The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, the consensus best single-season team in NHL history, lost eight times. Wayne Gretzky, the best player in league history, was on the wrong side of 586 regular-season games and 12 playoff series during his 20-year NHL career.
In hockey, everybody loses sometimes. Except Father Time.
Father Time is the only opponent that no team, or no player, has ever beaten, no matter how hard they’ve tried.
It’s in that spirit that Peter DeBoer made the most important decision of his first season as Sharks head coach, when he approached Joe Thornton about taking a step back.