SAN JOSE — Pete DeBoer threw a wad of spit onto his fastball Tuesday when he refused to rule out Joe Thornton for Game 4, labelling him as “day to day.”
The response bucked the trend that the Sharks coach had established over the first three weeks of the Stanley Cup playoffs, where he rules Thornton out the day before his team’s next game while noting that he’s “getting closer.”
The change in approach could just be prickly-playoff Pete being uncooperative with reporters the morning after a tough loss or an attempt to plant a seed in the head of Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant as the Sharks face their first series deficit of these playoffs.