The Kings are not embarrassing.  Even after last night, they have 31 points, same as Phoenix, Minnesota, and Colorado, and more than Columbus or Edmonton.  As much as the Kings have been the whipping boy of the West in years past, we are starting to see this team get some things right.  Kopitar has started a bit slow (much to my fantasy team’s chagrin) but he’s picking it up as of late.  Dustin Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan won’t be secrets much longer.  Our resident prognosticator, grier, again called it perfectly last night.  Get your bookie on speed dial, I hope we’ll have more predictions this week from Nostra-Grier.

With three rookies in the lineup last night and a bevy of different line combinations, the Sharks certainly didn’t have the shimmer and polish that we’re used to seeing.  Kaspar played on the top line at times, and we saw Michalek centering the second line.  McGinn and Cavanaugh were also in the lineup, but barely got any ice time- under 5 minutes each.

Speaking of shimmer and polish, clearly I’m used to/spoiled by Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda because it seemed like the Kings announcers didn’t have much.  I guess I’m not used to Bob Miller; it sounded like he was searching for players’ names all night, and seemed to pull out the same stat when mentioning guys again and again.  He must have said Patrick Marleau had 15 (then 16) goals at least five times.  Or maybe I’m just watching the NHL Network’s Voices too much.

The one aspect that was firing on all cylinders last night was special teams- 1 for 1 on the man advantage, and perfect on the kill with a shorty.  I was about to say that if the Sharks commit as many penalties against Columbus and Detroit as they did last night they will be in trouble, but since those special teams units are mostly intact, I say hack away.

Oh yeah, you can find the latest ChompTalk here, including a discussion with Ryan Garner about the idea of bringing Sean Avery to the Sharks.

First off, my lovely wife sang the national anthem at the Sharks/Blues game on Saturday night and it was a highlight of this big kid’s life. The Sharks staff was extremely gracious, allowing us to sit in the penalty box during warm ups and I got the best seat in the house to see our boys up close and personal. I took a ton of pictures, got a smile and got a “what’s up” head nod from my boy Jody Shelley. My wife was awesome, even waited for the “Hey St. Louis, You Suck” to pass by before launching into the anthem. I was so proud of her.

Things remain sunny in Teal Town. The Sharks are the first to 50 points, still undefeated in regulation at home and they continue to show the makings of a Stanley Cup threat…..but as the weather changes here in the Bay Area this week, could the prospects of the Sharks winning streak get rained upon?

The Sharks are entering an uncertain stretch of five games in eight games with Pavelski banged up, Cheechoo’s “injury” status up in the air and J.R. out indefinitely with shoulder surgery. It is quite possible we could see the Sharks drop their first back to back games and it’s not impossible to imagine a reason why the Sharks could lose any one of these five games. LA is average at best, but very tough at home. Columbus gave the Sharks fits last week and Detroit is well, Detroit. We know they are waiting to take their shots after the first meeting and this time on their turf. The Sharks then draw the Rangers, who could be making their first appearance in the Sundin era and top it all off with the Northwest Division leaders, Vancouver. Rough stuff. A challenge. With the injury bug hovering, could the Sharks go sub .500 for the first time in a stretch this season? I think it hangs on Pavelski’s health and effectiveness tonight, if he’s able to go in LA. Without Pavs, the Sharks are turning to Kaspar, Goc and Plihal to be the offensive juggernauts we know they are NOT – and that could spell trouble until Pavs comes back. Let’s hope, as currently reported, he’s able to go tonight.

Sharks win in LA tonight, but it’s not pretty. Sharks 3 Kings 2.

A FEW OTHER NOTES
Early season cast off Lukas Kaspar, who looked good on the 2nd line on Saturday night until he almost lost the game for the Sharks by taking a penalty in the final minute and allowing the Blues to go 6 on 4 at the end of the game, might finally get his shot tonight at playing extended minutes on a scoring line in the NHL. Given he must clear waivers to be sent back down again, is this Kaspar’s last stand?

Are the Sharks really in on Sundin? Um….no. I think not. One irrational, JFK conspiracy side of me thought, for a fleeting moment, that the Sharks are holding Cheechoo out in order to trade him for a pick then use his cap number (3.5M) to sign Sundin. Um…no.

Check out the podcast tomorrow when we have our 2nd guest in Dudes on Hockey history. Tune in to hear who we got!

When the Sharks played Columbus on the 4th, Nabby bailed out the Sharks with a stellar performance.  Last night, the Sharks returned the favor.  I though Nabby looked off against the Blues and it happens- you can’t have your A game every single start.  I though Boyes’ goal and Winchester’s second were both of the weak variety, and Nabby made at least a couple of ill-advised long passes into the neutral zone.  So be it.

This time, Marleau answered the call with an All-World play to give the Sharks the lead late in the 3rd.  Imagine you’re skating hard to a loose puck, it gets caught in your skates, but you have a breakaway.  And you overskate it.  And you have 17,000+ people watching.  And you have two 200-lb guys skating hard to pound you into the end boards.  What does Patty do?  Stops, gathers the puck behind him on his backhand, waits for Chris Mason to go down, and then roofs it.  Amazing composure and skill, just unbelievable.

As I’ve said before, Sharks opponents are getting up for the league’s best, and the Blues did their best to be the first team to unseat the Sharks at home in regulation.  And again, the Sharks wouldn’t let it happen.  Drink it in, Sharks fans.  This is certainly the best I’ve ever seen them play, and I’m with Randy Hahn– it’s ok to enjoy it.

In other news, be sure to tune in to ChompTalk tonight at 9pm at 1220kdow.com– we are giving away 12-week skating lessons to the winners of a Sharks trivia contest.  The number to call is 1-800-516-1220.

I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when the Sharks finally closed out last nights game 2-0 against the Ducks.  This was shortly after a sigh of disbelief when Grier missed an empty net from about 20 feet out.  Please tell me the puck was rolling.  But I digress.

The game certainly seemed a bit slower than most Sharks affairs.  I think the Ducks were largely successful in keeping the common Sharks break-in from happening.  That is, the center skates it into the zone, kicks it out to the wing and drives the net.  The winger puts it on net and the center is right there to try and bang the rebound home.  Seems like the Sharks do this 5-10 times a game at least, and they sure tried it last night, but I can’t remember a single time when it was anywhere close to successful.

But it was a testy matchup between two good teams, one I hope to see again in the playoffs.  I really need to start TiVoing all the games, even the ones I go to, because I didn’t get a good look at the JR near-boarding or really what started the scrums.  Please enlighten me in the comments.

The reason I need that is this- what I see on the Mercury News home page this morning:

Yeah.  Jack squat.  I don’t blame David Pollak or Mark Emmons, who do a great job, but c’mon, “SAN JOSE” NEWSPAPER.  It’s not like I’m looking for Sharks coverage in the Tuscaloosa Times here.

The pole position is here. Grudge match 2008 is on tonight, with the Ducks I’m sure wanting to make a major statement and the Sharks steadfastly defending their ground as Top Water Dwelling Animal in the Pacific Division. Could the reason why the Sharks have been a little slow the last two games be that they’ve been looking forward to tonight? Probably not…but it’s an interesting thought. I am hopeful that Lukowich is in the line up tonight, I think if he is physically able, he will lace them up. The trade off of Luko for Frank-N-Beans could be fatal for the Sharks. Can we keep it real for a second here. Check this out.

Sharks record with Semenov in the line up. 5-2-2
Sharks record with Frankenstein back in the laboratory 16-1-0

So Semenov has been on the ice for four of the Sharks five losses? WOW.

Other keys tonight will be the Sharks sticking to their guns and not getting caught up in the Ducks bullying and defending against their kryptonite, the low cycle. The Sharks should win, but I have no illusions that it will be easy. I smell overtime.

In other NHL news, I thought I might take a quick stab at predicting a trade here, since I’m on a roll. I watched Ottawa play Chicago last night and the Senators looked listless and the blueline is a shambles. They have no one to initiate offense and its their top line against the world. Who could solve this mess for them? Well, how about Jay Bouwmeester? They could offer Florida, who has the 2nd worst offensive in the NHL with only 67 goals, a genuine top flight center in Jason Spezza. So, here’s how I would outline this deal.

To Ottawa: Jay Bouwmeester (without extension, 1 year 4.9M) and Stephen Weiss (5 years, 3.1M)
To Florida: Jason Spezza (7 years, 7M) and Alexander Picard (two years, 800k)

The money lines up and it solves both teams problems. Is it a gamble for Ottawa? Sure, if Bouwmeester leaves – but then they have more cap room to pursue someone else. We’ll see…

New podcast here.

The dudes bust out their interview skills for the first time this week with guest Earl Sleek from Battle of California.  With Earl, they look in-depth at the upcoming Sharks-Ducks matchup, whether there’s a goalie controversy in Anaheim, and other topics.  Mike and Doug also, as always, recap the games of the past week, take listener questions, and touch on the big NHL news of the day.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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New podcast here.  I don’t know about you, but ever since the Sharks lost 4-0 to the Ducks in October, I’ve been looking forward to Thursday’s game.  Sharks-Ducks has had a real playoff feel at the Tank for a number of years now, and I expect the same tomorrow night.  And in honor of the occasion, we had Earl Sleek from Battle of California as our first guest ever on the podcast this week, so check it out.  BoC has relocated to the new Borg of hockey blogging, SBN.  The Sharks blog over there is Fear the Fin, also worth checking out when you get a chance.

To me, this was the highlight of the ChompTalk radio show this past week- the interview with Jamie Baker.  And I believe this was the highlight of the interview (all transcription errors mine):

ChompTalk: What’s going on with Jonathan Cheechoo?

Jamie Baker: With Cheech- he’s won the Rocket Richard, but he won that the first year out of the lockout.  I think the game has gotten faster every single year. And he’s not – his skating, if he’s got one weakness in his game, and I’m not saying it’s like a glaring weakness, but he’s not the best skater out there.  And you can’t afford to be a half step behind one way or the other, whether it be on the forecheck or on the backcheck.

So they started Clowe on the top line at the beginning of the year, and then they put Setoguchi there, and why is Setoguchi a better fit on the top line?  He’s faster than Clowe. Clowe is a much better fit on the second line, because that line plays a different type of style- Pavelski’s more hockey sense, you got Michalek in force, and Clowe almost plays the power forward, which is what Joe plays on the top line.

So where does Cheech fit in the top 6?  Stop looking at his numbers – Cheechoo – and creating expectations saying where is he going to provide value on this hockey team. What ingredient – and Todd McLellan talked about that a lot in the beginning of the year – what ingredient is he going to be?  And I think Cheechoo has to come back and not think about the numbers, and think about his role on this team.  Is he going to be a third line player?  Is he going to be a fourth line player? Or is he going to be a second or first line player?

If you’re not a first or second, which right now, those two lines, that’s taken.  So find out what your role’s going to be and if you chip in (on the scoresheet), great, and if you don’t, what are you doing? Are you drawing penalties? Are you creating chances?  Are you getting in the kitchen of the players on the other team? Are you playing strong defensive hockey?  Are you finishing your checks? You know there’s all these other things that you can do.  And that’s what I think is going to define how Jonathan Cheechoo plays on this hockey team.  Not getting caught up in the numbers. He’s now living with the big numbers he put up the first year or two after the lockout.  And I think the game has changed since then.

Full audio here.  If you want to go glass half-empty, you could say this means the halcyon days of Cheech are past, and now he’s just a guy with good hands.  Either way, I think the prescription is right on- Cheech just needs to shake off the mantle of the Richard, which has now become a yoke.  Play the high-intensity game that we know Cheech can play, and that will only help the squad.  If he “does the little things right” (and I hate that expression) on the 3rd line and the other team forgets about him and leaves him alone in the high slot, he could start scoring in bunches again.

If you’ve listened to our podcast or read our post about the Boyle trade, you know that we are really high on Nick Petrecki, a Sharks first round pick in 2007 and currently playing for Boston College.  Sharkspage just had a post by Max Giese on Petrecki and other Sharks prospects in Boston, and the more I read about this guy, the more excited I get.

Quotes:

Clearly ahead of his peers from a physical standpoint, as he’s that rare combination of exceptional strength, size, and mobility on the back end .. what stands out most about Nick is his intensity and unrelenting mean streak.

This from an anonymous NHL scout:

He’s a man child. He should be playing in the pro’s right now and might go straight into the NHL next year. You have to see this kid live to appreciate the power he has on the ice. He is so much stronger than everyone else and gets too many penalties because of it.

My heart is almost aflutter.  Read the whole post, it’s worth it.  I can’t wait to see how Petrecki does in Worchester, and if he continues to improve his decision making, we might very well see him at the Tank in ’09-’10.  Barring some major setbacks, I’d put money on him being in the lineup in ’10-’11 for sure.

The bad news is beyond Petrecki, there’s not a whole lot to be excited about on the defensive front in the Sharks system.  But with Boyle, Vlasic, Ehrhoff and Murray all signed for three years or more, that may not be as big of a vulnerability as it could be.  We’ve seen this year that middle-tier defensemen are available (Malik, Montador, Klee, McLaren, the list goes on), and if that trend continues, the blueline will continue to be a major strength for the Sharks.  Puck movers are now at a premium, but with Boyle, Ehrhoff, and now the emerging Vlasic showing great ability in that department, the Sharks could be able to fill out the blueline with judicious free agency pickups.

I was disappointed last night.

Not in the Sharks effort last night. Actually, I thought they played pretty good. Not their best effort, but certainly better than Thursday night against Columbus. They ran into that buzzsaw, the mighty Roloson – who has stolen his fair share of games from the Sharks in the past. The Sharks dominated play for the majority of the night, spraying 43 shots at RoLo and he made some spectacular saves.

No, I was disappointed in the fans. Yes, my beloved people in Teal last night were in poor form. Not all, mind you – but enough fans were behaving badly to turn me off. Last night, during a poor looking power play (we did go one for four with the man advantage), I was shocked to hear boos coming from the Tank. BOOS???? We are booing the best team in the NHL. The team that STILL has NOT LOST A REGULATION GAME AT HOME. A team that is the only form of redeeming professional sports entertainment in the Bay Area and they got BOOED. It really made me mad. To those fans I say, go home. Stuff it. Check out a Golden State Warriors game. This isn’t last years Sharks that struggled for long stretches and didn’t score on power play after power play. This team is a winner and certainly didn’t deserve the boos.

With the score tied 2-2, some fans behind us bemoaned all the Sharks problems, like this was a .500 team struggling to find its identity. Have we been spoiled by this amazing start? Has this turned the Sharks faithful sour? I certainly hope not. This team is going to hit a few bumps and bruises along the way and if the Sharks fan base is going to react like last night, booing and whistling a poor powerplay….it’s disappointing. Edmonton seems to bring out the worst behavior in us.

So trade them all. Blow it up. We suck….come on.