More Pain
May 23rd, 2010, 3:08 pm
Series over. Sharks manage to blow the third lead in four games, this time a two goal lead. The only benefit is I no longer have to spend $150 to see the Sharks on Tuesday. The unassailable truth- the better team won. The big question- what do the Sharks do now? That will be the focus of the season ending edition of ChompTalk- tonight at 9pm PDT on 1200AM KDOW. Please call us at 1-800-516-1220 and weigh in. Or email if you are too shy to call us. At this point, I want to hear every cockamamie idea you might have.
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Sucks. But Im not as bummed as last year or as in 06 and 07. They played well all playoffs and beat a really good Detroit team.
Sharks didn’t choke. And I think if anyone tries to claim they did, then I question their intelligence.
Weakest link though, and I’m really not blaming him; Nabby. Soft goals all series. I don’t think he earned his salary. And at that cap hit I think he is done as a Shark. The cap space is needed elsewhere.
Marleau must be resigned. He is in his prime and Has been great. I think he was injured to start the PO’s and as soon as he got to 90+% we saw the offense come around.
Heatley better be injured. That’s all I can say. I’d be shocked if he isn’t.
Jumbo had great stretches but at 7.5 per… I’m questioning that cap hit too…??
Blake… Toss up. I think he retires. But I’d take him back for another serious salary drop.
Seto and Pavs must be resigned but at reasonable amounts.
Wallin… Um no thanks. Huskins… Played pretty well I think keep him.
Damn I’m glad Dan Boyle isn’t going anywhere.
Malhotra was a bit of a disappointment this PO’s…?!? Not really sure about him.
Tough calls for DW because they played just well enough that you could really go either way with this team. A rebuild/overhaul or simple tweaking could each be just as likely. Honestly I’d be fine with either one.
I’m excited about guys like Couture, Stalock, Petrecki, McGinn… etc.
Apparently Heaters was playing with a groin injury which I can’t imagine skating though that.
I think Marleau has to come back with a pay cut in order to do the other things that need to be done and that’s what worries me because I would miss Marleau in teal. It would pain me to see Nabby go because he has been here for so long but I really feel in order for us to take the next step we need to go in another direction although its tough to say if Griess or Stalock is ready to carry the load.
The most important thing is bolster the blue line, how to do that I have no idea.
The question is: with the contracts we have on the books and the guys we need to resign, can we skate a team next year that is BETTER than this year, at least good enough to beat the Hawks? Not a chance. This core group has had 2-3 seasons to prove that they are the class of the league. It’s time to take a few seasons to rebuild. That starts with my man DW. He had his chance, and he did an admirable job, but he couldn’t finish the job. Doug and Mike said just before we signed Heatley that the GM who went after him was pushing all his chips in. DW did, and he got rivered.
If Nabby is back next year we can expect the same thing in the playoffs (if we even get in). Too many soft goals, gaping 5 hole, gets outclassed by younger, less experienced goaltenders (Hiller, Anderson, Howard, Niemi). Is Stalock or Sexsmith our Howard? Is Griess our Craig Anderson? I think it’s time we find out.
I don’t think the Sharks choked, but I do think they blew their wad in the Detroit series. Chicago was the better team, no doubt, but the Sharks should have found a way to take at least two in this series. So disappointing.
Well, I agree that Nabby is done as a shark. DW (who I seriously doubt will be fired) has seen to many young, cheap goaltenders give his team fits in the playoffs to not give Stalock and Greiss a chance next year.
Blake… He came back good in the second half, but he is a #5 dman.
Biggest thing for me? Trade Doug Murray. He is incredibly overvalued right now, and was exposed by the best teams. Those are the only teams left in the playoffs.
Marleau will get resigned, book it. Seto, after another playoff flameout and injury riddled season, will come back at a huge discount. I hate to say it, but some team like Atlanta or the Islanders is gonna offer Pavs a 3yr/17mil contract. At that price, you have to let him walk or else he becomes the new Chris Drury.
So sad, which is odd because I thougth I’d be mad if they didn’t make the finals. Problem was, this was pretty much the finals. The Sharks were one of the top 2 teams this year. It wasn’t good enough.
Good team, got past the Wings, ran into the better Hawks and a solid Niemi.
Blow the team up. No Nabby, no Marleau, get prospects for Thorton and/or Heatley. Anchor around Pavs, Seto, and Boyle. It was good to see some rookies get playoff points and experience,. Fans will have to deal with a couple seasons of mediocrity but other good teams will have serious cap pain this offseason and we need to parallel the Hawks by going young and fast. Better than trying for a 5th straight 100+ point season and not seeing a Cup Finals.
There was a time I thought this was a bad idea. I still don’t think its the ideal route, as Pavs is only a 60 point player who got hot for 2-3 weeks and Seto hasn’t shown much without Thornton.
But… something always seems to happen with this core. Last year Patty was hurt. This year Heatley was hurt. Thornton always “plays well” but it doesn’t show on the scoreboard (with the exception of Detroit this year). Boyle, for all his heart and fire, was very quiet for the most part.
Like I said, not the approach I would take, and I would be sad if they did it, but I guess its not really out of the question.
This was a gutting defeat – on the one hand, not as bad as previous years, but on the other, after the og, the exorcism and the mashing of Detroit, I was really starting to believe.
I agree with pretty much everything everyone above has said, but I think the series came down to:
– 2 men: Byfuglien & Nabokov – Byfuglien won games 1, 3 & 4 when they had gone to the wire all square & Nabby let the air out in game 2 when the Sharks were on top.
– I think the Hawks had all the luck & most of the calls (particularly yesterday when the Sharks had their 2 goal lead: the goal after the whistle, the puck off the crossbar & Niemi’s back and then the 3 pps from weak calls).
– The roll the Hawks were on coming straight down from Vancouver in ‘Battle mode’ compared to the Shark’s 8 day ‘aren’t we great, we just beat Detroit’ layoff was a major factor.
Where to go from here? – No need to blow it up – we could have seen a very different result with a change in any of these factors. (+ If the Pred’s hadn’t blown their pp, we could have been looking at a very different road to the finals, or if Heatley was fit, we may have had a sniper to win those 3 games at the wire)
– I don’t really think Nabby is to blame, as he made some very good saves throughout (it was just that lapse in game 2 was a momentum changer), but if cap space needs to be found, then I say give Stalock a chance (Hiller, Niemi, Halak, Boucher – who would have picked any of these guys at their cap hits to steal playoff series?).
– Marleau with a 40 goal season and 5 goals in this series needs to be kept.
– Blake needs to give up the captaincy & either retire or play a JResque role at low salary on the bottom pairing but being a locker room presence (and giving the Dude’s another season of a sound effect)
Will take a while to gt over this dissapointment – now I just need to convince my wife and 8 month old baby to let me get on the plane to Stockholm…
“(Hiller, Niemi, Halak, Boucher – who would have picked any of these guys at their cap hits to steal playoff series?).”
I was all over Hiller and Bryzgalov for Anaheim, letting Bryzgalov go for nothing was a disaster. Hiller is large, technically sound and with Niedermayer and Pronger in front of him, very tough. Giguere may be good for Toronto, but there has to be a time to cut bait with a veteran overpriced goalie (ahem). Anaheim went in the wrong direction. Halak, saw him in the ECHL, and to be honest at the time I thought the other goalie was going to advance farther. I think his name was Michaud, now he is playing in a beer league I think. Oops.
Boucher, look at his stretch earlier in that season, something around 12-1-1, with gaudy GAA and SV%. Then he sat on the bench for all but a couple games the rest of the year. Major failure by San Jose. Keep him in the lineup intermittently, and give Nabokov a 3 goal limit in the postseason. Check out his playoff history and that seems like the threshold between good Nabby and bad Nabby. Instead Nabokov was used excusively with no plan B. It didn’t work.
Marleau can honestly write his own contract for another team, but look at the wild criticism he received at the deadline 2 years ago, and last year after the playoffs. Many Canadian or East coast reporters didnt even mention the fact he suffered his first major knee injury and looked about 60% against Anaheim. San Jose is the perfect situation for him, and it remains to be seen if he will take less than market value to stay here a la Thornton, Blake, Selanne, Malhotra, etc…
If I am Doug Wilson, I sit down with Marleau and Nabokov and stress that they are still large pieces of this club, but the failure to get it done for this many seasons means they are going to have to take a pay cut to stay here. Not strictly based on performance or results, although that is a part, but also to keep all of the pieces together. Pavelski and Setoguchi are a similar track as RFA’s. Remenda made the point that an early season injury and the 3 week Olympic layoff rejuvinated Blake. Either he retires, or he does a Niedermayer/Selanne half-retirement, but not sure if a full season is an option.
Free agency has to address the needs of the defense. Too much was lost over last year. Pair Boyle with Vlasic, and bring in a mobile puck moving dman to pair with Murray on second line. Demers and Huskins might be good for the third pair, Huskins looked better than he has all year in the last 2 rounds. Have to take another hard look at third and fourth lines after this year too.
I agree with a lot of this, PJ. I guess my only disagreement is that I don’t think Nabby is going to be given a chance to come back (I think he going to be Grier’ed out).
I’m betting Marleau signs for 4 years/22million. He has to know that he will be scrutinized anywhere else he goes if he signs a big contract. SJ loves him, he loves SJ.
Ill say it again, I think it is only 50/50 Pavs is on the team next year. What do you think, Dudes? Will some team have the balls to swoop in and sign Pavs to a contract, something like 3 years/16 million? I think some team will, and the Sharks absolutely should not match, Big Pavelski be damned.