I got the new Hockey News yesterday, with a blurb on the cover saying “How the Sharks Conned Us” and an article inside with the title above, courtesy of the Chronicle’s own Ray Ratto. Pretty harsh stuff. The article contained such gems as:

Is it not yet clear that Patrick Marleau is a supporting player rather than a dominant force? Is it not yet obvious that Jonathan Cheechoo’s injuries and skating limitations are making him a better-than-average-but-not-by-much player? Is it not yet evident the young players – Matter Carle, Ryane Clowe, Joe Pavelski, Steve Bernier, et. al. – still haven’t created and held their space against lesser talents but greater pests, such as Ethan Moreau and Kris Draper? Can we not see that goaltender Evgeni Nabokov is still a good, but not yet money goaltender?

So I was planning on writing a post today ripping Ratto and wiping my ass with this article (that last sentence is ridiculous), but after last night’s game, I just don’t have the stomach for it. It was impossible not to think of Sharks vs. Detroit game 4 when that shorty went in with 41 seconds to go. Doan even put it in the same spot as Lang did, if I remember correctly. He shot from almost the same patch of ice.

Of course it was just another regular season game against a below average Phoenix team (that’s been playing very well as of late) but maybe Ratto was right when he said what this team “does not have is the all-important taste for consistent and effective mucking.” Hard to dispute that after last night’s performance. The Yotes made up for their lack of talent with a blistering forecheck and an easy willingness to bang in the corners. The willingness that is completely absent in the aforementioned Patrick Marleau. But that’s a post for another day.

The post for today is this: the Sharks are now playing as if they know they can’t score. They know if they go down by two they are screwed. A one goal deficit is doable, two goals is a mountain, and three goals just ain’t gonna happen. I see (or think I see) this in the breakout, a source of unending frustration for me. It’s the same problem with the power play- too predictable, not enough speed, not enough movement. I would never wish for something like this, and the chances of it backfiring are too high, but maybe what this team needs is a minor injury to Joe Thornton. This team is leaning on him like a one-legged man leans on a cane.

Thanks for the great intro, Mikey. We’ve had a blast writing over at Shaved Ice and look forward to carrying on passionate Shark talk here at hockeyanalysis.com

Now, let’s get down to business.

Tonight is Game #34 of this Sharks season that I have dubbed “Jekyll and Hyde” – you are never quite sure which Sharks team is going to take the ice from night to night. There has much drama in Teal Town this season. Here are some of the top storylines.

To Trade Marleau or Not Trade Marleau – That is Eklund’s Rumor…
The Son of Frankenstein:Alexei Semenov
Where Has All the Offense Gone? Out With Cheechoo’s Groin

More drama is on the way for tonight’s game vs. Phoenix is more important than it may look on the surface. The Sharks must win this game. They have to. This is the classic trap game – Phoenix is the pathetic sandwich between two big duels with the Ducks. It would be easy to overlook the ‘Yotes…well…because they suck. Okay, I will cut them some slack – they suck less now because of Breezy in net – but this team hasn’t scored against the Sharks in 231 minutes! Phoenix is coming off three huge road wins, but conventional wisdom says that a team on the last game of a long road trip is prone to lay an egg, and tonight is the last game in Team Gretzky’s six game swing. Let’s look at the formula.

Sharks pissed off about poor effort vs. Ducks + San Jose in Phoenix’s head / l miss Rick Tocchet’s point spread fruit cake = Sharks win 5-0 tonight.

Now I was a theatre major, so my math might be off – but I think you see the point. Talk to you after the game.

We’ve accepted an offer to begin blogging on the Sharks at David Johnson’s site, hockeyanalysis.com. The two of us are now admins and bloggers at the Sharks subsite, which you can get to by using the teams link on the upper left, or the direct one below. We might still post here a little bit, but the frequency will go down pretty drastically. So come on over, the water’s fine! Until Grier peed in it, that is. But here’s the new link, nice and big.

sharks.hockeyanalysis.com

Welcome to sharks.hockeyanalysis.com. My name’s Mike, and I’ve been blogging for a couple of years over at Shaved Ice. Just a bit about myself- I, like many others that live in the greater San Jose area, was first really introduced to hockey in 1991 when the Sharks first came to town. As it happened, my college buddies (also in CA, if you can believe it) were hockey nuts, and introduced me to the game, and I’ve been playing and watching ever since, about 15 years.

I have season tickets with the other guy here, cantstopthegrier. We’ve been friends even longer than I’ve been playing hockey.

I’d like to personally thank David Johnson for giving us this opportunity- I like his work and this site very much. I think you’ll find that grier’s and my styles are quite different than David’s. We’ll get a little goofier. We’re not above poking fun at players, writing mock plays, or proposing wildly unbalanced trades. Every now and again you might learn something, but I wouldn’t set your watch to it. Hopefully what you can count on is a generally entertaining read. You can also count on us reading all of your comments, so please feel free to add your two cents.

The evening could not have started better. Good steaks, beers, the stiffest jack and coke I’ve ever had, winning a Patrick Marleau-signed souvenir stick- all the makings of a great night. Then the Sharks played.

The atmosphere in the Tank was hyped up in anticipation of a good matchup, and while the game stayed close and well contested, the Sharks were never really in it. The Sharks probably had two, maybe three decent scoring chances. That’s besides the “dump it towards Giguere and see what happens” style of chances. No odd-man rushes that I saw, no breakaways, no strong moves in tight. The Sharks just can’t create offensively.

The Ducks are the better team. They match up physically with the Sharks, have better scoring threats and better D. They cashed in on two of three breakaways, and that was the game.

With Cheech, JR, and Clowe out, the Sharks are seriously hurting for goals (not that Cheech has really contributed in that department this year). As long as the Sharks are in the 20s in scoring (as of now, they are 23rd out of 30 teams in goals scored) they don’t have a prayer in going far in the playoffs. Everything will just get tighter as the season progresses. If Marleau, Cheech, and Michalek catch fire, it all might turn out ok. But unless and until that happens, the Sharks are worse than Dallas, Detroit, and Anaheim in the West. We’d be looking at another 4-5 or 6-3 matchup, which today would mean the Avs or Wild. Then Detroit, then the Ducks. Does anybody honestly think the Sharks could win those three series in a row?

It way too early to really think about that. But Ron Wilson needs to start putting some effort and practice time into putting the biscuit in the basket. If the Sharks still can’t do that in a month’s time, the other Wilson needs to find some players who can.

P.S. I swear I didn’t read this article before I wrote the last post. Synchronicity, eh? It warms the cockles of my hockey heart to see that Carle has such a good attitude about his current predicament, and I’m that much more certain he’ll be an impact player in the NHL.

This is the mostly highly-anticipated game of the season for me. Grier and I plan on eating some steaks, having some drinks, and breaking down the Sharks (yet again) before the game tonight. I’ll be wearing my plain Sharks jersey- Carle will likely be a healthy scratch. The game tonight is the ecstasy part.

But Carle is the agony part. I’ll be honest- I’m getting a bit worried. I don’t really care about the contract extension- I’m not paying the salary. It might put a bit of a crease in the Sharks’ payroll plans if Carle doesn’t pan out, but my concerns are different. To me, in his first season, Carle showed an insane amount of promise. He was confident with the puck, a good skater, competent passer, and eager to score goals. Those kinds of skills aren’t gained once you are in the NHL. On the other hand, the defensive side of the puck often needs to be taught in the bigs. The list of players that turned from solely offensive threats into solid two-way players is long and distinguished.

So I was excited when I saw Carle’s offensive upside. Sure, he wasn’t exactly Nik Lidstrom in his own zone, but that comes (or can come) with time. Then the sophomore slump hit, and hit hard. The last month, Carle’s ice time has become miniscule, with the few minutes he does play riddled with errors and poor judgement. He seems scared to try and create a scoring chance in fear of showing defensive liability. The other times, he sits in the press box.

In one way, Carle’s signing to a multimillion dollar, multi-year extension may help him. If Carle was a 7th round draft pick 6 years ago, he would likely be in the minors or on waivers right now. The fact that the Sharks apparently believe (as I do) that Carle could turn into a top defensemen might just get him some more ice time than he rightfully deserves. For his and the Sharks’ sake, I hope he can make the best of it. If he doesn’t, he may very well become trade bait to a team that’s willing to take a flyer. The clock is ticking.

It looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

They couldn’t get it going on the powerplay. Michalek took the laziest penalty shot in recent memory. The refs F’d the Sharks on two calls, Corey Perry’s crashing of the Sharks bench and Travis Moan’s third man in.

But….

But….

This team stuck together and Joe Thornton put it past J.S.G in round six of the shootout to give the Sharks their biggest win of the season.

Kyle McLaren was so physical, dishing out hit after hit, it has been so great to see the old Kyle back. We missed you Big Mac. The Davison-Pavelski-Brown line was extremely pesky and aggressive. Torrey Mitchell could have quit on that breakaway when he got hooked, but he made an amazing play and brought the Sharks back to life in the 2nd period. The Sharks outshot the Ducks, won more facoffs and matched their physical play. As Randy Hahn said after the game, this Ducks team plays with so much arrogance against the Sharks – they play as if they don’t believe San Jose can’t beat them. Well tonight might have taken them down a peg.

I hate to see Matt Carle in the press box, but adding Rob Davison to the line up tonight was a great call by Ron Wilson and the staff. I think we can expect to see this same line up the rest of the week and poor Mikey has to put his Carle jersey back in the closet…for now. As I said this morning, this team was either going to answer the bell or turtle up. This was a gut check and the importance of this win should carry over to Tuesday night with Team Teal brimming with confidence. They got it done without Cheech, without JR, without Clowe and without Semenov…..well, I guess they didn’t miss Frankenstein out there. PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ!!!

So the question is out there if you are Doug Wilson. If these Marleau rumors are true, and Dougie has been listening to offers, what do you do? You let these guys stick it out. We’ve been waiting all year for this team to click and now, DW’s patience is paying off. Don’t make the big splash Doug. Keep the Captain. Keep the boys together for now and tinker down the road. The ship has been righted. Abort Operation Major Shake-up….if there ever was one.

Looking forward to Tuesday night. It’s going to be a live one at the Tank.

Yesterdays loss was disappointing, but I wasn’t disappointed in the Sharks overall team effort. To my eyes, the Sharks have shown more life in the last three games than they have all season. This is why I’ve found it odd that Bay Area sports reporter, Ryan Garner on hockeybuzz.com, picked today to blast the Sharks for their total team effort, lack of fire and intensity.

Here is my take Ryan.

1) The Sharks outhit Dallas 26-14

2) Rivet made a statement by roughing up Dallas agitator Steve Ott, assessing 17 penalty minutes in the process – all of them well worth it.

3) The Sharks crashed the net and scored a goal that didn’t require three passes or Joe Thornton.

4) 4-2 is a deceiving final score. The Stars scored one goal on a fluke puck rolling up the back of the net and off Nabby’s back. The other was an empty net. So really, in my eyes, this was a 2-2 matchup and a great game by both sides.

The effort was there – the result wasn’t. Now the team is walking into an emotional game in Anaheim – a showdown with the Ducks featuring their two new players – former Captain Niedermeyer and Doug Weight. The crowd will be electric. The Ducks will be fired up. How will the Sharks respond?

I think this could be a pivotal game for the Sharks season and potential roster changes. If the Sharks play hard, physical hockey like they have this week and pull out a road win or lose a close, hard fought battle – Doug Wilson will feel inclined to keep this roster intact before the trade freeze next week. If the Sharks turtle up, like they have before this year in the face of adversity, then perhaps Ryan Garner is right – and change could be in order. The rumored deal with Montreal netting the Sharks NHL iron man and poster boy for overcoming adversity, Saku Koivu, for our Patrick Marleau would certainly shake things up. At this point, I would not part with my favorite whipping boy of the early season, Steve Bernier, in any deal. This kid has finally found himself and we’re seeing what a potential physical force he could be in the NHL. Don’t trade Bernier, Dougie. If he has to be in the package, its not worth it. Use your poker face and tell Gainey to “go fish”.

Do you think the Sharks play the party pooper role tonight at the Pond?

This week on GM’S AGAINST BRIAN BURKE! Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson plots against his Western Conference rival in his underground lair. Let’s take a listen…

Doug Wilson: Alright boys, welcome to the third annual meeting of the Legion of GM’s Against Brian Burke. Let’s recap our past accomplishments, shall we? This summer, we almost convinced Scott Niedermeyer to retire, but someone wasn’t able to finish the job….Lou.

Lou Lamoriello: Sorry Doug. I let you down.

Doug Wilson: Yes you did, Sweet Lou. You let us all down here in the Legion. That’s the last time I take a salary dump off your hands….Last month, we convinced Brian that waiving Breezy was a good idea. Nice work everyone.

Wayne Gretzky: Thank you so much guys. To show my gratitude, I’ve got a great tip on the Patriots/Jets game tomorrow from my wife…

Doug Wilson: Hold it. How the #%&@ did you get in here Gretzky? You lost your GM license a long time ago. Now go fix your hair and pretend to coach that team of yours. Okay, GM’s…this week we have to find a way to completely screw over Brian Burke as he tries to dump salary to get Niedermeyer back. Any ideas?

Kevin Lowe: I’ll offer five years, 55 million for Corey Perry!

Doug Wilson: Put a sock in it Lowe. Next?

John Ferguson, Jr: Please stop booing me. I’m doing the best I can. Does anyone want Andrew Raycroft? Anyone?

Doug Wilson: Stop begging John. Have some dignity. Come on boys! Doesn’t anyone have an aging veteran, an unknown prospect and a bag of shit to offer?

John Davidson: How about Doug Weight, Michal Birner and a 7th round pick for All-Star center Andy McDonald?

Doug Wilson: Brilliant!

JFJ: Damn it! Does anyone want Mark Bell?

Doug Wilson: This meeting of the Legion of GM’s Against Brian Burke is adjourned….Good work everyone.

Yeah, the Canucks are pretty banged up. Bobby Lou, Morrison, and various other players were out last night. But a team that lost to the Kings without Cammaleri and Frolov beat the hell out of Vancouver last night. And when their grip on Vancouver’s neck loosened a bit when the lead was thinned to one goal, the Sharks squeezed harder, got quick goals by Jumbo and Bernier, and coasted to a 5-2 victory. The Sharks are 3-0 against the Northwest leader this season.

The story of the evening was clearly the blinding speed shown by Patty and Michalek en route to their mirror-image goals. Michalek turned the jets on down the right side, and Marleau the left. Both cut to the middle and beat the goalie far-side high.

I can’t imagine what ran through Drew McIntyre’s head when he saw Big Joe barreling down on him on a breakaway in the third period. He probably could have used a diaper when Joe wound up for the slap shot. Welcome to the NHL, meat.

In other news, Semenov went out of the game in the 2nd with a hand injury. I don’t pay that close attention to who is getting ice time when, so I didn’t discover that until this morning. But I admit, my first thought was, “There is a God.” Not very nice of me. I wouldn’t actually wish an injury on him, but I take favors when they come. Hopefully it will give my boy Carle an opportunity to work himself back into the lineup for good.