It’s a Pleasure to be Wrong
January 4th, 2009, 9:35 am
Some thoughts on a 5-3 win vs. the Islanders.
– I think the Semenov as a forward experiment was a failure, and I think Coach McLellan would agree judging by his 03:44 of ice time. Frankenstein didn’t play after ten minutes into the 2nd period. He had one of the worst fights of the year vs. Tim Jackman in the first period. Hasn’t Sharks management seen enough of this guy?
– On the flip side, one of the most entertaining fights between Ehrhoff and Weight. Blow after blow from two guys who rarely drop, but when they do, its fists flying.
– Derek Joslin’s NHL debut was….well….honestly, I barely remember him out there. He didn’t do anything to stand out in a good way, but he certainly was better than Frankenstein back there. He seems to be slick with the pass and had a few good exchanges with Ehrhoff in the Islanders zone.
– The lack of physical play minus Murray and Shelley was evident to me. We really missed them and their attitude in infectious on the team when they’re on the ice. To succeed on this road trip, the Sharks are going to need both these big boys back.
Tough, tough road trip ahead. Listen for a new podcast this week at www.dudesonhockey.com.
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McLellan on the Semenov experiment:
“Semi did an admirable job up front for having not played there a whole lot,” McLellan said. “He got in on the forecheck a few times, created some turnovers. Obviously he got involved physically (a reference to Semenov’s first-period fight with Islander right wing Tim Jackman) and those are all good things to see from him.”
Semenov only saw 3:44 ice time — three shifts in the first period, two in the second, none in the third.
“The way the game seemed to unfurl, we narrowed it down a little more,” McLellan said of his reliance on three lines, not four. “That was nothing on Semi.”
Could be he didn’t like the way the rest of that line was playing either… Take it for what you will, McLellan always defends his players to the press.
Also, that fight wasn’t bad compared to either of Crosby’s or whatever that was that Semin had yesterday…
Good comments Evilducks, but the fact that both his line mates got shifts the rest of the game and Plihal played double Semi’s minutes tell the story to me.
While it’s not uncommon for Shelley’s minutes to be in the four to five minute range, usually his minutes increase when the game gets out of hand. For example, in the 5-0 win over Vancouver, Shelley saw 5:14 of his 11 minutes of ice time in the 3rd period. In this case, Semenov saw zero ice time after the game went to 3-0 or even when it was 4-1.
I do love how McLellan doesn’t sell anyone down the river. He is the anti-Ron Wilson.
Yeah, I don’t doubt Alexi was less than impressive and McL was trying to keep him off the ice. The fight wasn’t horrible for a guy who doesn’t fight much though. He punched him a couple times and tackled him, I don’t expect to see him taking on boogard anytime soon but thats not what he’s here for anyway.
Crosby’s shots to the groing and mugging the other guy off the face off were really pathetic fights and I still don’t know what Alexander Semin was doing against Staal but I laugh my ass off everytime I watch it. If you haven’t seen it go to hockeyfights.com and check it out, it’s worth it.
So I thought the Semin fight would be chuckle worthy so I just visited the site… no, this was laugh out loud stuff, especially with the commentators. If I had Semin on my fantasy team, which I don’t because my team is not that good, I would drop him out of principal.
HI-larious. Which is worse, junk-punching like Crosby, or the Animal-playing-the-drums routine that Semin did?
Thats a tough question, I expect full analysis on the podcast.
Did someone mention Semin playing the drums like animal?
http://semindrum.ytmnd.com/
There’s Audio. It Loops. It Gets annoying. But it’s funny for a few seconds.