Game 6, and Nothing on the Sharks
June 9th, 2009, 2:28 pm
Watch game 6 tonight, should be a doozy. Still makes me a little grumpy that I can watch hockey, but no Sharks. Just to let you know, we’ll be doing the podcast a little later than usual this week, not exactly sure when we will release, but it won’t be tomorrow morning as per normal. Sorry about the delay, but it can’t be helped.
UPDATE: Podcast is cancelled this week. Between scheduling problems earlier in the week and now me being sick as a dog, we’ll have to talk next week.
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I feel you Mike. I’m ready for the season to go into history books. I hope the Wings take care of business tonight so we can move on as Sharks fans and forget this miserable spring rather quickly.
Damn this is a slow off season.
How about this on Sharks:
Crosby has 3 points this series so far. That’s worse than Thornton against Anaheim, who are arguably an even better defensive team. Does that make Thornton better than Crosby? Probably not but it does suggest that you shouldn’t throw Thornton under the bus just because his team didn’t win a series (even if that series happened to be in the first round).
Apparently Heatley wants out of Ottawa and the Sharks are apparently interested according to TSN.
That’s a nasty contract to take on, what do the Dudes think of this possibility and who do you think we would have to give up or who would you want to give up for him?
The moment I read about Heatley wanting out of Ottawa, I thought I bet DW is all over it. He does come with a big contract, but he’s still about to hit his prime so I would welcome him with open arms.
I think it’ll take Marleau to get him here, plus Ottawa will have to pick someone else salary or give up a draft pick, although Marleau is only under contract for one year vs Heatley’s five more years.
Otherwise, we’ll have to send Cheechoo, Michalek, likely Error and a late pick or two for Heatley. Might be too much.
Who knows. I hope DW finds a way to pull this one somehow without costing us too much. I wouldn’t mind seeing what Heatley and Thornton can do on the same line.
Ivan,
I think you’re right on the money on this one. Though the stuff coming out of Ottawa is that Heatley lacks leadership and grit. Could just be sour grapes, but I’d rather not have more of the same.
No download link? Fire the podcasters.
Heatly would probably equal less production, less leadership, to go along with a larger contract for more years than Marleau. Not sure how that would work salarywise even if Cheechoo was part of the deal.
The Sharks can get a better bang for the buck using the talent they have on the roster with minor tweaks, than they could from any wholesale changes.
I wouldn’t call Marleau the grittiest player either and we all spent hours talking about his lack of leadership. I don’t expect 1st line players to be too gritty anyway. I’m not seeing Crosby throwing his body around too much (although Ovechkin, Datsyuk and Zetterberg do that every night).
The main point here is, in this market this year, Heatley is likely the only good return we can get for Marleau, a return that may have an immediate impact on team culture, style and offense. All other options (draft picks, or a collection of role players) are too risky.
On a negative side of things, if Heatley wants out of Ottawa, who’s to say that he won’t do the same to San Jose a couple of years down the road?
But seeing the kind of trades DW was able to pull earlier in acquiring Boyle, Joe T and others, I won’t be surprised if we can still keep Marleau but acquire Heatley somehow, especially since Heatley has a NTC and can dictate where he goes and we’re the only top class team making an offer.
Jon
Heatley is younger than Marleau and has better career numbers per season. How many times Marleau had 100+ points a season?
Why would his production drop here all of a sudden?
I think we already have a fiery leader on this team in Boyle and we don’t need to shop for one. We could use a gritty third liner and with everything going on in Dallas I’m thinking we could go after Ott, or at least try and get Niel or Laperrier.
If I was going after Heatley I’d be shopping Cheechoo, Michalek and Erhoff (maybe picks or one of our goalie prospects). I don’t think the price is too high for a top 3 forward. If we don’t go that route, is there any chance we convince Nabokov to waive his clause to go to Ottawa? They need goal tending. Pack in him and Michalek off and get Heatley and maybe Elliot?
Maybe I think too highly of the Sharks players to build rational trade proposals…
Ottawa got Leclaire at the deadline, I doubt they’re in the market for another goalie.
If we ship Nabokov to Ottawa, who’ll tend the goal? Brand new rookie?
Biron is available now that Flyers signed Emery, but he’ll likely demand more money than Nabokov is making, and he’s not any better.
You have to remember as well that Heatley’s last two seasons in Atlanta was during the time of the aftermath of the car accident that lead to Dan Snyder’s death. Plus Dany was injured pretty badly. It was hard on Dany to return there and drive past that spot daily. As much as we would want to think that wouldn’t have an effect on the ice it did, which lead to him wanting to return home to Canada and be traded to Ottawa after completing a full season in Atlanta.
I think he would be a good addition to the team. But then again I have always been a big fan of his. I feel if DW triggers this deal it will be a creative one.
Marleau was born Sept 1979
Career Totals GP~871 G~276 A~334 P~610 +1
Dany was born Jan 81
Career Totals GP~507 G~260 A~283 P~543 +47
Biron can demand that kind of money all he wants, I’ll be shocked if he gets anywhere near that from anybody outside of Colorado.
I’m not sure how I missed the Leclair thing, probably because he was injured. We could go with Boucher as the starter and try out some of the rookies and see if they stick, if not try to get something at the deadline.
Boucher as a starter? Crazy talk. We already forgot his master piece dump in he allowed? I doubt we resign him. My guess is that we’ll see less Nabokov next year (maybe 50-55 games tops) and more of rookies, but I doubt this team does something as wild as trading Nabokov for nothing just to dump his salary.
Look at the finalists. Osgood and Fluery are no better than Nabokov. Both had terrible regular seasons and both allowed plenty of soft goals in playoffs and yet here they are, both playing in game 7. Why? Because both have dominant offenses playing at their best and both have good shut down defenses that don’t fall apart when needed. I was blown away by how inept Detroit’s offense looked in both Game 4 and 6. Pens were playing out of their mind. At the same time, so was Detroit in Game 5.
All the playoff games I watched this season made me realize once again that Nabokov is not our biggest obstacle to successful playoffs.