SAN JOSE – It took exactly three minutes into his first game in nearly 17 months for Sharks forward Raffi Torres to remind his teammates and the home crowd just what he can bring to the lineup.
Despite indications in the morning that he would play a bit cautiously on his surgically repaired right knee that he tore up two years ago, Torres lined up plodding Coyotes defenseman Nicklas Grossmann in the Sharks' defensive corner. The human heat-seeking missile wearing a number 13 teal sweater plastered Grossmann, knocking the six-foot-four, 230-pound defenseman clean off of his skates.
Torres said after the game that it might not have been the wisest thing to do at this stage of his recovery, but he still made it through the Sharks’ 3-1 preseason win feeling “pretty good” after it was over.