Episode 78 – Holiday Report Card With EJ Hradek
December 15th, 2009, 11:00 pm
EJ Hradek from ESPN.com joins the Dudes once again for his takes on the Sharks. EJ muses about the Sharks needing another defenseman, what losing Dan Boyle might have meant to the team, and whether the Sharks will/should sign Nabby and Marleau. All that and more, including listener emails.
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Good podcast, liked the Hradek interview.
One correction: Demers only makes 550k a year.
rofl “AHHHHHH DEVIN SETOGUCHI!!!!!!!!!”
nice job guys.
Dudes –
Good podcast.
Here is my follow up on Fetisov’s return since you asked in the podcast. There were two reasons for that. First, CSKA had too many d-men injured last week at one point and Fetisov (who’s a President of CSKA) was talking to head coach about what to do when coach suggested, hey, let’s dress you up, and they thought why not. Fetisov has been skating and playing amateur hockey since retirement, so he’s in shape, well, by 50 year old man standards. A bigger reason though is the PR aspect. There is no bigger hockey legend in Russia than Fetisov. His comeback generated as much publicity in the news there as Tiger Woods here recently, although for much better reasons. Everyone talked about it, even non sports media outlets and the whole country tuned in to watch the legend play once again. Imagine TV ratings in Canada if Gretzky was to play one more game for the Oilers. Since Russia didn’t make the World Cup in soccer, people who run hockey are using that as a chance to let hockey overtake soccer and become no. 1 sport that it was back in the 70s-80s and there is no better time than do it than this winter, with soccer down and especially if Russia wins golds at the Olympics.
So that’s all it was – a big publicity/PR move.
I watched part of the game. Fetisov played 6 or 7 minutes – so almost nothing, but did not look out of place and his positioning is still superb, but like I said, the whole country was tuned in to watch that historical game. Fetisov said he was the happiest man alive to play another game, but that’s it – he’s not coming back again.
I hope that helps.
PS – I do think that even in his 50 year old shape Fetisov could still do better than Huskins or Joslin on our blue line.
Thanks Ivan. Good info. And I would give Fetisov a hard look if he decided to come to camp next year :-).
Good work Dudes.
Do you guys agree with Hradek that both Nabby and Marleau will both come back? Particularly Hradek’s feelings that Nabby is more likely? It seems to me that if the Sharks don’t come very close to winning it all this year, Wilson is going to close the window for a year or two as far as letting his young guys develop to make the core for the next Sharks Cup worthy team. That would mean Nabby for sure is out, and I would say Marleau only comes back if he signs for less than $5.5mil/yr.
On the other hand, if the Sharks do win it all, Nabby’s value goes way up and likely prices him out. Really, the only way I see him staying is if the Sharks make the Cup Finals, Nabby plays brilliant, but the Sharks still lose. Then maybe Wilson takes just one more stab at it.
Just some interesting tidbits from browsing San Jose’s behindthenet stats:
Brad Staubitz is the Shark’s most protected forward (lowest quality of competition faced) yet is still on the ice for more goals against than for.
Ferriero should be on this team. He was great defensively and at least average offensively. All while facing better competition than Marleau, Boyle, or Douglas Murray.
Kent Huskins has the best +/- per 60 minutes out of all Dmen.
Torrey Mitchell has been AMAZING defensively since coming back, he is only on the ice for .93 goals against per 60 minutes. Scot Nichol, incredibly, is actual pretty bad defensively, being on the ice for 2.81 goals against per 60 despite playing a lot with defensive wizard Malhotra. In fact, Scot Nichol has arguably been the worst Shark statistically thus far. However, I’m willing to give him a pass as he is the rare person that actually brings legitimate intangibles to a game (hustle, hitting, drawing penalties)
And my favorite: Frazer Mclaren has been on the ice for 5 Sharks goals, and on the ice for only 1 opposition goal. According to the stats, a line of Mclaren-Malhotra-Mitchell should be out there when the Sharks need to protect a 1 goal lead. Kid deserves more PT, especially over a Staubitz or Shelly.
Ruben,
I still believe Nabby won’t be back. However, given rumors about other goalies being available, like Vokoun, Giguere, and others, it’s possible the Sharks could keep him for less than the GDP of Brazil.
And it’s nice to see more behindthenet watchers. I agree with you about Nichol- it’s dismaying to see his numbers so bad, but the willingness to lay in the crease for as long as it takes buys him a pass in my book.
[…] The latest Dudes on Hockey podcast features the return of ESPN analyst E.J. Hradek. Mike and Doug called Dan Boyle’s potentially […]