I don’t mind- I’ll lean into the strike zone and take one for the team if the Sharks will win like this. While Grier and I were carousing in NYC, the Sharks quietly kicked ass again on the road. I TiVo’d the games, but have only watched the Nashville on as of now. With all the hullabaloo of Christmas, New Year’s, travel, and my new Mac Book Pro (hah!) I haven’t had the chance to post until now.

After the dismal showing of the week before Christmas, the Sharks nut up and win some games. Of course the Blues, Preds, and Kings don’t exactly compare to the Ducks. I gotta say, the Sharks’ timing is piss poor. It could just be the Sharks are just taking advantage of inferior opposition, but after watching (Nashville, at least), I don’t think so. They play more confidently, and the non-Jumbo lines actually seem to accomplish something as opposed to chewing up ice time.

Tonight there’s the Wild, one of the better teams in the West in front of one of the most rabid fan bases in all of hockey. I might be hardcore, but I’m not so hardcore that I would forego a New Year’s Eve party to watch a Sharks game, especially when there’s TiVo.

And All Through The House.
Not a Creature Was Stirring.
And Apparently….Neither is Sharks GM Doug Wilson

In a way, I admire his patience. I guess that is why Armchair GM’s like us don’t have actual hockey personnel jobs, or teams would be blown up after every minor bump in the road. But – to me – this is no minor bump in the road. This is a team with severe identity crisis. To be labeled “inconsistent” is not the mark of a champion. Is Doug Wilson willing to ride this out even longer? It appears publically he is taking that stance, but no GM calls a players only meeting unless he is gravely concerned about the make up of this roster. I still think a trade is coming in the next two weeks. I understand, it must be tough for DW to part with players that he has drafted and taken such care to develop over the past few years, but sometimes when it’s not working, you have to cut the cord. If he’s having doubts, Wilson should call up Golden State Warriors’ Chris Mullin and ask him how the team is doing since they traded two of his favorite players, Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy?? The answer is crystal clear. The Warriors were injected with two hard working players in Harrington and Jackson that bring it to the court every night and play with a fire that the Warriors never had with Murph and Mike D. on the team. They have since become one of the most exciting and feared teams in the NBA. Even Brian Sabean made the unpopular “I Am Not An Idiot” deal – trading Matt Williams to Cleveland for Julian Tavarez, Jose Vizcaino and Jeff Kent in 1996 that lead to several NL West titles and an eventual World Series appearance. (Since then Sabean has actually become an idiot, but that is for a different blog, different website) The common link – the Warriors and Giants got gamers, guys on their roster who may be hotheads, maybe fly off the handle from time to time, fight with fans in the stands, sport mohawks, injure themselves while “washing their truck”, and get arrested for brandishing a firearm….but they show up to play and their passion is contagious.

So…how about it Doug? Don’t you think it’s time for a little fire?

Well, Mike and I are off to New York City. We are packing up and taking the wives to the Big Apple for Christmas. I wish you and your family a happy holidays!!

One thing I’ve been fixated on the last few days, both in watching the Sharks and other teams on Center Ice, is their breakout strategy and patterns. It’s something I think the Sharks are particularly poor at, and last night after the game I had the opportunity to ask a real pro hockey player, Jaime Baker, about it. The Teal Spiel was broadcast live from Stanley’s Bar at Sharks Ice after the game, and I was able to get on the radio and ask Mr. Baker about it. Basically, I asked this: is the Sharks’ poor breakout a function of their system, or are the Sharks failing to execute the system they have?

Jaime went on a technical explanation on the Sharks employing a 1-4, with the Ducks a 1-3-1, and how that gives the Sharks trouble. I found it very interesting, and I’ll post the audio snippet once the podcast is available. After he was done, I asked off-mic- “so it’s the system?”, and Jaime basically nodded his head in assent. The system that enables the Sharks to be among the very best in the NHL in goals against is partially responsible for their handicapped offense. The system needs to change.

All you had to do was watch last night’s game to be convinced. The first breakout pass was ok, but the red line was clogged with three Ducks, with one defenseman behind to be prepared for the dump-in (usually Pronger or Niedermayer). If the Sharks dumped it in too quickly, that guy could race back and touch up the icing. If the Sharks timed it just right and had a perfect dump-in, now there were four Ducks between the puck-carrier low and the rest of the Sharks. Maybe he could whip it around the boards to the other winger, but more often than not there was no time or space to do anything other than chip it deep again and watch the lone forechecker flail around.  Last night was a how-to video for the rest of the NHL.

The Ducks have the Sharks cracked like a safe. And the Sharks won’t change the combination.

Patrick Marleau a Buffalo Sabre??

And then I woke up! It was one of those dreams that seemed so real, I had to question if it didn’t actually happen the night before. I went back to sleep and nothing further came of this preminition. Three cups of coffee later this morning, I started to think back on my dream. Is this idea that came in my sleep really that far fetched? Could the Sabres and Sharks be a trade match?

To Buffalo: Patrick Marleau, Jonathan Cheechoo and Christian Ehrhoff
To San Jose: Maxim Afinogenov, Paul Gaustad and Brian Campbell

A major makeover for both teams. The Sharks ship out three talented players who need a change of scenery and are the current posterboys of underachievement right now and get three talented players who are under 28 years old. Campbell is the powerplay specialist DW covets, the only drawback is his UFA status and he should command five million on the open market. Gaustad is huge third line center who can score on the PP. His size (6-4, 220) brings dreams of a Bernier/Gaustad/Clowe line next season – the Where’s the Beef line. Gaustad is a RFA at the end of the year. Afinogenov has underachieved this season, but he has all the speed and talent DW wants. Put him with Joe and cut him loose with Michalek. He is signed through 2009.

My new Sharks roster would look like this.

Michalek-Thornton-Afinogenov
Setoguchi-Mitchell-JR
Bernier-Gaustad-Grier
Pavelski-Brown-Davison

Rivet-Vlasic-Campbell-Ozo-McLaren-Murray-Carle

Do you think I’m dreaming still??? Do you think it is a nightmare??

According to David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News Sharks beatwriter, the Sharks held a closed door team meeting with GM Doug Wilson to address the growing elephant in the room – the Sharks lack of consistency and their inability to live up to expectations. Last night was bitterly disappointing. The Sharks played right into Phoenix’s hands, playing a grinding, physical game filled with a Battle Royale featuring eight players (P.S. can someone explain to me how Roenick didn’t get a fighting major??) San Jose didn’t play bad, but they didn’t play good – and the power play was embarrassing. The jumbotron caught Ron Wilson asking his team during a timeout this age old philosophical question.

What the $%&# are you guys doing? This is bull#$%&

The fans cheered. Everyone in our Section 124 was wondering the same thing. What are they doing? The Sharks look lost, dazed and confused on offense. Mike is right, it’s like they just don’t believe they can score more than two goals per game. Lack of fire, that is what Jeremy Roenick accused the players of last night. This has been the common criticism of this team for the last two years. As I said before, I call this team Jekyll and Hyde, and last night Mr. Hyde – the Sharks team that beat up Minnesota, Vancouver and went into Anaheim and won on Sunday night, was not here and Dr. Jekyll, the nice, mild mannered mediocre everyman, showed up and played down to its competition.

Not acceptable. Not for a team with Stanley Cup dreams. Here’s my take – this team meeting called by Doug Wilson is his final warning to this roster. This is their last stand before DW takes a blowtorch to some of his cornerstones and sends them packing. I like Patrick Marleau as a player and he is an outstanding leader in community service in the Bay Area. I don’t want the Sharks to trade him – but he is the root of the problem. Why?

1) He does not display strong leadership on the ice. Sure, he was involved in the fight last night, but I have the perfect view from my seats of Captain Pat not finishing his checks and floating around in the zone. He doesn’t bring it to the rink for sixty minutes night after night like other team captain’s in the league – Morrow, Pronger, Iginla.

2) Marleau’s dismal season on the stat sheet has poisoned other players on the roster. Michalek, Pavelski, Setoguchi – these guys can’t score unless you get them the puck. These are not garbage goal guys. They need the slick passing, speed racing Marleau to set them up…and he’s nowhere to be found.

3) Marleau hasn’t dealt with being the goat for last year’s series vs. Detroit and his confrontation with Ron Wilson. The pressure from the media and the doubting fan base is probably mounting for him.

So – what’s a GM to do? What is the going rate for Patrick Marleau? If the Sharks traded Marleau for Doug Weight, a prospect and a 7th round pick – would you be happy? I would be furious. Answers will come tomorrow night when we see if the Sharks can let off some steam and take it to the Ducks at home. If they don’t win, expect a few changes in Teal in the New Year and Captain Patty should been checking real estate options in Montreal or Toronto.

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.