Teal Tandem Racking Up Big Points

SAN JOSE â€”  Joe Thornton once towed Jonathan Cheechoo behind his boat when the rising NHL forwards happened to be water-skiing at the same Canadian lake several years ago. Until December, that was the extent of their teamwork.

But ever since Thornton joined Cheechoo with the San Jose Sharks 3 1/2 months ago, they’ve learned a whole lot more about each other -- and each bit of knowledge has made an impression on their opponents, the Sharks’ record book and the league scoring races.

“From just about their first game, they’ve been dynamite,� Coach Ron Wilson said.

It’s rare for two players to change the fortunes of an entire hockey team, but Thornton and Cheechoo have done much of the work to rescue the Sharks’ dismal season with a nonstop scoring binge since Wilson paired them on a line.

With 41 goals entering the weekend, Cheechoo was fourth in the league and all but certain to surpass Owen Nolan’s franchise record of 44. Thornton had five assists in the last two games of an astonishingly productive stretch with his new team, claiming the lead in the overall NHL scoring race.

Look at it this way: Cheechoo had scored 34 goals since the trade, and Thornton assisted on 27 of them.

But when he was traded from Boston to Team Teal, Thornton was like most East Coast hockey fans: He barely knew anything about Cheechoo, beyond recognizing the San Jose forward’s evocative last name.

“The secret’s out, though,� Thornton said. “He’s up there with the best guys in the league. He’s too good.�

And once Cheechoo got over the excitement of playing alongside a star, he realized the golden opportunity he had been handed.

“He draws a lot of double-teams, and he sees the ice so well,� Cheechoo said. “Basically, all you have to do is find a soft spot in the ice. He does a great job fighting off guys, and I just pick up the garbage in front of the net.�

There’s a simple logic behind this wildly successful pairing: Thornton is a nimble passer trapped in a power forward’s body, and Cheechoo loves to shoot from any spot, angle or position.

Usually with Nils Ekman on the other wing, they seem to be getting better along with their team.

San Jose won the first four games of a key six-game homestand in recent days, moving the once-slumping club within three points of a playoff spot.

In a 4-3 win over the Kings on Monday night. Cheechoo got his franchise-record fourth hat trick of the season -- with all three goals set up by Thornton. They teamed up for another goal in San Jose’s win over St. Louis on Thursday night.

Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Eric Staal are the only other players with 40 goals this season, but Cheechoo feels confident in such elite company.

“You never expect to have anything like this, but this is what I worked for,� Cheechoo said. “This is what I spent my summer training for. I wanted to be as good as I could. I always liked the way [Thornton] played, and I watched him play a lot growing up, when he was in juniors. He’s a great passer, and I like to shoot.�

Thornton is reluctant to get too introspective about this connection, seemingly worried too much analysis will ruin it.

“I have no idea how it works,� Thornton said. “Sometimes I just throw it on net, and he finds the rebounds. He goes in the areas that a lot of goal-scorers go in, like in the crease and to the side of the net. He works really hard to put himself in a position to score goals.�

Cheechoo honed those skills in a youth spent firing thousands of pucks at a barn next to the small rink built by his father in tiny Moose Factory, Ontario, near Hudson Bay.

He was compared to Luc Robitaille during his youth because of his single-minded determination to shoot -- and his less-than-stellar skating motion. He’s skating better and faster this season, evolving into a complete player with the potential to surpass every scoring record in the Sharks’ book.

“I thought the maximum we might see out of Cheechoo in a season might be 40 goals,� Wilson said. “Whether that was this year or the next, I wasn’t sure. But he’s on a pace now to score 50 goals, and that’s exactly what we’re looking for.�

But Cheechoo probably wouldn’t have reached these heights if the Bruins’ management hadn’t tired of its captain.

Thornton felt weary and maligned when he joined the Sharks on Nov. 30 in a trade for defenseman Brad Stuart and centers Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau. As a former No. 1 draft pick, a Canadian Olympian and the star of a bad NHL team, a world of responsibility had made him defensive and dispirited.

In San Jose, most of that weight has vanished from the center’s shoulders. Patrick Marleau is established as the Sharks’ captain, and Thornton is as anonymous in California as a 6-foot-4 All-Star can be. He’s free to concentrate on his game, and the results have been spectacular.

Thornton scored a point in 33 of his first 40 games in San Jose, including 20 multipoint games. He entered the weekend leading the NHL with 72 assists and 97 points to edge past Jagr in the league lead.

The best thing about this two-man show is that it could play for years. Cheechoo agreed to a lengthy contract extension this season, and Thornton is signed with San Jose for the next two years.