The Sharks held a brief ceremony on Thursday honoring captain Joe Thornton for reaching the 1,000-game milestone Oct. 21 in San Jose’s 3-2 overtime victory in New Jersey.

Thornton received a strange gift: An authentic woolly mammoth tusk given to him by his teammates.

Also, according to the Twitter feed of former Sharks player and current broadcaster Jamie Baker, Thornton’s wife marked the milestone by giving Thornton a Doors album signed by the entire band.

Penguins left wing Matt Cooke might have vowed to clean up his act and in the process shed his reputation as one of the NHL’s premier cheap-shot artists, but the Sharks were still expecting a physical game from him. “He still hits hard,” Marleau said. “He’s still going to make those clean hits, and you still have to be ready whether or not someone says they’ve turned over a new leaf.” Cooke was suspended 10 games and the first round of the 2011 playoffs after elbowing New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh in the head on March 20. It was Cooke’s fifth career suspension — and that doesn’t even factor in his unpunished blindside hit that has kept Boston center Marc Savard out of action since May 2010. That last suspension led to some serious self-evaluation, Cooke said Thursday. “Obviously the league is going in a different direction than it was 15 years ago, and I want to make my career last as long as I can,” he said. “The way that I was going, who knows how long that was going to be.” Cooke said he has changed his basic approach to each game. “I approached the game to try and go out there and get the biggest hit possible every time I was near the puck,” he said, “and now I don’t play that way.”