Started from the Bottom, Now Meier’s Here

Five goals. Timo Meier scored five goals in just two periods on Monday, setting a franchise record – he’s the only San Jose Sharks player to score five goals in a single game.

But it hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows for the first-time All-Star.

We pull a not-so-pretty quote from Sharks captain Logan Couture during the first month in the 2019-2020 season, describing Meier and Labanc’s “selfish play”, to start (6:13).

Then, we fast forward to Couture’s glowing comments this last Wednesday after Meier’s five-goal performance against the Kings (10:58).

These polar opposite quotes from Couture beg the question: How did we get here? So, we decided to rewind our Timo Time machine and take our listeners through the evolution of Timo Meier between these polar opposite clips.

In Nov. 2019, then- San Jose Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer demoted Meier down to the fourth line to play alongside Barclay Goodrow and Lucas Radil (12:36).

We continued through that tumultuous season to the point where even Sheng believed that Timo was going to be a healthy scratch after a late-game benching from interim head coach Bob Boughner (15:29).

Then, we jump ahead to the 2020-2021 campaign after an underwhelming off-season for the Sharks (21:52). Meier kicked off that year with only two goals in 15 games and his troubles had no end in sight (22:35).

Meier finished that season with just 12 goals and even admitted himself that he expected himself “to be way better” (29:21).

Going into the 2021 NHL Entry draft, there were trade rumors around Timo Meier and it seemed like his future with the San Jose Sharks might be in question (35:20).

Sheng talked to an NHL scout who questioned Meier’s character over the summer (39:59).

Finally, we arrive at the present along the Timo-line (44:45). Vets like Tomas Hertl shower praises on Timo and his growth into an All-Star (51:32).

Then Sheng and I answer the question: What can we learn from Meier’s explosion (58:55)?

We then highlight how significant Timo is to the Sharks offense with a host of SPORTLOGiQ stats (1:13:53).

Finally, we discuss Timo’s future, his qualifying offer of $10 million after 2022-23, and what it would take for him to cash in on that kind of salary (1:19:32).

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