- Editor's note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California's Sharks coverage for the 2021-22 season. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
Joe Thornton has one regret about his time with the San Jose Sharks.
For 13 of his 15 seasons in San Jose, the Sharks made the playoffs. This yielded back-to-back Western Conference Final losses in 2010 and 2011, and a Stanley Cup Final defeat in 2016.
“We were so close,” Thornton said this afternoon of hoisting the Cup.
But not getting the sport’s ultimate prize doesn’t erase all the good memories that Thornton accumulated in San Jose. A lot of them have flooded Thornton over the last two days, on the eve of his first visit to SAP Center since the beginning of the pandemic.
The now-Florida Panthers star went to Brent Burns’s house yesterday, hanging out with the injured Mario Ferraro, among other San Jose Sharks.
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“You play somewhere for 15 years, you become a family,” he said. “It was great to see everyone.”