Doug and Mike are joined this week by Mike Chen, blogger extraordinaire at fromtherink.com.  Mike, though he blogs about all of hockey, is a local boy and Sharks fan.  The Dudes grill him about his new gig, the state of the Sharks and their trade prospects, and his take on the Olympic blowouts.  Mike and Doug then discuss the departure of Jody Shelley, other trades that have gone down in the NHL, and random hockey business.

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If the regular season were to end today at the Olympic break and 62 game mark, the San Jose Sharks would once again be the #1 seed in the Western Conference, but not the President’s Trophy winner – that dubious distinction would go to the Washington Capitals. Capping off a 4-2 road trip that ended on with a particularly lame effort last night in Buffalo, here’s what else we’re left to ponder for two weeks.

If the season ended today:

The Sharks would likely field a 4th line of skilled players in the playoffs who will play the body, create actual scoring chances and threaten their opponents 3rd pairing with speed, unlike last years combo of Cheechoo, Grier and Shelley. This is good news and should help the Sharks get past their postseason blues.

Doug Wilson would be left with unfinished business. He still needs to address the lack of quality blueline depth and hopefully seeing Rob Blake’s dismal final three games of the road trip (-2 and two horrible penalties vs. Detroit that should have cost the Sharks the game, especially the one in OT), Doug Wilson must add another d-man who can play 20+ minutes and lessen the burden on the 40 year old Blake, who is really showing his immobility and age down the stretch. Trading Shelley helps and created a 750k cushion for either the permanent stay of Jamie McGinn or for Wilson to add someone of significance. I’m sure if something happens it will come out of nowhere, in typical Doug Wilson fashion – but watching Blake this last week confirmed my opinion – something MUST happen for the Sharks to beat Detroit or Chicago in May, or we’ll see more of Blake skating in cement as Kane and Datsyuk glide right around him.

The Sharks would draw Calgary in the first round, as the standings sit today. Could be worse (Detroit), could be better (Nashville). Calgary is a team in turmoil and they still haven’t found any rhythm since making major roster changes two weeks ago, losing three of their last four. The Flames are never an easy draw, but Brent Sutter has been a lousy playoff coach – with both his Devils teams losing in the first round his two years there. I feel confident we could beat Calgary in 5 or 6 max.

Some people say it’s to the Sharks advantage to finish 2nd and avoid the pressure of #1, but I say – Hell’s No. There is enough separation right now between Colorado at #6 with 76 points and the group clogged up for the final two spots (Detroit, Nashville, Dallas, Calgary, Anaheim and St. Louis) that the probability that Detroit will end up #7 is pretty damn high. Avoid the 2nd seed at all costs, or a date with Detroit awaits. I’ve championed the Curse of the Blackhawks all season, their dealings with Martin Havlat and RFA madness in the offseason created bad hockey karma and it will all come crumbling down around them when they draw Detroit in Round One. MAKE IT SO HOCKEY GODS! This is why San Jose must stay #1. It’s critical to our postseason success. All roads must go through Detroit – and it wouldn’t be a Cup run within having to beat the best – but let’s not have it be in the first round. We all know the ending to that fairy tale.

I'm a #7 seed waiting to happen. I can smell Huet from here!

Donald who?

True to Doug Wilson form, a move has been made that I think will surprise almost everybody, yet make sense when you hear it.  Jody Shelley has been traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for “a draft pick”, according to TSN.  This, coming after the Rangers drop Donald Brashear like a bad habit.  Given that the Sharks only gave up a 6th round to get Shelley in the first place, it’s likely only a seventh rounder changed hands, but this is primarily a cap-clearing move.  Shelley’s $700k, while not onerous, gives the Sharks a little bit more room now that Nic “Nic, the Nickname” Wallin is now in town.  While I know the feelings about Shelley’s efficacy on the ice have been all over the map, I personally will miss him a little bit.  Sure, he’s not the best hockey player I’ve ever seen, but he seemed like a really good and generous person, and was someone Randy Hahn picked to possibly move into the broadcaster’s booth some day.   He could surprise you sometimes, like just this week when he beat Colton Orr into next:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Qtef3DECI[/youtube]

I’m also reminded of the Jumbotron interview when players were asked three things to bring to a desert island.  One of Shelley’s choices was “a can of beans”.

So, strong tough man with two women’s names, we wish you the very best.  And hope to hear you in the booth some day.  Now, we have to think there’s more to come, don’t we?

The Sharks gut out a win against Detroit in their building, and the surprisingly good road trip continues.  Mike and Doug try to put it all in perspective, break down the newest Shark: Niclas Wallin, and take a ton of listener email.  Also, listen to get the contest details to win your very own limited edition DOH t-shirt!

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Move over Vlasic, here comes the Sniffle Monster

I’m fighting an upper body injury (code for the common cold) and the current plan is for us to record this week’s episode Thursday after the Red Wings game. We figured since we were running late, we might as well wait until after the Detroit game, right? So there’s still plenty of time to send in more questions for this week. We’ve got a ton to discuss, including the Sharks trade for Wallin, other moves around the league and the Sharks pre-Olympic road trip.

As for tonight, the Sharks have posted an impressive 7-0-2 record against the Blue Jackets in their last nine, so there’s no reason to believe that anything is going to change in that regard. The Sharks have been finding ways to win on this road trip and should be able to overpower the Blue Jackets. The interesting sidestory to tonight’s game might be for Sharks fans to pay some attention to two Blue Jackets defensemen, Jan Hejda and Fedor Tyutin. If you’re looking for two potential guys who might be moved at the deadline to get some new blood into Columbus, it could be one of these gentlemen. Both would look good in Teal, with Hejda being more of a shutdown defender and Tyutin being more a puck mover. The emergence of young Anton Stralman might make Tyutin expendable,  and Tyutin would be my preference.  To snag either of these two guys, it would require Doug Wilson trade someone from his current roster, which according to interviews this week he seems unwilling to do.   We all know Doug Wilson isn’t willing to tip his hand, yet Dudes on Hockey and our friend at ESPN E.J Hradek have been pointing to the Sharks need for an upgrade in the top four that the acquisition of Wallin doesn’t seem to address. Could DW still use his depth up front on the current roster to land a player like Tyutin or Hejda (ed. note: Fear the Fin just posted about a trade for Hejda)?

Take it or leave it, just a little something extra to watch for in tonight’s game. Talk to you tomorrow after I have endured treatment from the Dudes on Hockey training staff, and by that I mean Mike in a little nurse’s outfit and a sponge bath.

On second thought, I’d just rather be sick.

I hardly watched any of the Super Bowl yesterday.  Football is marginally interesting to me, but I had other things to do.  Besides, the game always seems to take way too long, with extended commercial breaks and the long halftime show.  Being a big Who fan, I did watch that, but not because I specifically planned for it.  I turned on the TV, and there they were.  Slightly less embarrassing that I thought they would be.  Given they’re all in their late sixties, I guess that’s a victory of sorts.

Now that all that football crap is out of the way, I’m looking ahead in the hockey schedule, to the Sharks’ last four games of the month, and of course, the Olympics.  The first two hockey games for the USA are at noon on work days, so that kind of sucks.  I’ll end of TiVo’ing those, and trying to avoid TSN, which is tough for me.  However, looking ahead to February 21, I see a true sports Super Sunday:

• 12:00 pm – Russia v. Czech Republic.  Nabokov and Ovechkin vs. Vokoun and Jagr.  And that might be the weakest matchup of the day.
• 4:45pm – USA v. Canada.  There’s nothing I can say here that would hype this more than it already is.
• 9:00pm – Sweden v. Finland.  A recap of the 2006 gold medal match.

There should be plenty of motivation to watch all of these games, besides the fact that each will contain current (and sometimes former) Sharks.  This will be the best hockey the world has to offer.  Like hardcore basketball fans love the first round of March Madness, this great day of international hockey may be better than the medal round matches, because they’re all in one day.  I’ll get a dozen bags of chips, a gallon of dip, and a couple of cases of Molson for this one.  The wife won’t be pleased.  Note to self: fill out a vacation request for 2/22.

The Wallin deal was a done deal, then dead.  And now, after we got word this morning the deal for Wallin is back on, we get word just now that the deal is already complete.  Sharks get Wallin and a 2010 5th round pick in exchange for the 2nd round pick we got from Buffalo in the Craig Rivet deal.  We’ve covered some stuff about Wallin in the posts below, so I invite you to read them.  But my main reaction is this- meh.  I’ve heard some say that Wallin is a steady defensemen, and I’ve heard some rumors that say the management (and fans) in Carolina couldn’t wait to get rid of him.  Given Carolina is in the cellar right now, that doesn’t sound like a good thing.  Also given he played for Carolina, that means we haven’t seen much of Wallin, and only those with a rehab-worthy Center Ice habit would be able to speak about his play this year intelligently.

For me, that means I’m reserving judgment on this deal for at least five games.  Just to recap a quick thing I said in the recent podcast- if the Sharks are trying to replace Boyle and Vlasic with trades, that will be a fruitless effort.  Pointless.  The Sharks cannot go deep in the playoffs with those guys injured.  However, as we’ve said ad nauseum all year, the defense is the weak link on the team.  Even though we’ve advocated getting a #2 or #3 guy, this deal may work out well.  It’s possible Wallin may be a vast improvement to the #5 spot, and it’s also possible that the Sharks aren’t done making trades.  What do you think?

I'm gonna fake it to San Jose and go long on the no trade clause. Hike!

Oops. We just got duped, y’all.

Wait – I take it back. I don’t think we duped, I think there was a deal in the works and someone opened their big mouth (a source within the Sharks, Canes or Wallin’s agent) before Doug Wilson could finish a critical part of the deal – extending Nic Wallin. While none of this makes a ton of sense on the surface and raises more questions than answers, one thing is clear: Doug Wilson is shopping and looking to improve the defense in some way. Does this mean Wallin was his one and only fix up to the deadline? Was Wallin being acquired to replace Huskins, who would then be part of a 2nd deal to get a draft pick or another player? Is Doug Wilson hopefully thinking bigger and contemplating using his best assets to land a player who could make a bigger impact on this team’s Stanley Cup fortunes than a 3rd pairing defensemen like Wallin? I think we all hope so.

I don’t want to speak for Mike, but I’m pretty sure he’s happy this didn’t go through and from what I can gather from other Sharks blogs, they concur. So if you’re shopping Dougie Wilson and you’re reading this at the Nashville airport, I hope your trade deadline adventure yields what the Sharks need: an impact d-man. Most of the teams we play on this trip have a potential trade target on their roster: Fedor Tyutin in Columbus, Dan Hamhuis in Nashville, Francois Beauchemin in Toronto and the previously mentioned Barret Jackman in St. Louis last night. We’ll see if Dougie can wine and dine someone in the next week because it seems pretty clear to me, there might be more impact moves made before next Sunday’s roster freeze than at the actual trade deadline in early March.

If I were Seto, Clowe, Huskins or Mitchell – I might have one bag half packed…

Like the great Ray Charles, I am writing this post blind. We have probably all read the reports of the Sharks swinging a deal for Carolina defenseman, Niclas Wallin, by this point. Right now, we have no clue what we gave up – so as of 5pm pacific time, I’m going to take a wild stab, cause I’m just that kinda guy. Who’s with me?

Here’s my best guess. Vlasic is hurt enough that he is going to miss this entire road trip and Doug Wilson threw up after watching Joslin and Leach last night, so he had to make a move and make it now. He knew Wallin could be had, and had for cheap, so he called Big Jim Rutherford in Carolina and fleshed out a deal they had already likely discussed a few times. The catch is that the Sharks don’t have the cap room to absorb Wallin’s 1.7M deal (he is a UFA at the end of the season) so Vlasic’s injury now frees up 3M of that room if he’s placed on Long Term IR until after the Olympics.

Everybody with me so far?

So the Sharks get Wallin and I’m gonna guess that…well….hmmm….they traded Mike Moore – how about that? They gave up an AHL d-man to get the job done. Could be Joslin, but after last night, I’m not sure why they’d want him. The Sharks get a serviceable 3rd pairing d-man who hits people (127 hits) and can block shots. Is he the sexy #2 we want for Boyle. No. Is he better than Leach and Joslin…and maybe even Huskins? Yes.

Has he won a Stanley Cup? Yes.

Am I totally way off base here? Probably. We’ll see.

7PM: STILL NO WORD. RUMOR HAS IT THE TRADE WILL BE ANNOUNCED AFTER THE HURRICANES/FLAMES GAME TONIGHT. MIKE MOORE PLAYED FOR WORCESTER IN THEIR 8-4 WIN OVER SPRINGFIELD, SO HE LIKELY ISN’T IN THE DEAL. I DIDN’T NOTICE ANY MAJOR PROSPECTS OUT OF THAT GAME EXCEPT FOR THE GUYS WHO WERE TRAVELING (JOSLIN, MCGINN) AND THE INJURED (COUTURE). WE’LL SEE….

Listen to the new podcast below!

After things have been going so well for the Sharks, they lose two of their top four defensemen, and lose in a disappointing fashion to both Chicago and Detroit.  The Dudes talk about what it all means, break down the blockbuster trades in the NHL of the past week, and still leave enough time for listener email.  Also, make sure to weigh in on the new poll question after you listen.

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