Captain by committee

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This article was published 12/10/2014 (4006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Historic defeats usually leave a mark and it will surely be a while before the San Jose Sharks get past their post-season collapse of last spring, becoming just the fourth NHL team to blow a 3-0 series lead.

Some of the fallout from that series loss to the eventual-champion Los Angeles Kings has been the re-organization of the leadership group in the dressing room.

The Sharks said over the summer Joe Thornton would no longer wear the captain’s ‘C’ and Patrick Marleau’s ‘A’ was going, too, but it took the team a long time to reveal their plan.

Only in the last week did head coach Todd McLellan unveil it, handing alternate-captain letters to four players: Thornton and Marleau (both former captains), Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

No captain, just a rotation of alternates.

It certainly has been a hot topic around SAP Center, where the Sharks had their home opener Saturday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

McLellan indulged the issue again Saturday morning for those who haven’t heard him speak on the matter.

“We wanted to reset the hierarchy in our organization and that goes throughout everything,” he said. “That’s why we haven’t declared one guy, and it being this individual’s team. It’s not. It’s about the group. And that’s where we’re at.”

Pavelski and Vlasic are the newcomers to the official group.

“I think it was a distraction for the media more than it was for us,” Vlasic said Saturday. “The media made a bigger deal out of it than we did. We weren’t rushed to have a captain or assistants. We took our time and made the right decision.

“It’s an honour to be part of that group. It doesn’t change the way I play. It doesn’t change my role with the team or my leadership. I’ve been here eight years, so there’s a lot of responsibility for me on the back end. I’m ready for it.”

Vlasic made the case Saturday he was ready for the responsibility and that exposure to different kinds of leadership will augment the group.

“When I played at the Olympics, there were so many captains or assistants,” he said. “They were all leaders but in a different way. (Sidney) Crosby was very quiet in the room. He said some stuff when it needed to be said. He did his leadership on the ice. There were other guys who were a little more vocal in the room.

“It’s just different types of leaders. Patty’s more like myself. He shows leadership on the ice. There are guys like Jumbo (Thornton) that do both. He’s a little more vocal than Patty is but everybody’s different and everybody has a different role to play.”

McLellan had said earlier in the week, “Our actions will speak a lot louder than pieces of felt,” and the time has come for the team that recorded 111 regular-season points in 2013-14.

The Sharks opened their season by blanking the Kings in L.A.

“I had a great off-season,” Vlasic said. “It was unbelievable. When you lose, you lose. You learn from it but you’ve got to move on.

“I had a great off-season and training camp is to get ready for the season and I was just happy training camp was over and the season was underway.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca