SAN JOSE — The ghost of John Tavares isn’t haunting the San Jose area anymore. Tomas Hertl is putting that lingering problem to rest.
As the Sharks head down the stretch run, the team is piling up points with the type of stacked center depth that general manager Doug Wilson envisioned last summer. But instead of creating mismatches with a center alignment that features Tavares, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton, the Sharks are now thriving under plan B, or actually, plan C.
Hertl is suddenly emerging as an “elite” centerman and it’s helped the Sharks climb to the top of the Western Conference standings.