GAME NOTES – WILD 3 SHARKS 2
I couldn’t resist the title – but why is it so true?? Watching the overtime period in the Sharks 3-2 loss to the Wild tonight, it was obvious that Minnesota was just toying with the puck and begging for a shootout so the Sharks could implode….AGAIN. Not sure on the stats, but I’m guessing the Sharks must be 1-7 in the shootout this year.

Typical Sharks. A huge road win in Anahiem needed to be followed up by a win against a reeling Wild club – and they could not get it done. Now we sit seven points behind the Oilers. Am I the only one who fears the Sharks just won’t make the climb??

GM’s OFFICE
Doug Wilson should deal for two veteran defensemen……wait, isn’t that what the Oilers just acquired in Spacek and Tarnstrom. Where was Doug Wilson when the Blackhawks were giving away Spacek for peanuts? Patrick Marleau also deserves to have a RW that can put the puck in the net. Without that RW/LW sniper, opponents key on the Thornton line and don’t have to worry about anyone else beating them. I’m tired of Niko. Owen Nolan anyone???

PICK OF THE DAY
CAROLINA HURRICANS at NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Carolina is banged up, with four starting D on the injury report (Tverdovsky, Ward, Commodore and Wesley) All might play – but they are hurting.
Carolina has a five game winning streak – but all games vs. non playoff teams
Devils are coming off a big home win vs. Ottawa
Devils are 6-0 at home in 2006.
Carolina won big in NJ earlier in the year…..Devils will want revenge.

PLAY: NEW JERSEY – 125

The Sharks won last night against Anaheim, 6-4. The game wasn’t televised, so I couldn’t even TiVo it. I think it was on the radio, but I had a hockey game of my own, and there isn’t really a TiVo for radio. Well, there is, but I’m not that hardcore. Kind of eerie that it’s called the radio SHARK.

But I digress. Cheechoo had a hat trick, his second against Anaheim this season. To continue the thread I was talking about recently, The Sharks committed 10 penalties, and 2 in the last 10 minutes. The Ducks had 8, with one in the last 10 minutes. Found some cool stuff on NHL.com. The interface is kind of clunky, but you can get much more information than on ESPN.com. I like the ESPN box scores much better though. Anyway, the Sharks have been shorthanded 253 times this season, the 2nd least. Only the Devils have been shorthanded fewer times. I say that’s definitely a testament to the Sharks discipline. Perhaps my recent observation that the Sharks commit to many late penalties is just me being frustrated about bad losses. Can’t generate a report that breaks down the penalties by period yet.

Found two more tricky highlight-reel goals, not on youtube:

• Some crazy razzle-dazzle skills competition goal. Fun times, could never happen in a game.
• Mike Legg-esque scoop goal in the minors. Cool thing about this one is the guy never had time to set it up- he did it while he was skating.

First of all, let me say initially that I only saw the third period of this game. The Sharks seemed to be playing very listlessly the entire period, and managed to commit three penalties in the final 10 minutes, one of them giving up at 5-on-3 for 40 seconds. If I remember correctly from the telecast, the Sharks have given up 11 2-man advantage goals this season. That’s a lot.

The Sharks have a terrible penalty kill, currently 26th out of 30 teams. To commit that many penalties late in the game against a division leader on the road is just stupid. I hope Ron Wilson is cracking some heads, because those are unacceptable mental errors. Looking back over the last few games, I see they committed 3 penalties in the last 10 minutes against Phoenix as well. The first of those resulting in a Coyotes’ power play goal to make the game 5-1, putting the game effectively out of reach. The Sharks also had two penalties in the last 10 minutes in the win against the Kings last week, when the game was only 3-1.

I wish I had access to a full NHL stats database so I could compare the Sharks against all the other teams this season in this regard, but I can’t, and it would take forever to page through all the box scores. Any ideas?