Too little too late for the Sharks last night as they fell at home to the Flames. The game wasn’t as close as the 4-3 final score indicated. I don’t even want to talk about it….let’s move on to something better like…

THE GAMBLER 4-0-0 $400.00
Say what you want, but picking winners is picking winners. Too bad I don’t have real money on these babies.

Edmonton at Colorado

What a great season series, with the Avs leading 3-2. The Avs love to open it up and the Oilers are like the “Diet Avalance” following the same mold of wide open skating, scoring and little defense and suspect goaltending. The Oilers are coming off a late night shootout win vs. the Ducks. Having to fly to Colorado and get it up for the Avs will be too much to ask.

PLAY: COLORADO -165

I mentioned recently that the Sharks have a ton of division games in late January and February, let’s see how the Sharks are doing:

• 1/21 at Kings : Win (OT) 4-3
• 1/24 vs. Kings : Win 4-1
• 1/26 vs Ducks : Loss 0-2
• 1/28 at Coyotes : Loss 2-6
• 1/30 at Stars : Loss (OT) 2-3
• 2/1 at Ducks : Win 6-4
• 2/4 vs Ducks : Loss 0-2

So that’s 7 points in 7 games, basically .500 hockey. We have two more division games before the Olympic break, versus Dallas and Phoenix, and even if we win both, we’ll only have 11 points in 9 division games. Given that the entire Pacific division is 4 games over .500 or better, playing roughly even hockey is not the way to gain ground for a playoff run. The Kings are seriously fading, but the Ducks and Stars are both playing well right now, and Phoenix has been suprisingly resilient this season. The Sharks have clearly frittered away a golden opportunity to make up ground in the West.

GAME PREVIEW
The Sharks face off in another important Western Conference game against the hated Calgary Flames, who crushed our Stanley Cup hopes and dreams in 2004. This Flames team is a little different, with some new faces that has messed with the chemistry that made them such a dangerous playoff team. There are some good things going for the Sharks. The Flames are riding a three game losing streak and have lost eight straight regular season games at the Tank. Let’s hope the boys can dish out some punishment tonight.

THE GAMBLER 3-0-0 UP $300 SMACKERS
Nashville at Dallas
I’m on a roll baby. Let’s not stop here. Speaking of rolls…The Dallas Stars were on a major one before the St. Louis Blues and their band of no names pulled their pants down. Dallas was clearly thinking about Nashville coming to town and let the aggressive young Blues team out work them. Dallas will pick up the pieces tonight at home vs. the Preds. Nashville hasn’t won in Dallas since March 2003….and that won’t change tonight.

PLAY: DALLAS STARS -165

THE GAMBLER 2-0-0
Thank you very much, I’m on a roll. Follow me on this next pick.

Carolina at Boston
Take the Hurricanes today to bounce back after a no win situation in New Jersey. This team has been waiting in Boston overnight after the Bruins had to fly home after losing in Montreal – so they essentially become the home team. Carolina is too good to blow this chance to take a game from Beantown.

PLAY: CAROLINA -160

GAME PREVIEW
Sharks are in another must win situation tonight against Anahiem….let’s face it, every division game is a must win at this point. Sharks must win and hope Vancouver can get pull one over on the Oilers so we have some hope going into the Olympic break.

Sharks must stop Selanne, who’s decided he can skate and score again. Thanks for showing up when you were in Teal – LOSER! Doug Murray needs to put Selanne on his ass and the Sharks must keep him from getting odd man rushes.

The Marleau line must provide a goal. The Ducks are going to key on the Thornton line, leaving our fate in the hands of Patty M. I predict a goal from Mr. Marleau in a breakout game.

Sharks 4 Ducks 2

THE GAMBLER – Season Record 1-0-0
If you’re a gambling man, look for the Devils to have a let down after a very emotional win last night vs. Carolina. The Leafs are desperate for a win and will catch the Devils at a weak moment. Toronto will jump up early and NJ won’t be able to recover. I also think Brodeur won’t be between the pipes. I’ll take Tellqvist vs. Clemmenson is the battle of the back-ups.

Here’s some stats for you.

Toronto is 2-0 vs. the Devils this season
Devils are 1-4 in their last five trips to Toronto
New Jersey is 2-7 on the second game of a back to back
New Jersey is 1-4 if their second game of a back to back is on the road after a home game.
Toronto is 5-1 in back to back games this season

PLAY: TORONTO -105 (should be a barn burner – like 6-4)

I listen to some sports/hockey podcasts, one I like is the Cheap Seats. They talk about all sports, but have a nice concentration on hockey, even though every single sports story this week is on Jerome Bettis. After the obligatory Super Bowl talk, they had a nice discussion about Alexander Ovechkin, and they mentioned there’s a video out there with some of his best highlights from the season. They mentioned video.google.com, but I couldn’t find it there. I found it on, you guessed it, youtube.com. Check it out, this kid is amazing.

That’s Doug’s first post here, welcome dude. Hopefully this will increase the frequency of Shaved Ice updates, and get some discussions going. One correction, the Sharks are 1-6 in shootouts this year. As Victor Chi noted in the Mercury today, Patrick Marleau is the worst on the team, going 0-5 in shootouts. The Sharks’ best shootout guy? Nils Ekman, who is 2 for 6, a whopping 33%. The best in the NHL right now is Jussi Jokinen from Dallas, 8 for 8.

I saw Jokinen in the shootout this past weekend against Detroit, and apparently he has done the same move a couple of times. He’s a right-handed shot, and comes at the goal a little bit from the right. He goes across the goal like he’s going to the backhand. He pulls it to the backhand, then quickly back to the forhand. At the same time he goes back to the forehand, he takes his left hand off of the stick, then uses his right hand to guide the puck back to the far right corner of the goal. Pretty cool, because the goalie goes from his left to right to follow Jokinen, and leaves that whole side open. Not completely unlike the famous Peter Forsberg move he did in the World Cup a number of years ago, so famous it even made a postage stamp in Sweden. Maybe I’ll have the balls to try it in a game myself, but I’ll probably trip and hit my head on the crossbar.

GAME NOTES – WILD 3 SHARKS 2
I couldn’t resist the title – but why is it so true?? Watching the overtime period in the Sharks 3-2 loss to the Wild tonight, it was obvious that Minnesota was just toying with the puck and begging for a shootout so the Sharks could implode….AGAIN. Not sure on the stats, but I’m guessing the Sharks must be 1-7 in the shootout this year.

Typical Sharks. A huge road win in Anahiem needed to be followed up by a win against a reeling Wild club – and they could not get it done. Now we sit seven points behind the Oilers. Am I the only one who fears the Sharks just won’t make the climb??

GM’s OFFICE
Doug Wilson should deal for two veteran defensemen……wait, isn’t that what the Oilers just acquired in Spacek and Tarnstrom. Where was Doug Wilson when the Blackhawks were giving away Spacek for peanuts? Patrick Marleau also deserves to have a RW that can put the puck in the net. Without that RW/LW sniper, opponents key on the Thornton line and don’t have to worry about anyone else beating them. I’m tired of Niko. Owen Nolan anyone???

PICK OF THE DAY
CAROLINA HURRICANS at NEW JERSEY DEVILS
Carolina is banged up, with four starting D on the injury report (Tverdovsky, Ward, Commodore and Wesley) All might play – but they are hurting.
Carolina has a five game winning streak – but all games vs. non playoff teams
Devils are coming off a big home win vs. Ottawa
Devils are 6-0 at home in 2006.
Carolina won big in NJ earlier in the year…..Devils will want revenge.

PLAY: NEW JERSEY – 125

The Sharks won last night against Anaheim, 6-4. The game wasn’t televised, so I couldn’t even TiVo it. I think it was on the radio, but I had a hockey game of my own, and there isn’t really a TiVo for radio. Well, there is, but I’m not that hardcore. Kind of eerie that it’s called the radio SHARK.

But I digress. Cheechoo had a hat trick, his second against Anaheim this season. To continue the thread I was talking about recently, The Sharks committed 10 penalties, and 2 in the last 10 minutes. The Ducks had 8, with one in the last 10 minutes. Found some cool stuff on NHL.com. The interface is kind of clunky, but you can get much more information than on ESPN.com. I like the ESPN box scores much better though. Anyway, the Sharks have been shorthanded 253 times this season, the 2nd least. Only the Devils have been shorthanded fewer times. I say that’s definitely a testament to the Sharks discipline. Perhaps my recent observation that the Sharks commit to many late penalties is just me being frustrated about bad losses. Can’t generate a report that breaks down the penalties by period yet.

Found two more tricky highlight-reel goals, not on youtube:

• Some crazy razzle-dazzle skills competition goal. Fun times, could never happen in a game.
• Mike Legg-esque scoop goal in the minors. Cool thing about this one is the guy never had time to set it up- he did it while he was skating.