After all the excitement of the day, Doug and I go out to a pre-planned dinner tonight with the wives, and in the bar area of the restaurant, we look over 10 feet away, and there’s Nabby.  We go over, quickly shake his hand, say good luck, that sort of thing, and he was very gracious.  Without thinking, I asked him if he was excited about Heatley coming aboard and he said yes.  So we get to our table, and a few minutes later, a little ways away we notice a big long table set up, and to our surprise, all the Sharks slowly trickle in.  Looks to be a veterans’ dinner before the season starts.  Nabby, Marleau, Joe (in a sweet polo with a popped collar), Boyle, Clowe, Seto, Blake, Huskins, Pavs, Murray, Vlasic, Shelley, Dandenault, Nichol (we think), and one more guy, I think Vesce.  We were trying not to stare at them and make them lose their appetites.  I have to say, San Jose has to be a pretty cool place to play- I think they only got bothered once.  It happened to be during dinner, which I think is pretty cheesy. Let the guys eat.

Oh yeah, one more- Torrey Mitchell.  On crutches.  My wife noticed that he was bearing weight on his leg, so it could just be a precaution for his tendonitis, as David Pollak said on his blog.  Either way, it was a bit disconcerting to see him with a leg injury again.  It was funny though, because he was the last one to arrive, and all the other guys did a slow clap when he showed up.

As I said in the comment thread of the last post, I like the Heatley deal a lot.  Although he’s thoroughly painted with the pain-in-the-ass brush, Heatley has something to prove, and no one can deny he’s an all-world talent.  Now that Michalek is gone, Heatley might get his wish and play in more situations, like the PK.

It’s a bummer we had to see Cheech and Michalek go, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.  Cheech showed again he’s a class act with the comments he made today, and I wish the both of them the best of luck in Canada’s capital.

There will be plenty of time to say that DW has staked his job on Heatley, and how there’s still some uncertainly with this team, but right now, I’m just excited.  Whether it’s Joe-Marleau-Heatley or Joe-Seto-Heatley, the Sharks’ top line will be one of the best in the league. On par with Getzlaf-Ryan-Perry and Datsyuk-Holmstrom-Hank.  Glad to see the guys carbo-loading, not drinking, and taking off early.  Glad to see a great left wing come on board.  Glad to see another DW pillage job.  Glad to see that camp starts tomorrow.

Go Sharks.