DOH 221 – Best Start Ever
January 31st, 2013, 1:21 pm
The Sharks are off to the best start in franchise history, but not without some close escapes against the Ducks and Coyotes. Mike and Doug talk about all the games, the Landeskog hit by Stuart, the Sharks ownership change, and Gomez’s start as a Shark.
In other news, here’s a computer wallpaper for the rest of the season. Thanks Doug’s daughter (with help from Bryce)!
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Both Marleau penalties in the Ducks game were so, so weak. Also, in OT, Perry clearly put himself offside by skating in backwards over the blueline. Not called, and led to a long, sustained pressure by the Ducks. The officiating has been rough so far this year.
Haven’t listened to the pod yet, but I thought the Stuart hit was clean, Gomez looks good, and the ownership change is a bummer.
I don’t remember the Perry situation, but in the rulebook:
“However, a player actually controlling the puck who shall cross the line ahead of the puck shall not be considered “off-side,” provided he had possession and control of the puck prior to his skates crossing the blue line.”
So you can skate backwards into the offensive zone as long as you have puck possession.
The only thoughts I have on the Landeskog hit are that even he himself said after the game that he should have kept his head up going through the neutral zone and Stuarts only other option there was to high five him on the way past with the puck to Nemo.
Hate seeing people get hurt, especially great exciting players like that but I just don’t know what else Stuart could have done there… that’s a hit he has to make or the conversation becomes… OMG Stuart is such a bum Landi made him look absolutely stupid and I hope he rides the pine.
So FTF commenters are oddly impressed with TJ Galiardi. I don’t get it. What does he do well? I get that he is young and has put it together before, but I completely supported his scratch. Wingels also appears lost this year, so I can see Wingels, TJ, and Shephard battling for playing time, but the idea that any of them have “impressed” is just weird to me — what is the bar? Handzus, on the other hand, deserves to keep playing.
I wanted to comment on last night’s game vs the Hawks… Im not really gonna get into the brutal blown call, it is what it is.
Overall, I feel good that given a properly officated game and not on a road-home-back to back, the Sharks can compete with the Hawks.
I was about to post something yesterday about the lack of secondary scoring on this team, but last night the Wingles-Handzus-Shepherd line was great. It’s really nice to see them going and even better to see Handzus playing well. I did hear a couple rumors that DW was looking for another forward and it seems clear to me that they are revisitng the whole idea of three scoring lines again – an idea I like very much.
Only post game thing that bothered me was Jamal Mayers comments after the game. I think he needs glasses if he thinks that was a hit to the head. Maybe he’s been punched there too many times to know the difference.
I think Jamal was being honest. He actually did get hit in the head. He felt contact, and was left dazed lying on the ice. He just didn’t feel the initial shoulder contact that in real time occured milliseconds before his head met Desi’s shouldered hit.
So the real discussion should be what are legal hits, and what are dangerous hits. Because the NHL is aware that dangerous hits happen all the time. And no, they don’t want players to be injured. But the NHL also knows that big hits sell tickets.
And let’s be honest here; fans are largely OK with devasting hits, as long as it isn’t their team’s player on the receiving end. And to be perfectly clear, I’m not suggesting that fans want to injure the other player. They are just willing to look the other way.
The re-occuring problem is unfortunately the players that are getting victimized by these hits regardless of weather the hit is to the head or body is that they are set up for it by their own teammates… there is no easy answer here I mean whether its Landi coming into the zone or Mayers trying to leave his own both are hits that have to be made. With the hit on Mayers specifically if that’s no longer a clean hit I don’t know if you can continue with hockey being a contact sport. That may come off as being overly dramatic but I honestly don’t know where we are at when that hit is no longer clean.