In a gross display, the Sharks were beaten badly on Opening Night. I thought there would be struggles with this team with all the new faces in key places, but this goes beyond what I expected. Somebody call Kirk Cameron! We’ve got Growing Pains.

The good – Benn Ferriero. He was the best Sharks on the ice and even saw top line duty after Seto struggled to do much of anything tonight. He’s going to be a gamer. Jason Demers was serviceable tonight and had some bright moments on the power play. The second line was the most dangerous and the third line looked solid at times in the first period. Marleau, Clowe and Pavs were the only plus players on the night.

The other really odd stat of the night was we murdered the Avs in the faceoff circle, winning 71% of the faceoffs – even more bizarre than outshooting them – we saw that many times last year where the Sharks outshot a team but still lost cause their goalie played out of his mind.

The bad – So much, where do we start.

Nabby made a few big saves, but not nearly enough – and not nearly as many as Avs goalie Craig Anderson who robbed the Sharks many times, especially during our power plays. Nabby gave huge rebounds and while he didn’t get much help, especially from Boyle and Murray who looked disorganized at times, he HAS to come up bigger if the Sharks are going anywhere. If the coaching staff is going to be true to their word and say that Nabby needs to earn his starts, then expect Greiss in the pipes on Saturday night – cause Nabby wasn’t good tonight – unless you dig a .761 SV%.

The Versus announcers couldn’t tell the difference between McGinn and Ferriero for much of the game, and that drove me crazy. Someone correct that moron! Versus sucks.

Heatley had a lousy Sharks debut with a minus three and he was the guy who didn’t backcheck, allowing the fourth goal. He was just standing there, gliding back toward the net – hell, Cheechoo would have atleast fallen down trying to get there. Heater also did a Selanne impression by missing a wide open net in the third period.

I was also turned off by how the Sharks appeared to have the same turtle-up nature that they did in the Marleau as Captain era. No big hits. No grit. One lame fight. When the team fell down 2-1, there should have been some response by Nichol, Shelley, Clowe, Murray, Captain Blake…well, I guess he did respond by giving away a four minute PP. My bad. Seriously though, I thought tonight was a great chance for the team to prove their identity crisis is over…they looked like the same group with different names on their backs.

Yes, yes – it’s early – but I wanted to see something and instead I got nothing but heartburn and a noise complaint. Prilosec…take me away…

Team captain named. Opening night roster determined, kinda…Game #1 is upon us.

I smell hockey.

Things I’m looking for tonight at the Sharks take the ice.

• How will the top pairing of Boyle and Murray look as a dynamic duo? Is Murray the player we saw in the preseason, ready to take the next step to a legit top four D-man, or was that a flash in the Swedish pan?
• How will Kent Huskins and Jason Demers fare against NHL competition? The effectiveness of that bottom pairing could be the key between a win on the road or a profanity filled tirade in my living room tonight.
• Malhotra/McGinn/Ortmeyer. Can they back up the hype that this line is going to provide the support on both ends of the ice to the top six that Grier/Goc/Cheechoo couldn’t last season?
• Can the Sharks take the heat of an emotional opening night in Colorado where that team will be loose and looking to play their hearts out for the best player in their franchise history?
• I’m summoning the Nabby of 2007-08 with a 2.14 GAA to show up, not the Nabby of 2008-09 with a 2.44 GAA. I also would like to see his save percentage go back up to the .916% area from the .910% of last year.

I think the Sharks are going to run into a “glass case of emotion” in the first period, but the better team will prevail in the end. It will be much harder than it should be, but late penalties will kill the Avs after they take an early lead and the Sharks PP will carry them over the finish line.

Sharks 4 Avs 2