After early slip, goalie Martin Jones solid in debut for Sharks

LOS ANGELES — Returning to Staples Center on Wednesday night to face the Los Angeles Kings for the first regular-season contest since being traded by them over the summer, San Jose Sharks goaltender Martin Jones could be forgiven for feeling a little skittish.

As rivalries go, Sharks vs. Kings is as feisty as they come, born of multiple, always-intense meetings a year and a memorable playoff series or two to boot.

So when Jones let in a goal 1:49 into the first period, on the first shot he faced as a Shark, it could be (almost) understood. And since he followed it up with a 19-save performance in a 5-1 San Jose win, it (almost) seemed fortuitous that he got any nerves out of the way early. Just not to the guy who allowed it.

"I don’t know that (the goal) helped me, but I thought as a group we did a good job of bouncing back," Jones said. "We could have let this one slip away (early), but we did a great job of not allowing that to happen."

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Head coach Peter DeBoer is, like Jones, new to the Sharks. While the two haven’t had ample time to get to know each other, DeBoer wasn’t concerned when the team’s prized offseason acquisition allowed an early score.

"He’s a pretty composed guy. He’s got ice in his veins," said DeBoer. "On the bench, there was no worry at all. It was one of those freaky (goals), and I liked our composure as a team (afterwards). He wasn’t rattled, we weren’t rattled and we just stuck to the plan."

Facing the early deficit, Jones adeptly settled in to being on the other side of slap shots from Kings’ heavyweights in live action. The 25-year-old had been Kings starter Jonathan Quick’s backup for the better part of two seasons before he was traded to the Boston Bruins in the deal that sent Milan Lucic to Los Angeles. The Bruins then flipped him to the Sharks, and Jones finally had a chance to start. But the return to his old home wasn’t something he was especially looking forward to.

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"I was trying to approach it like it was any other game, but I was anxious to get this one out of the way," he said.

Any nerves he was feeling didn’t show after the initial score. In fact, Jones seemed to only get better as play went on, with his finest save of the night coming late in the second period. On a power play, Kings center Tyler Toffoli fired a point-blank shot that seemed so impossible to save, the crowd began to cheer before the lamp was lit. But Jones’ quick work with his left pad stole the chance from his former teammate.

"This was a great way to start the season for us," he said. "It was a great win from start to finish. I waited a long time for that game and we got a good result."

Follow Kristen Shilton on Twitter @kristen_shilton.

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