So many things to talk about this week!  The Dudes start it off with the great Olympic goal medal game between the U.S. and Canada, and how the loyalties were split just a little bit.  After talking about the loss to the Devils, which the Sharks managed to climb back into, Mike and Doug dive headlong into the trade deadline, because who likes talking trades more than the Dudes?  Lots of Pacific Division action, and there are some winners and losers on trade deadline day

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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…