Ok, so I’ve been terribly derelict in my blogging duties. It’s certainly not attributable to my lack of hockey fandom, as I’ve watched more games this season than any other. Since we are at about the halfway point of the season (Sharks are 3 games past at the time of this writing), let me give my Sharks roundup for the first half:

Offense:
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Thornton trade made the Sharks a helluva lot better, and quickly. The line was until recently Thornton, Cheechoo, and Ekman, and whenever they’ve been on the ice, they’ve pretty well dictated play. Cheechoo has since been moved (demoted?) to the Marleau line, but I think he’ll be back. And while I think that Marleau has the ability to be a first-line center, matching up against the opponents’ best defensive pair rendered him not completely useless, but certainly mediocre. Marleau centering the second line provides the Sharks with maybe the best 1-2 center combination in the league. Although admittedly Alyn McAuley had a career year last year, he seems largely ineffective this year, and would be my biggest offensive disappointment. I didn’t get to see him play much in Toronto, and perhaps he’s just assumed his old form. Mark Smith’s grittiness and good wrist shot has been a nice surprise.

Defense:
Clearly the weakest aspect of the Sharks right now. Tom Preissing, who has the best +/- on the team (+12) is back, but has been out recently with injury. Scott Hannan was near the bottom of the league in +/- for the first quarter of the season, but is now at a more reasonable level (-3). The Sharks miss Mike Rathje more than they thought they would, and trading Brad Stuart didn’t help. The defensive corps is just too inexperienced in my view to lead the Sharks deep in the playoffs, and maybe to the playoffs at all. Ehrhoff, Fahey, Gorges, Murray, and Preissing all have 100 games or less of NHL experience. Davison has only 110 games. Scott Hannan and Kyle McLaren, while probably top-4 defensemen on nearly any NHL team, are not enough.

Special Teams:
The power play was the worst aspect of the Sharks’ game early in the season, and the most positively affected by the Thornton trade. Putting Marleau at the point on the power play has also helped. The Sharks were in the last 3 or 4 teams in the entire NHL for PP% in November, and now they are middle of the pack. The last few games the Sharks have taken too many penalties, which completely cost them one game (Phoenix) and almost another (LA). Giving up 5-on-3 advantages for one minute or more is bad news when your kill is in the bottom half of the league.

Goaltending:
Traditionally one of the Sharks’ biggest strengths, but injuries have hurt. Both Nabokov and Toskala missed quite a big of time, but we got to see Nolan Schaefer step up in late October (5-1, 1.88 GAA). Both Nabby and Toskala have been a little shaky, but they’ve both turned in good quality starts in January. I’m not concerned.

Looking Forward:
The Sharks might make the playoffs with their current roster, but given the quality of the West right now, it’ll be a tough battle. They’ve been bad against division opponents, and continuing this trend will certainly eliminate a lot of hope in January; they play 4 more division games, and 4 in February. Unless they are much better than .500 in those 8 games, they’ll be pretty much out of the playoff picture by the Olympic break. Since Nabby will be an unrestricted free agent next year, and both Schaefer and Dmitri Patzhold are playing well in the minors, look for the Sharks to deal him for a good stay-at-home defensemen in the next month. Names I’ve seen so far are Brendan Witt, Martin Skoula, and Eric Weinrich. Since Skoula is on the Stars now, and Turco is playing so well, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. Doug Wilson will not make the “Kipper to Calgary for a bag of pucks” mistake again. I’m hoping the Sharks don’t trade a quality goalie like Nabokov for a solid defenseman in the twilight of his career, like Brian Leetch or Sergei Gonchar.

I was pretty surprised, Nashville has got some jump in ’em. The Kariya-Erat-Legwand thing was going pretty good. Turns out DirecTV doesn’t have Fox Sports as part of the package, so I frantically ran around trying to figure out if I should get Center Ice, or just the Sports package, and then if I can even get the Sharks games without the Sports package if I have Center Ice, blah blah blah. So I didn’t get to TiVo the game until the second period. I formed my own opinion during the game, but this article in the Mercury sums it up pretty well.

• The power play sucked (0 for 6). They have some of the fastest players in the NHL, and the Sharks were doing the ol’ dump-and-chase for many of their power plays. I have no idea why.
• They didn’t tighten up too well in the third. They had a 2-1 lead, and ended up losing. Bad times.

Hard to see the Sharks lose like that on the first game of the season. Next two games are at Chicago and at St. Louis, and I hope the Sharks come back for the home opener 2-1. Both of those teams are very beatable- neither should make the playoffs.

Today’s games:

I’m pumped for the season. I’ve read the previews in Hockey News, on ESPN.com, and in ESPN the Magazine (which I’ll vent about later), I’ve drafted my fantasy team, I’ve pored over the Sharks website for news and information. Maybe this will be the least-watched, least-cared-about, and most-ridiculed hockey season ever. But I don’t care. I’m a hockey fan, dammit, and I’m going to feed my puck habit any way I can.

ESPN.com – NHL Index: “ESPNEWS is your one-stop location for NHL coverage this season, starting Thursday with Hockey Night. Get in-progress and postgame highlights along with Mr. Mullet himself, Barry Melrose.”
NHL Tonight may be gone, and ESPN may not be televising games any more, but perhaps this is a palatable substitute.

I love fantasy hockey. It’s a great excuse to follow a whole bunch of players you’ve either know only peripherally, or never heard of at all. In my case, I’ve been following the NHL long enough to recognize most names, but every now and again I’m surprised by a good performer I’ve never heard of. Either way, you (well, I) end up spending way too much time debating the relative worth of Daniel Sedin vs. Craig Conroy vs. John Madden. Great time sink! We had our fantasy draft last night at my place, and here’s my draft in order:

1. Marcus Naslund
2. Tomas Vokoun
3. Pavel Datsyuk
4. Rick Nash
5. John Grahame
6. Martin Havlat
7. Wade Redden
8. Mike Modano
9. Richard Zednik
10. Mathieu Schneider
11. Matt Barnaby
12. Gary Roberts
13. Mattias Ohlund
14. Adam Foote
15. Chris Simon
16. Jay Bouwmeester

An ok draft, I guess. I’m happy with getting Modano and Foote when I did. Today I dropped Chris Simon and picked up Ty Conklin, because I needed another goalie. So now I have vested interest in a number of teams I would normally ignore- Montreal, Florida, Columbus, and Tampa Bay. And I drafted no Sharks! Marco Sturm is available on waivers though, might be a good pickup…

Not much going on in the NHL the past few days. A couple of big signings- Eric Lindros to the Leafs and Joe Thornton resigned with the Bruins for 3 years. The Sharks? The only news in the past week really is that they resigned Tom Preissing and Wayne Primeau for two years each. Not exactly a blockbuster. I’d bet 90% or more of hardcore hockey fans couldn’t identify either player if they ran into them on the street, and they were wearing shirts that said “Hi, My Name is Tom Preissing/Wayne Primeau”.

So what do we do now? Wait for training camp I guess.

1. 9/18 – Los Angeles at San Jose, 5 p.m.
2. 9/21 – San Jose at Anaheim, 7:30 p.m.
3. 9/23 – San Jose at Vancouver, 7 p.m.
4. 9/25 – Anaheim at San Jose, 5 p.m.
5. 9/27 – San Jose at Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m.
6. 9/28 – San Jose at Phoenix, 7 p.m.
7. 9/30 – Phoenix at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.

All times PDT. That’s 40 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes and counting…

I’m so desperate for Sharks and NHL news that I’ve taken to combing ESPN and Hockey News articles looking for any mention of the Sharks. Please tell me Doug Wilson is actually trying to earn his paycheck! Latest news? Paul Kariya is talking to the Oilers, but the Sharks are talking to him too. The article says Kariya is in touch with the Kings as well. I think the Oilers and Kings should be disqualified because they’ve already signed so many free agents. If that makes me sound like I’m bitter, it’s because I am.

Let’s talk about a certain player, call him Player N. Player N is a big time NHL player, with several Stanley Cup wins. He is being courted by many teams around the NHL, including his current team. The Sharks, having made no moves at all in free agency, are in the sweepstakes. However, the Sharks, for no reason I can fathom, have apparently not pursued any other free agents in the market. The Sharks watch them being picked up one by one. Holik, Amonte, McCarty, Gonchar, Hatcher, Rathje. The Sharks still wait. Aucoin, Demitra, Leetch, Modano are gone. The Sharks don’t make a peep. They want Player N. The problem? Player N wants to play with his friggin brother. This is not exactly breaking news. It was a big story two years ago when the Devils met the Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals.

Now the Sharks really look foolish. At the beginning of this free agent flurry (not Fleury), the Sharks didn’t do squat, and then they run after a player they have virtually no chance of signing, missing out on a truckload of good players that have been traded or signed by other teams in the West. Now the Ducks are better.Calgary got Darren McCarty and Tony Amonte. The Oilers got Chris Pronger and Michael Peca. Dallas resigned Mike Modano. Vancouver got Markus Naslund back. The Kings signed Pavol Demitra, and now Jeremy Roenick is there too. The Sharks? All they’ve done is manage to lose one of their big 4 defensemen, Mike Rathje. I guess it could be worse. He could have gotten picked up by the Coyotes.

Well, the first news involving a Sharks player appeared, and it ain’t good. There’s a lot of news out there. On the defensement front, it’s gotten a bit thinner. Adam Foote, Adrian Aucoin, Sandis Ozolinsh are all off the market. D men left? Neidermeyer and Gonchar are the only two I can name off the top of my head, unless we want to give Marcus Ragnarsson another spin (no thanks). The Sharks better get moving. Demitra just went. Naslund and Forsberg are still out there. Will they sit on what they have, or watch the Kings and Anaheim get better?