As we head into tonight’s game against the streaking, in the wrong direction, St. Louis Blues – I noticed an interesting trend in the early NHL season schedule. The Sharks have drawn three teams on the 2nd game of a back to back after the other team has visited the Anaheim “Now So Mighty” Ducks. Detroit came up here and lost after playing the Ducks last week, we get St. Louis tonight after getting crushed by the Ducks last night and Dallas will make their first appearance at the Tank this year on Saturday after playing Friday night against….yup – the Ducks. The great part about all these games is the Sharks have been sitting on their butts, watching Must See TV the night before and waiting for the road weary club to stroll into town so they can hammer them.

I expect the Sharks to continue their home dominance tonight against the Blues. Last years team would been caught napping on one of these lay up games, but it appears this will not happen under McLellan’s watch, or at least not at home. I don’t think we’ll see Boucher tonight. Nabby’s finally got his groove back and has played well the last few games, so why break up the momentum.

I predict a 4-1 Sharks win and J.R’s first goal of the season tonight. Go Sharks!

I really went out on a limb yesterday, predicting a 3+ goal win over a team that’s only given up 2.4 goals per game while scoring 2.9.  And I almost looked like a genius.  Instead, I’ll have to settle for extraordinarily intelligent.  I was right that the Sharks played a patient game and eventually cracked the trap.  There were so many times the Sharks could have scored the fourth goal, but my disappointment at not being inducted into the pantheon of Great Calls is offset by yet another impressive Sharks effort.  I’ll take it.

All that and more discussed on the recent DOH podcast, and other issues discussed on last week’s ChompTalk radio show.

Seems like Minnesota has played in the league for a thousand years, and every year they play the same style- very tough defensively, shutting down the neutral zone, but the offensive game is wearing a restrictor plate.   Since 2000, the Wild have had a scorer in the top 40 only four times- Gaborik twice, Brunette, and Rolston.  Several of those years they don’t have anyone in the top fifty.  This is a team that doesn’t care about offense.

Since we’ve now seen the new high-flying high-scoring Sharks, I feel like we match up even better against the Wild than in past years.  Believe it or not, but the Sharks have already faced one of the stingier defenses in the NHL- Tampa.  That’s right- the Lightning have allowed only 24 goals in 10 games, and the Wild have allowed only 22 in 10.  If we can hang three on the Lightning, we can hang three on the Wild.

The pitfall with the decidedly non-wild “Wild” system is the opposition would get frustrated with all the traffic in the neutral zone and take stupid chances in order to create a rush.  Then Minnesota could capitalize with chances the other way.  But with the patient way in which the Sharks dispatched Detroit and Pittsburgh, I doubt that will happen.  I’m predicting a big win here – the Sharks by three or more.

As I’m sitting here watching the Leafs and Rangers on a Saturday afternoon, I’m still riding the high of that win on Thursday night. Thanks to our good buddy Bryce, Mike and I saw the win from the club level and it wasn’t even close folks. The Wings looked like the little brothers and the Sharks took it to them all night. Now, eleven games into the season, I love the attitude of being out for blood every night and every shift. A few other thoughts…

– Undefeated at home. I told Mikey during the 2nd intermission that I think the Sharks will drop only five games at home all season. That’s right. The Tank is now a dominant place where opposing teams should thank their lucky stars if they can get even one point. This is another aspect where the Sharks will move from good team to elite team.

– Seto and Pavelski are exploding in this new system. Seto was the best player on the ice on Thursday, he was everywhere and we could be seeing a star born before our eyes this year. His constant motor has won over Coach McLellan.

– I think McGinn is here to stay and will take Plihal’s spot when Mitchell returns to form. He is highly skilled and aggressive, perfect for this Wings model. His ability to slide up and play 2nd line minutes is evident as well.

– The Sharks had a new video feature on Thursday night, asking several players what three things they would take to a desert island. Here are the three best responses.

ROENICK: A case of red wine, a hot blonde and a boat so I can leave when I’m done.

SETO: Strawberries, chocolate and Jessica Alba.

SHELLEY: Uh…soap….toothpaste….and, a can of beans.

All this good karma being spread makes me fully aware the Sharks could struggle tomorrow night in Colorado. The Sharks split in Colorado last year and are coming off an emotionally charged week with two huge victories at home. One game road trips can be bad news, so I regretfully expect the Sharks to be on the wrong end of the result on Sunday night….but I thought they might get caught napping against Pittsburgh.

GO SHARKS!

So the Sharks put down a Stanley Cup finalist for the second time in three nights.  First period was a hard-fought battle, mostly dominated by strong forechecking and neutral-zone turnovers.  Then Detroit broke the seal only moments into the second period with a nifty shot from Hossa.  But the Sharks didn’t panic, they knew they’d get their chances.   And then they hung three on Ty Conklin in the space of four minutes later in the second.

You could tell the Wings didn’t expect that.  Even though the Sharks are on everyone’s list to make the playoffs, and even a few to make the Stanley Cup finals, this team is surprising people.  It would be easy to write off the first 9 games a beneficial scheduling with a healthy diet of under .500 teams, but the last two might have been eye-openers for people that jumped off the bandwagon.

Plenty of time yet to get on that bandwagon.  No doubt there will be slumps and lean times this year, and we may just see a letdown on Sunday against Colorado.  But it’s the best start in Sharks history, and this team in clicking in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever seen here in San Jose.  Happy Halloween, people.  Go celebrate and eat a disgusting amount of candy.

Strangely enough, it’s a Duck-powered alignment. Just got this email from a good friend of mine, who happens to be a Ducks fan.

If your team is as good as advertised, they should beat the Wings 6-2 tonight.  The Ducks pounded the crap out of Motown last night.  You shouldn’t be getting Osgood in goal.  And the Wings ought to be second-guessing themselves after being up a couple, and losing. With your PP unit as good as it is, and with Detroit’s march to the box (at least 7 penalty kills in each of the past 5 games), your team better get some PPGs.  The Ducks burned the Wings with shots that were faked from the high slot, and instead were passed to the low circle for one timers.  I know your D is putting up a lot of shots, but it might not be the best strategy tonight.
Anyway… look out, because we might have found a little bit of a groove.

First of all, I think we have to admit the honeymoon is over for the Sharks.  Dallas just beat Minnesota last night, who were up until then the only team in the NHL that hadn’t lost in regulation.  And now the Ducks have beaten Montreal and Detroit in the past seven days.  Whatever funk the other Pacific powers were in at season’s launch seems to be over.

Second of all, I don’t care what Acts of God (or Ducks) have occured to make the Wings frustrated, tired, injured, or all of the above.  I’ll take it.  Beat those bastards.

Go Sharks.

That’s the title of the latest podcast, found here.  The Sharks continue to roll, this time beating a legit opponent in Pittsburgh, only allowing 11 shots en route to a 2-1 win.  Have to give the Pens credit: the most crucial shift is the one right after a goal, and they scored right after the Sharks scored in the third to keep the game close.  Crosby and Malkin are dangerous whenever they’re on the ice, but the Sharks new-found D managed to keep them mostly in check.  And for a great recap, I have to turn to the Pensblog, a regular read of mine, and one of the funniest hockey blogs on the tubes.

Of course this is only the first test of many this season, with the next one coming tomorrow against the Wings, but no one can say the Sharks are pretenders now, unless they get blown out 10-0 or something.  And even then you could still make a case the Sharks are for real; The Wings seem to be on a different plane than everyone else.

If any one is interested, the last ChompTalk radio show audio can be found here.

And I can’t pass up this LOLSHARX opportunity:

2-1 Road Trip. I called it….well, okay I got the Philly and Florida results mixed up – but it’s all in the result, right? Sure, it seems like we Sharks fans have some concerns about the amount of goals the Sharks are yielding. Playing Run and Gun can only work so long in the regular season and then fail you in the playoffs. BUT….you have to like the correction to the system last night in Tampa Bay. After a disappointing showing in Florida, coughing up a bounce back goal after the Sharks tied the score, San Jose limited this mirage of a Tampa Bay offense to only 22 shots. Another mark of a good team, learning from your current shortcoming and improving on them. The fact that the Sharks responded with a shut out after the Florida disappointment is another positive sign in this Grier’s book. Also, the five power play goals on this road trip shows that there’s some bite with the man advantage.

So, 7-2-0 heading into the biggest benchmark of the season. A head to head showdown with last years Stanley Cup finalists, Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and the Champion Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. The Sharks have yet to play a team with a winning record. The best team on paper so far are the Florida Panthers, at 4-4-0, and they beat the Sharks. So…. can the Sharks topple two of the undisputed best teams in the NHL? I think it’s going to be another high octane affair, with two high powered offensives trading punches all night against the Penguins. For some reason, I think the Pens are going to get the better of San Jose on Tuesday and out slug the Sharks by a score of 4-3 in overtime. San Jose could get caught looking ahead to the most anticipated match up, one that has been on McLellan’s calendar marked URGENT all season – the toe to toe with Detroit on Thursday. I love the Sharks on Thursday night in a major league statement game to their big brothers, the Red Wings. Sharks beat Detroit convincingly 4-1.

I would take 8-3-0 going into Colorado on Sunday night. What do you Sharks fans think?

The good news is a Sharks team that struggled offensively last year has scored 15 goals in the last three games.  The bad news is they’ve given up 14.  Makes for exciting games, but play is littered with bad turnovers and giveaways in inopportune areas of the ice.  Such was the case against Philly, where they managed to pull it out in a wild one, 7-6, but not so last night, en route to only the second loss of the season against the Panthers, 4-3.

Florida is a young team that skates very hard every single shift.  They have a vigorous low cycle in the offensive zone that the Sharks were fairly adept at cracking.  That cycle will give many other teams fits.  However, the Sharks were not very good at clearing pucks out, and keeping possesion at the offensive blueline- a critical area of the ice for springing odd-man rushes against.

Am I worried about this team’s recent sloppiness on defense?  Only mildly.  Keep in mind the Sharks only gave up four goals in their first four games, and they are implementing an entirely new system with new players.  Common wisdom says the a team needs the first 15 or 20 games of the season to really get it’s identity, and this team is no exception.  Some of the chemistry between players like Thornton-Boyle is really flourishing.  But other coordination on the ice between O and D, or between the D partners, is a bit off.  The Sharks have proven to me that they can win games in decisive fashion-  now it’s time to pay out a little rope and let them get their bearings.

We could easily see more of the same tonight against Tampa.  Tampa has been lauded for their high-flying offense but poor defense- will the Sharks again try to trade body blows?

There’s been some sort of glitch on this site the past few days, I’m not sure what is causing it.  Some posts that we published are not appearing on the home page of the blog, and some comments too.  Hopefully you are seeing this now, and if you experience any more problems, or see posts disappearing again, please email us at questions@dudesonhockey.com.  I guess you’ll have to remember that, because if posts disappear, you won’t be able to read this…

Update: an issue was found with the way the blogging platform was caching pages, so hopefully all issues have been resolved as of now.  Please let us know if any issues persist.