It seems San Jose head coach Pete DeBoer wants to get Joel Ward going by putting the forward on the Sharks’ top power-play unit. That might not be the right decision, but I want to see what you all think. Here’s how the top power-play unit looked in the Sharks’ loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday:
Brent Burns — Joe Thornton — Logan Couture — Joe Pavelski — Joel Ward
The only oddity here is Joel Ward, who has taken the place of Patrick Marleau on the top unit. San Jose has other options on the top unit, including rookies Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier.