Sharks #1 on ESPN, but play like Number Two.
January 18th, 2008, 9:24 am
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Sharks are number one in the ESPN power rankings. I should be happy that the Sharks are getting some credit, recognized as the top team in the NHL….wait. I just threw up a little bit in my mouth. The Sharks have flip/flopped back to their Evil Dr. Hyde ways. Marleau looked terrible again last night, getting totally burned on the back check. He is now -18 for the season, the worst +/- rating in the league, tied with that NHL mainstay Steve McCarthy of the Thrashers. Marleau has the worst +/- in the league. I just wanted to say that again in case you missed it. He is virtually untradeable now, unless Doug Wilson sends Mike Ricci to slip another GM some crazy pills. Maybe that is what Marchment’s front office job is – to kick Don Waddell painfully in the nuts until he agrees to trade us Marian Hossa for Marcel Goc and a 7th rounder. You can stop calling for Patty’s head – we are stuck with him until he figures this out. With his high salary and lack of production, the return for San Jose would likely be nothing or we would have to take someone else’s problem in the deal – example, Jason Blake from Toronto. More on this later.
With McLaren out, the Sharks are forced to play Frankenov – and Ron Wilson was so disgusted that he only ran him out there for nine minutes last night. I’m begging you – no more Semenov. Call up Joslin or Spang or Brennan Evans. Bring Danny Markov over from Russia. Bring Doug Bodger out of retirement. Anything but Frankenstein please. If McLaren’s injury is going to be nagging for the rest of the season, the Sharks have a serious problem since they have lost all confidence in Ozo.
Does this sound like a #1 team to you still ESPN? Perhaps you don’t watch enough Versus or Fox Sports. Check out the NHL Network, if you can find it.
Back to Jason Blake, who the Leafs are rumored to be shopping around. If Toronto was willing to swap our problem (Marleau) for theirs (Blake) in a larger package that brought them some youth (take your pick from our roster) and brought us some veteran talent (Kaberle, Tucker, McCabe, or Sundin), would you be willing to take on Blake until 2012 with leukemia? I’m tempted to say yes. The dude has cancer and he plays every night. He’s on pace for his career average numbers, discounting last years contract season. He is a + 4 on a bad team. Isn’t that better than Marleau right now?
I’m sure Detroit is salivating at the chance to play the Sharks, who they have beaten five times in a row and held the Sharks to a season low 11 shots on goal last meeting. With the Sharks reeling again – the odds of them turning it around against Detroit are tough – but with this team, whenever I count them out, Dr Jekyll appears and gets a win. They are flirting with disaster. The Sharks are four points away from being the #8 seed.
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For the record, Michael Nylander is officially last (-19), but he hurt his shoulder a few days back and is out for the season. Not fair, he doesn’t have a chance to get better or worse.
I was a firm patty supporter through all of this until i learned about the +/- and ever since I just sulk when i see people call him out.
I really wish espn would never rank SJ #1 ever again. Every time it happens, the sharks go on significant losing streaks.
Despite everything that Marleau has gone through I am sure there are teams that would take him. The problem is the Sharks wouldn’t get much value for him.
The nightmare scenario happened for the Sharks (and Marleau, I suppose): sign a guy with consistent and improving numbers to a long-term deal, and then immediately watch his game get flushed into a hurricane vortex of Suck.
If the Sharks can get someone to take his contract, or the majority of it, at this point I say do it. They’re not winning the Cup this year–any teams they meet in Big Games, division or conference rivals, they lose to. In the off-season, maybe they can try to land Hossa or something.
Hurricane vortex of Suck……I like it.
Since the Sharks are well under the cap, Ian, I don’t agree with you. They are not in a position where they have to dump salary. Should he be playing on the 2nd line? No. I think he deserves a press box vacation. I would do one or more of the following things.
1. Find value and trade him.
2. Stick him in the press box and communicate that we expect him to improve and carry some weight for a change.
3. Strip the C, give it to Rivet, and stick him on the 4th line where he has to fight for playing time just like everybody else.
I’m not saying dump him for salary-cap reasons. I’m saying dump him because we’re paying him top-line money for 3rd-line output. He’s still getting time on the first PP, for some reason. He can’t play his way out of this, or if he can, it’s going to take too long for this team. Let him work it out somewhere else, and give his ice time to a youngster, who at least will learn and won’t cause a rift in the team when his play warrants a benching.