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Ron Wilson had better have been sincere when he insisted all week that his homecoming was no big deal.

Otherwise, the Toronto Maple Leafs coach's first game back in the home of the team that fired him last May will linger for a long, long time.

The San Jose Sharks blitzed the Maple Leafs right from the opening faceoff at HP Pavilion on Tuesday night, running away with a 5-2 win. It kept them undefeated in regulation time on home ice this season with a record of 13-0-1 at the Shark Tank.

Most of the damage was done by centre Joe Thornton, who had been bantering via text message all week with his old coach. He had a hand in all four first-period goals, scoring a goal and three assists.

"I got a text from Joe Thornton and he asked me if I was worried," Wilson said earlier this week, adding that he told Thornton he was the one who should be worried.

After the game, Thornton said he "thought the game was over after the first period."

Wilson admitted as much, too.

"Our best players just got completely outplayed by theirs, especially in the first period," he said. "[The Sharks] come at you really fast. We expected it but we weren't prepared for it.

"It was one of those games where you wave the white towel like a boxing match."

The best-players reference was to the Leafs' line of centre Matt Stajan and wingers Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky. They were no match for Thornton and his wingers, Devin Setoguchi and Patrick Marleau. The Leafs unit finished the game a collective minus-9.

The Leafs will find out Wednesday what losing so badly in his first game back in San Jose means to Wilson. They had a day off planned in Phoenix since they had to play back-to-back games to open the trip.

Wilson said he had not made up his mind about the day off, although he continued to insist the game was not an emotional milestone for him.

"It's one game and I've coached 11-hundred-whatever games," he said. "Sure, you'd like to do better but what are you going to do?"

It was also a tough night for another Leaf with connections to the Sharks, goaltender Vesa Toskala. He went into the game on the strength of three strong outings after a slow start to the season.

However, Toskala got the evening off to a bad start when he let in a soft goal by Sharks forward Devin Setoguchi in the second minute, and things unravelled from there.

Thornton, Dan Boyle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored before the end of the first period as the Sharks manhandled the Leafs all over the ice. Toskala played a little better as the game went on but he had to cope with large bodies in front of his crease all evening.

Joe Pavelski scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to complete the rout.

The Leafs' only goal came midway through the second period when rookie forward Nikolai Kulemin scored on a rebound.

Another unhappy onlooker was new Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke. He joined the western road trip a bit late because of travel problems and may have wished he stayed back east.

The Leafs finish their road trip on Thursday night against the Phoenix Coyotes and return home to meet the Washington Capitals.