No one has been helped more by Thornton's arrival than Jonathan Cheechoo, whose 53 goals are a career high. Cheechoo had just seven goals when Thornton arrived from Boston; since then, he's had 46, the most in the NHL during that time. Thornton has assisted on 36 of them, including two in Thursday night's 5-3 victory over Vancouver. Cheechoo's shooting percentage before the trade was 8.3; since the deal, it's 20.5.

And the more Thornton scores, the better the Sharks play. He's had 27 multiple-point games since being traded to San Jose; the Sharks are 25-1-1 in those games. Overall, they're 34-14-7 since the trade after going 8-14-7 to start the season.

Two and done -- One thing the Sharks have done well is win games when they get the jump on the opposition. They're a perfect 19-0-0 when they take a 2-0 lead, and 29-0-0 when leading by two goals at any point of the game. Buffalo is next at 28-0-1.

What Olympic hangover? -- Not much has gone right for the New York Islanders down the stretch, but one player for whom the Olympic experience appears to have been a benefit is Rick DiPietro. The starting goaltender for Team USA has played some of the best hockey of his career since returning from the Torino Games, going 10-8-1 with a 2.16 goals-against average, a .924 save percentage and one shutout. One problem for the Islanders this season has been the games in which DiPietro hasn't started. Backup goaltender Garth Snow is winless in his last 12 appearances (10 starts) after Thursday's 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto. His last win was Nov. 26 at Philadelphia.

Paying the price -- If the New Jersey Devils don't win the Atlantic Division title -- they entered the weekend tied with Philadelphia, three points behind the New York Rangers -- they'll have DiPietro and the Islanders to blame. New Jersey went only 2-4-2 against the Islanders this season, taking only six of a possible 16 points. In contrast, the first-place New York Rangers were 5-2-1 (11 points) and Philadelphia was 5-2-0 (10 points with one game to play). DiPietro beat the Devils six times (four in regulation and two in shootouts).

Big Apple blues -- It hasn't been a great season for the Boston Bruins, who will miss the playoffs. One key reason they're getting an early start to their summertime is their inability to win against the three New York-area teams. The Bruins lost all 12 games against the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils (seven in regulation, three in overtime and two via shootout). No team playing more than two games against each of the three teams has ever been swept by the Big Apple trio.

The Penguins won for just the third time all season Thursday night after Jaromir Jagr opened the scoring.

Rare birds -- The Pittsburgh Penguins put a crimp in the Rangers' title plans by doing something they've rarely accomplished this season -- winning a game when the opposition scores first. New York's Jaromir Jagr got the first goal in Thursday night's game, but the Penguins scored the next four on the way to a 5-3 victory. It was only the third time in 48 games that the Penguins won when allowing the opposition to score first (3-36-9).

Fast starters -- The Toronto Maple Leafs may miss the playoffs, but not because they didn't get each week off to a good start. The Leafs are a combined 19-5-3 in games played on Mondays and Tuesdays (8-1-2 on Mondays; 10-4-1 on Tuesdays). Their problems have come on the other five days of the week -- they're 21-28-4 on the other five days of the week.

The Leafs are also of two minds when games are tied at the end of regulation time. They are 7-1-0 in games decided in the five-minute overtime, including Thursday night's 4-3 win over the Islanders. But shootouts are another story: They are 3-7 in those games -- largely because of their inability to score. Toronto shooters are just 4 for 24 (16.7 percent) in shootouts, the next-to-lowest percentage in the league. Only Pittsburgh (3 for 22, 13.6 percent) is worse.

Ready, aim, fire! -- Toronto's 53-shot barrage in a 6-5 overtime victory over Florida Wednesday marked the first time all season that the Leafs managed as many as 40 shots on goal in a game. They were the only team that had not had at least 40 in a game. It was also the Leafs' first 50-shot game since Dec. 10, 1997, when they had 53 in a 2-2 tie against Colorado at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Five of the Leafs' six goals against the Panthers were on the power play. Toronto also had five power-play goals in its previous contest, a 5-2 win over Philadelphia. The Leafs are the only team this season to connect for five PPGs in back-to-back games.