. “Shep’s group got one, our group looked really, really good and looked dangerous. It’s a good sign for us.”

In 17:40 of ice time, Thornton finished with one shot on goal, two shot attempts, and was 12-for-17 in the faceoff circle. The Sharks won 64 percent of the game’s faceoffs.

Todd McLellan said: “I thought Jumbo was fine. He made some plays. It takes a little while to get back into the pace, and with our schedule we haven’t practiced a lot. He has had to do some work on his own, and all of a sudden stuff is moving around him and it’s fast.

“Good in the circle, the power play, he settled it down, and made a couple shot attempts which is nice to see him do off the wing, and there were some rebounds laying around. I thought he was fine.”