I don’t put a lot of stock in preseason games.  Actually, about none.  Neither team has all their good players in, which makes the outcome about as significant as Tila Tequila’s view on the economy.  Last night, the Pavs-Cheech-Michalek line was in, and tonight they were replaced with the Joe-Patty-Clowe line.  The D were also on the rotation- last night Boyle and Ehrhoff, tonight Blake and Vlasic.

Good and bad things happened in both games (you can’t get this kind of analysis just anywhere); last night a third period flurry made the Sharks look good in a 5-2 win.  Tonight, the good Canuck defense and Bobby Lou prevented the Sharks from scoring until the third in a 3-2 loss.

As far as the young kids go, no one has made a really big impression on me in terms of their play.  Brad Staubitz is perfectly happy to bang around with guys and drop the gloves, which the fans appreciate.  In my opinion, only Mike Morris and Steven Zalewski have really shown they can compete at this level, and then only in flashes.  Derek Joslin, a early pick to be a 7th or 8th defenseman, has been pretty invisible.  Semenov, the guy who will likely be that 7th D, scored last night, but it didn’t make up for some ill-conceived passes, slow movement, and lack of physicality.

One thing new was the power play strategy.  Sometimes it looked like a herd of cats, and occasionally you’d see a guy camped on the half boards a la Wilson, but McLellan has clearly implemented a new style.  Every time the D get the puck at the point they move quickly to create a shooting lane and are more inclined to let it fly.  You see more guys crashing the crease, like Joe and Marleau, and Clowe’s goal tonight was due to a redirect off his skate (half on purpose).

To be honest, the most interesting thing (other than the fights) in these two games was the realization that the new seats are in the players’ wives’ section.  And tonight, that also meant a visit from some actual players.  This photo was taken from my seat:

As we can see, Christian Ehrhoff and Milan Michalek decided to take in the game from the stands in some snappy suits, and conveniently situated near some hot women (not pictured, but take my word for it).  The third guy was also pretty dressed up, and I figured he was a player too, but I couldn’t place him.  Anybody know who this guy is?

But I did have a scintillating conversation with Ehrhoff as he went to his seat:

Me: Played well last night, man.

Ehrhoff:  Thanks.

I’m not a star-chaser at all, so I just let them go about their business after that.  Pretty much everyone around was clocking their every move, but they were more or less left alone. If it were Dan Boyle instead of Michalek I don’t know if I could have resisted saying something embarrassing (“I love you, man!” or “Hey, you want to go to Red Lobster?”) but luckily I was spared.

In other news, I’ll be heading to the Big Apple on vacation this week, so the podcast will be delayed until Thursday this one time. Also look for me on the NHL Network feed of the NHL Live! radio show one of these days- I’m planning on hanging around the NHL store a bit when the show is broadcast.  Maybe I can induce Hradek into a rant about something.

Doug Wilson does it again. A preemptive strike to prevent another Sharks player from hitting the open market. Douglas Murray sticks with the Team Teal Comes First concept and signed a four year/10M deal before beating the $%*& out of former Sharks prospect Brennan Evans and scoring a goal in last nights preseason loss in Anahiem. He also managed to be a +1 on a night when the Sharks coughed up six goals.

What do I think? A great move by Doug Wilson….and a head scratcher for Douglas Murray. He might have just left around six million dollars on the table by not testing the open market, when you figure if he had another solid year – he might have fetched a four year/16M deal. Hell, if Jeff Finger got four years/14M…why not, right? Nope. Not for Murray. He now joins a Sharks core that has Vlasic, Boyle, Ehrhoff and Murray locked up until 2011 and beyond….just think of adding Petrecki to that mix and that’s even tastier than Mike’s Rainbow Dippin’ Dots (couldn’t resist).

What if Rob Blake drinks from the fountain of Roenick and has a career re-birth of 40+ points and 90 PIM’s? Well…if the Sharks need a great trade chip they have three good, young D under contract long term – and that increases their value ten-fold. Matt Carle was turned into Dan Boyle. Doug Wilson is like the Cris Angel of the NHL, but without the bad hair and unisex jeans.

I guess this is a personal choice for an athlete. Is six million dollars left on the table worth playing in Atlanta or Columbus? Ron Hainsey would say “hells yes”. Murray quietly grunted and signed on the dotted line to chase the Cup in San Jose. Someone get this man some Swedish Fish!

So, what would you say? Murray showed character by signing early or stupidity by not testing the UFA market?

After months of no hockey, the Sharks are back with their annual intrasquad exhibition game, Teal and White.  Mike and Doug discuss what happened, and what might be taken away from such a game.  Next they address the most pressing issue facing the Sharks, and the question of several listener emails, the Sharks salary cap situation.  After discussing some options there, the season preview continues with the Central division.

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We were both very excited to finally see some live professional hockey last night in the Teal and White game. It’s a opportunity to check out some of the young guys that are coming up, and a first look at the new faces, like Blake and Boyle. The latest podcast is about that, and we continue our season preview.

In other matters, you see we have a new look and feel over here- lots of changes have been made to the hockeyanalysis.com group of sites. I certainly recommend you check out the other sites here, be it other teams, the rumors site, or the fantasy site.

Also, you can see I’ve added an advert for the upcoming Sharks call-in radio show. It says “Saturdays” but the first show is October 4 October 11, so don’t tune in quite yet. Store up all your rants, raves, and questions for the Saturday after the season opener, and I hope you’ll call in. It can be streamed over the web at the KDOW 1220 website.

Finally, we’ve launched our very own fantasy league for readers of the blog and listeners of the podcast. I guess that means everyone on Earth, although somehow our numbers just aren’t reflecting it yet. Anyway, it’s a Yahoo league, id# 45644, password ‘danboyle’. I hope you’ll join up, meet other readers/listeners, and trash talk us in the message section. And no, I don’t think I’ll give you Evgeni Malkin for Fedor Tyutin and Mark Smith.

Many die-hard Sharks fans already know that Torrey Mitchell broke his leg in training camp yesterday, but as one commenter put it in the last post, what does that mean for the Sharks salary-wise?  Sorry to keep posting about the CBA and salary cap rules, but this is really the most serious issue facing the Sharks going into this season.

First of all, as bcyde said, Mitchell can’t be put on Long-Term IR unless he’s out a much longer time, but I think that’s a red herring.  LTIR doesn’t really gain you cap relief, not really.   And yes, the ‘mepex’ in that comment thread is me.

So the Sharks have to bite another bullet, and find a way to replace Mitchell with a minimum of cap hit.  As grier responded in the last thread, this pretty much cuts out Logan Couture, Mike Moore, or Jamie McGinn.  And with Couture or McGinn, if they play 11 games or more, that counts as a ‘professional season’, which shortens their restricted free agency, and would count toward the 50-player SPC limit.  Sending those guys back to juniors is the right move here.

So look for a college or minor league player, like Zalewski or Mike Morris, to get a cup of coffee in the bigs.  And I agree with grier that as long as Friesen doesn’t tank camp or have some unreasonable contract demands, he’ll be on the opening day roster.

In other news, the Sharks signed John Ferguson Jr., the former GM of the Maple Leafs, as a scout.  Most people only know Ferguson as the guy who signed all his players to contracts with either no-trade or no-movement clauses, which put the Leafs over a barrel time and again.  By most accounts, JFJ is a capable scout, his crown jewel being the drafting of Daniel Alfredsson by the Sens in the 6th round of the 1994 draft.  As far as I’m concerned, if he’s a good scout, welcome aboard.  As long as they keep him away from the contract talks and personnel decisions, I’m happy.

Now that we know that Frankenstein and Rizz Part II (Plihal) are both in camp, we are further left to speculate on what the final roster will look like for our San Jose Sharks. It is curious that neither Semenov or Plihal’s contract has been made “official” by the NHLPA, most likely the contracts are both sitting on Doug Wilson’s desk. Semenov has scribbled the words “ME LIKE BRAINS” next to his name and Plihal wrote “I Love Healthy Scratch” and they are ready to fax….after Doug Wilson has figured out how the hell to get back under the NHL salary cap.

McLellan and Wilson have said that these moves would be made based on who earns a roster spot in camp, which is the right answer – so it is extremely possible that both The Monster and Plihal could get outplayed by a pair of rookies….say rookie camp standouts Steven Zalewksi or Mike Morris or perhaps Doug Joslin will step up finally and earn a spot……and then Puttin’ on the Ritz and Thomas P. end up in Worcester. I have to assume that their contacts are two-way deals.

There are several questions going into camp. We will address those in more depth in the coming days on the podcast and here. Doug Wilson is going to have at least one more move up his sleeve in the coming weeks to get under the cap….and it’s anyone’s guess what it will be. Will it be the obvious casualty, Kyle McLaren and his 2.5M? If Couture, Zalewski and Morris shine in camp, could Michalek be the Shark shown the door to get back coveted prospects/1st round pick? Will a training camp injury make the decision that much easier….I think we’ve learned that sometimes with DW, the obvious move isn’t always the move he’s got plotted out. It’s anyone’s guess at this point.

With less than a week to go before training camp starts, and a week until the first live hockey in months, Mike and Doug touch on the rookie camp, and the Mathieu Schneider situation.  Finally, the season preview continues with the Atlantic division.

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Lucky 13 here.  I want to again thank our regular emailers for providing much needed topics and content for the show, and I renew our call to our readers here and other listeners (you know who you are) to email us, and let us know what you think of the show, or what you want us to talk about.

Ok, enough begging (I refuse to use the term bleg).  We touched a little on the rookie camp in this episode, and tried to break down the Mathieu Schneider situation as best we could, and contrasted it a bit with the unfortunate pickle McLaren is in.   The season preview continues with the Atlantic division.

Now on to Schneider schadenfreude.  First off, I can’t believe no one else has used those two words together yet, because in my mind, it’s like Hall and Oates, Calvin and Hobbes, Kibbles and Bits.  Anyway, because I fancy myself a bit of a capologist, here’s my breakdown:

• Schneider was over 35 when he signed his current deal with the Ducks, and thus falls into a special category.
• That category states that if the Ducks waive him, or he retires, even due to injury, his salary still counts against the cap.  This isn’t the case for players that signed their deals when they were younger than 35.  This also explains why Roenick is on a series of one-year deals.
• Signing a 37 year old guy to a two year deal for almost $12M was, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid.  I’ll take bets right now that if Sundin signs a multi-year deal that (equally stupid) team will be in the same jam in a year’s time.
• By waiving him, the Ducks make his contract available to anyone who wants to take it.  If someone does claim him, the Ducks are off the hook.  To our glee so far, that hasn’t happened.  It’s been reported that the Kings, seemingly a likely candidate, will probably not claim him.
• If and when our eerily-white-toothed hero clears waivers, the Ducks could send him to the minors, but that wouldn’t provide any cap relief either.
• One possible play for the Ducks is to bring him back to the team at that point, through a process called “re-entry waivers”, which again makes Schneider available to anyone, but this time, at half the price.  The Ducks will be on the hook for the other half, and wouldn’t really solve their cap problem.
• This is where my limited expertise ends.  If the Ducks don’t bring him back through re-entry waivers, can other teams sign him, and then he gets paid by both teams?  I know some players get paid by two teams because of a buyout, like Darcy Tucker, but this is different.  Anyone know?

It’s fun watching Brian Burke squirm.  You can almost taste how badly they want to sign Selanne, but they can’t until Schneider is gone, or other cap-clearing moves are made.

Two things you don’t expect to hear in the same sentence are hockey and public radio.  But the most recent episode of “This American Life” (episode available on mp3 until next week) opens the episode titled “The Enforcers” with one of the most fearsome enforcers of all time, Joe Kocur.  The hockey stuff really only lasts 4 minutes or so, but it’s worth a listen.  Not really illuminating, especially if you read The Code, but hell, what else do you have to do?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how sad is it that I listen to a show on NPR?  Don’t answer that.

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Semenov signed.