San Jose Sharks’ center Joe Thornton has been suspended for Game 4 of their first round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Department of Player Safety officially announced.

Thornton, 39, was hit with the suspension for his illegal check to the head of Vegas forward Tomas Nosek.

“I honestly thought I barely touched him” Thornton said of the incident, according to The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka. “He just came right back; it was just one of those plays that it is what it is. I think my son hits me like that six times a day, it’s just a weird position to put himself in. That’s all.”

San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson is still dealing with the recent trade that sent him from the Ottawa Senators to San Jose, and feels that even if he had accepted the Sens’ contract offer, they would have still traded him.

“I don’t think it ever got to the point where I had an option to sign anything,” Karlsson said, during an interview with Sportsnet’s Christine Simpson. “It never even got close to that, and even if I would have signed, they probably would have traded me anyways, and I would have been somewhere else.”

“They had me traded in February already at the (trade) deadline,” Karlsson continued. “We were told we were pretty much gone, and that was very tough to hear.”

Karlsson said that Senators general manager Pierre Dorion informed him that a trade was imminent just before the start of training camp.

“(He) called me in the morning and told me not to come into camp (on) the first day, and that’s when I probably realized that it was going to go down pretty quickly.”

San Jose Sharks star Joe Thornton, who is coming off his second straight season with a major knee injury, is confident that he will be back to 100% this season for San Jose, and is feeling pretty good as the 2018-2019 regular season is on the horizon.

“I feel good” Thornton admitted, according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.

“I know my birth certificate says 39, but I think not playing a full 82 games and playoffs last year, my body feels really, really good and I feel healthy. It’s kind of like a lockout year for myself, you get time to refocus and finally train a little bit and go again. I’m real excited for the year… I think when I’m out there I dictate the play. It doesn’t matter who I play against, I usually dictate the play. I’ve had that criticism for 22 years. I think I’ve kept up pretty good.”

Thornton will have to show he still has it after tearing the MCL and ACL ligaments in his right knee last season, after doing so in his left knee in the 2016-2017 season.