Anybody watch “The Hockey Show” on nhl.com?  I was just starved for hockey anything, as I’ve been for the past month, and actually went to the league’s home page, as opposed to the news sites I generally frequent.  Lo and behold, there’s a TV type show that the league puts out every day, complete with eye candy hostess and lack of interesting content (other than the eye candy hostess, of course).  In today’s episode, there was a video segment of Kirk Maltby’s day with the Cup, a mildly interesting story, even on such a slow news day.

This will be the fourth time Maltby has had a Cup day, and I guess he used up all his good ideas on the other three.  The segment includes Kirk taking the best trophy in sports to not one, but TWO nail salons and a pet groomer.  Jeez man, that’s all you could come up with, heading over to your wife’s workplace and where the dog gets the matted poop cut out of his fur?  It’s supposedly the first part of a two part series, and to make up for this sissy crap I hope he takes the Cup that night to a dozen whorehouses and a UFC title fight.  Weak, Maltby.

Somehow, I couldn’t get past that segment enough to watch the other segments- “Athletes against Autism”, “Islanders Ice Girls”, and “Ace of Cakes.”  Ok, I watched the Ice Girls segement.  Can’t the season just start already?

Breaking news today when the Sharks announced the contract extension of pending RFA and now poster boy for the Sharks young defensive core, Marc-Eduoard Vlasic. With exact contract terms of his four year deal not released by the Sharks and no info to be found at my usual sources, but if I had to guess (and I’m going to) I would say it is a slight improvement to Ehrhoff’s deal because of the major minutes Vlasic will asked to log this season and in the future. So I’m saying four years, 14M – at an average of 3.5M per season.

So should Mike rush out and buy his Vlasic jersey or will we see the “Matt Carle Effect” here? Is Vlasic going to crumble under the pressure of his new deal and lay a big steamer on the blueline? Will Doug Wilson be forced to package Pickles in the offseason to get a veteran D-man to take up the slack. No, no and no. Pickles isn’t in the same situation Carle was in last year and is signing the extension as a more proven NHL player with 163 NHL games under his skates who has already shouldered a major role on a playoff team…which Carle hadn’t really done when he signed his extension and still hasn’t done yet with any consistentcy.

Another great move by DW, setting up the Sharks to win a Stanley Cup today and contend for years to come. When does the season start again?? SHARKS!!!!

Check out our new podcast at Dudes on Hockey.

Mike and Doug again show their prowess in appropriating other people’s ideas; this time, they steal Puck Daddy’s “5 Things I’d Change About the NHL.”  In Sharks news, they briefly discuss the Jeff Friesen situation, and take a listener email about season tickets.

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New episode here.  This time, in true middle-of-the-summer fashion, we steal someone else’s idea- Wyshynshi’s “5 Things I’d Change About the NHL”.  Oh yeah, and we make fun of the idea of bringing Jeff Friesen to camp.

No, no they don’t.  In the second part of a 4 part series, I’m breaking down the Kings in a post that’s one part information, five parts snark.  In an (infinitesimally small) way, I wish the Kings were better, because the S.F. – L.A. rivalry is a good one.  But like other rivalries that fell into disrepair since one or both teams now suck (like Niners-Rams), the Sharks-Kings bad blood doesn’t run as thick as it once did.  And now, I must say in true Nelson Muntz fashion- Ha ha!

The Kings are the very definition of a rebuilding team.  Stocked with young players with great potential, they still aren’t nearly ready for NHL prime time, and probably look to this season as a castor oil situation.  As in, “swallow hard, I’m sure we’ll be better next year.”  Actually, castor oil isn’t nearly the funniest analogy I could have made there.

The Good

Youth Youth Youth.  I’m willing to bet the Jonas Brothers will be the most popular locker room pregame music.  Kopitar, Frolov, Brown and O’Sullivan are all strong young players.  I’m trying to think of another good thing, but I can’t right now.  Oh wait, I think they are adding Ice Girls too.  That’s good, right?

The Bad

Where to start?  How about the coaching choice?  Terry Murray last had a head coaching job with the Panthers in 2000.  He did lead Florida to a playoff berth in 2000, and the Flyers before that to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997.  Neither of those rosters had any youth to speak of like these Kings do.  And his assistant coaching job the last few years was back with Philly, where coaching up a young hockey team is as foreign as cheering for Donovan McNabb.

Let’s continue with the blueline, where the top 5 D will probably be Denis Gauthier, Tom Preissing, Jack Johnson, Matt Greene and Peter Harrold, with the sixth likely being Drew Doughty, the #2 overall pick just two months ago.  That’s two very young guys, one second pairing guy (Preissing), and three third pairing guys.  Man, the Kings are really going to have to rely on a good goaltender.

The Ugly

No dice.  After starting everyone but Justin Timberlake in goal last year, the Kings could reprise that sorry tune this year.  Choosing between Ersberg, LaBarbera, and Bernier is like choosing between Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.  The choices are thin (bah BOOM).  And none of those three even have Vicodin connections.

Maybe that’s why Dean Lombardi is steering the ship like a drunken sailor.  After trading Vishnovsky and Cammalleri for below market value and letting veteran leadership like Blake just walk away without even a contract offer, I think the Kings are hoping the fan base will be too focused on Heroes this fall to care.

Here it is.  Took some emails, talked about what movement we might see in the east, and some more Sharks trivia.

Also, I’m on deck to do a Kings preview sometime this week, so stick around for that.  If you want us to talk about something specific on the show, or you have feedback, email us.

This time around, Mike and Doug reprise the “Who’s Not Done” segment, but for the eastern conference.  But all isn’t rosy on the horizon- an email is addressed that questions the Sharks future defensive prospects.  At the end, more Sharks trivia, now becoming a regular part of the show.

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Since there’s just not that much to talk about and the subject of how the Sharks are going to get under the cap totally beaten to death, let’s start to take a look at the Pacific Division and the state of our competition, shall we?

The Phoenix Coyotes came on strong at the end of season in 2007-08 and were a better team than many expected, including myself. Don Maloney is building this team the right way, with a combination of youth and veterans, but sticking with the young guys in key roles instead of bringing in vets who are stop gaps and just stunt the growth of the team.

THE GOOD
This team is stocked full of young, exciting talent up front. Martin Hanzal, Brett MacLean, Peter Mueller and Kyle Turris all appear to be in a position to have an impact on this season with this years draft pick, Mikkel Bodker, potentially available to play in the NHL this season as well. This means all four of the Coytoes first round picks could be major contributors to the big club, which says a ton for how well they’ve drafted the past few years. Adding Jokinen was a major get and he should help this team take the next step and give Shane Doan the veteran support he needs, both on the ice and in the locker room.

Also good is their goaltender, Breezy. He can steal a win on any given night and was a true steal for Phoenix off waivers, and an excellent deal at 4.25M per season. He could have been the most prized goalie on the UFA market this offseason, probably getting 6M from either Chicago or Washington. Not sure it was a great move by Breezy’s camp to not wait it out, but it was a sure sign of loyalty that they believe in what Phoenix is doing.

Also good is the mountain of cap space Phoenix has both this season (13M) and going into next season with around 24M of room with only Derek Morris as their major UFA. So, it’s possible the Coyotes could be in prime position to add a big piece at the deadline and try and convince them to stay on for the ride….Marion Gaborik anyone?

THE BAD
Todd Fedoruk. Daniel Carcillo. Brian McGrattan. A trio that provided around 500 PIM’s last season, and that is with McGrattan and Carcillo not playing a full season respectively. Why the hell do you need all three of these guys? I think this could backfire big time for a team looking to take the next step – and the Coyotes could find themselves on the penalty kill more often than not. Talk about following the Ducks model…literally. Their old back up goalie, some talented young forwards and a couple of thugs. Didn’t Phoenix learn from last years playoffs that this model might be out of date and killing penalties all game is no way to win?

I’m also not sold on the Coyotes blue line. Jovo-Cop is not worth the 6.5M he gets at this point in his career and management didn’t do a great job of replacing Boynton and Ballard, instead it looks like they are rolling the dice with Avalanche cast off Kurt Sauer and Calgary reject, David Hale. This is a weak spot for the Coyotes for sure.

THE UGLY
Why would you give Todd Fedoruk a three year, 3.3M deal? Did they forget that this guy got waived last year by Dallas? I guess he was effective for the Wild, with over 100 PIM’s and 11 points, but usually a guy who performed so poorly to get waived in season isn’t worth a three year term. Could backfire for the Coyotes. I smell an offseason buyout….

What do you think about the new look Phoenix Coyotes? Tough to beat or gonna bust?

The numbers for the latest podcast are much lower than usual, and I realized this morning it’s because I didn’t mention it here.  As an avid RSS user both with blog feeds and podcast feeds, I hope all you out there in the series of tubes are keen to the wonders of automatic XML-driven updating.  We release the podcast every Wednesday, rain or shine, but I will keep reminding y’all.

Anyway, the latest podcast is about a couple of articles that raise various questions about the Sharks, and we take a couple of emails later in the show.  Especially now, we can use ideas for things to talk about, so if there are any topics you want us to weigh in on, either about the Sharks or other NHL topics, please email us here.

This week Mike and Doug discuss a couple of different articles written about some Sharks.  First, they discuss Allen Muir of si.com’s view that Joe Thornton should be left off the 2010 Olympic team.  After debunking that idea, they discuss an article in the Hockey News written about Douglas Murray, and his potential unrestricted free agency in 2009.

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