So the Sharks accomplished their first mission- starting the game strongly against Atlanta.  Previously on this road trip, they’ve been horrid in the first period, or even the first half of the game, before trying to mount a comeback.  It worked in New York against the Isles and Rangers, no so well Thursday night against the Lightning.

Tonight, they switched the whole plan around.  Joe scored in the first minute, then Heater added one, and Patty scored in the first minute of the second.  After a digustingly bad call that should have given Marleau another goal, Todd White scored on the next shift to make it 3-1, and I started to have a bit of a bad feeling.  I did feel much better when Patty scored again about halfway through the second.  I started to breathe easy again.

But then the wheels basically fell off, and it was a freakin’ miracle they escaped 4-3.  The stats don’t tell the story- 10-7 in shots the third period, but there were so many times the Thrashers were in the Sharks zone for over a minute I lost count.  It felt like the Sharks were on the kill for the entire third period.  And though Kovalchuk left the game in the first with an injury (like Devin Setoguchi did) the Thrashers had more than enough jump to make the Sharks look like a bumbling lower-echelon team.  Since Atlanta only had seven shots, I guess the Sharks managed to neutralize many of the scoring chances, but the low cycle seemed to go on and on and on.

I’m trying to decide which is worse, come out well and slowly piss it away, or come out flat and fight to get back in it.  It’s a hobson’s choice, but actually, I’ll choose the ugliness we witnessed tonight.  It’s easier to hold onto a lead than come back against a team that doesn’t care about scoring anymore, as the Sharks clearly didn’t in the final period.  No word on Seto’s injury yet, but if he’s out, that’s a huge blow.  I’d probably put him as the second best Shark so far this year, behind only Marleau.  9 goals in 11 games, at this rate Patty’ll score 8671 goals by New Year’s.  Check the math on that one, I may have forgotten to carry the two. Just to be safe, are there any other letters we can take off of his sweater? I think the Mike Aldrich should have him skate tomorrow night with a M RLE U jersey, just to make sure everyone knows he doesn’t deserve an A.

The question of course being, “Can the Sharks continue to win despite giving up the first goal and not really playing hard until the second period?”  In the pros, you can only play a 40-minute game down a goal or two before it all catches up with you.  Even against the team that has had the #1 overall and #2 overall picks in the last two drafts.  I guess Steven Stamkos had his sophomore slump a year early (he’s that advanced!) and is rapidly turning into a very dangerous player.  The Sharks found that out last night firsthand, when Stamkos had two goals giving him 6 on the year, now tied for 9th in the league.

So what was different about the Lightning game versus the Ranger game?  The Sharks never snapped out of it.  They were one more game into a long road trip, and couldn’t automatically count on flipping the light switch, to use an entirely overused turn of phrase.  Also, I must say, Nabby wasn’t nearly as sharp last night as we’ve seen him early in the road trip, and adds to my frustration about the coaches’ complete aversion to Thomas Greiss.  Is he telling lame jokes on the bench?  Won’t play pinochle on the flights?  I don’t care- put him in the game already.

I’m reminded of a question we asked ourselves in a podcast just before the season started- would it be a really bad thing if the Sharks came out of the gate mediocre?  I think we’re going to find out.  There’s certainly one positive thing: no one is overconfident about San Jose right now.  We’ve seen the best and the worst this team has to offer in the first ten games, and now the guys need to isolate the good and figure out a way to mass-produce it.

Latest podcast here. All things Ryan Vesce and Sharks reported on.

The Sharks will be riding high tonight after total dismantling the NY Rangers in the Garden on Monday night. This should be a game that the coaches and players can point to that when the Sharks are on their game, they can storm into any opposing teams arena, even a place as vaunted as MSG, and put on quite a show.

Going into this afternoon’s game in Tampa Bay, the Sharks are facing a team whose top players are really struggling to find their own chemistry together in their defensive zone. The top two lines are a combined -18 which is muy brutal. We’ve said it’s taken the Sharks top six some time to learn how to play together after adding Heatley and losing Pavs, and they are a combined +10. On the surface, this appears to be a game the Sharks should cruise through – Tampa has been allowing 3.49 GAA in their first seven games, which is third worst in the league. The Bolts have been blasted in their local media for giving up after falling down early – which we know won’t happen against San Jose since we’ve given up the first goal in eight out of nine early games. So will the Bolts take the criticism from the media and the coach to heart and try and make a point tonight? I think they’ll try and it’s possible San Jose will fall down early YET AGAIN, but the Sharks have got this comeback thing down to a science and should take this game running away – 4-1 Sharks in the end tonight.

I know it’s early (this is my new catchphrase) but I’d like to call everyone’s attention to Logan Couture’s stats at Worcester in the first five games – 3 goals, 5 assists = 8 points. He’s scored two game winning goals, so this is great progress for a young player that Doug Wilson is counting on to be a valuable cog in the Sharks future top six. Good stuff.

The Dudes this week tackle many outstanding issues despite the success the Sharks have had on their road trip thus far (Washinton excepted).  Included in those issues are the failure of the Sharks to score first, the ongoing struggles of Ryane Clowe, and many others.  Mike and Doug even manage to work in a crazy trade or two.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

We will be recording/releasing the podcast tonight.  There are some good questions and comments in the last thread that we plan to tackle tonight, if you want to contribute more to the discussion, you can comment here or there, or send us an email.

So again the Sharks come out flat against the Islanders, but again they rebound, and come back to win.  It’s not a strategy that will work against the Rangers, who are currently 7-1.  I hope the excitement of playing in the Big Apple will help everyone avoid the early sludge that has become a Sharks hallmark.  Malhotra and Ortmeyer used to play there, and they know what it will be like in that building.  Certainly the players that have played on the East Coast for a time like Joe and Heater know what that’s like.  I hope they can get the younger guys up for it, because this isn’t Tom Renney hockey.  It’s John Tortorella hockey now- vigorous puck pursuit, and lots of body contact.  If they come out like they did against the Isles, it won’t be 0-1, it’ll be 0-4 in a heartbeat.

Also, an interesting discussion here with Doug Wilson for something called the Positive Coaching Alliance.  Not really anything Sharks-specific, but a general discussion about how you instill values in youth players, and what kind of characteristics you look for (and work towards) as an elite player in any sport.  I think it’d be particularly interesting to those who have young kids playing (or looking to play) hockey.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Those are Rob Blake’s words, not mine.  I was actually somewhat satisfied with their first period play.  The kill looked ok, Nabby looked great, and the cascade of penalties seemed to be more a function of scrambling against a potent man advantage than laziness.  Or maybe I was just relieved they escaped 10 minutes of kill time and ended up tied.

No doubt the second and third periods were a special new kind of brutal.  After AO was left completely unmarked in a two-on-two (reminiscent of Rick Nash just a few games ago), he scored again about 30 seconds later, and the game was essentially over.  Now I’m just a lowly amateur beer-league player, but if there’s a player on the other team that’s a whole hell of a lot better than everyone else, generally I know where he is if I’m on the ice.  Especially on a 2-on-2.  Leaving the best player in the world by himself is more than careless, it’s stupid.  Even though Vlasic was on the ice for that goal, after looking at the reply, it was clearly Huskins that left #8 all by his lonesome.  Please, Kent, you were coming back to my good side!

After that, I wondered if the flu-ridden Douglas Murray could have come in and done a better job.  The third period was a phone-in save Nabby and my favorite new Shark, Scott Nichol.  I swear, if he keeps going the way he’s going, they should put him on the second line instead of Clowe.

On a side note, we’ve noticed in the past some similarities in material between our blog here and a certain blog over at Hockeybuzz that also covers the Sharks. Most times we’ve been able to chalk it up to coincidence, like this time below where we wrote about a certain interesting Semenov stat, then it appeared someplace else a couple of days later.

But this week smells of something akin to the Sharks’ effort last night. Check out our podcast this week where we kick off the show with a one minute ramble about the film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Several hours after our podcast was posted, lo and behold we see this.

So readers, we throw it you – coincidence or something else?

First of all, the podcast is out.  Sorry it’s late.  It might be late again next week too; I hope it doesn’t cramp anyone’s style.

Second of all, it appears that we have some competition on the Sharks blogging front.  I’m going to have to raise my game, especially if there’s an upcoming blog about chess.  Somehow I doubt it, but people can surprise you.

After a bit of a shaky start, the Sharks get 5 of 6 points in their first homestand.  Even though the season is still very young, Mike and Doug have some questions and concerns about this team.  The lengthy road trip coming up should shed some light on these unanswered questions.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Sorry, the podcast won’t be posted until tonight.  Don’t have much to say about the Phoenix game other than- did the Wild and the Coyotes put on each other’s jerseys?  Here’s my proposal for the new Phoenix logo:

Seriously, they clogged the neutral zone like nobody’s business.  That team is playing with house money- nobody cares if they are terrible or not.  They can just go out there and play with no pressure, and a little Dave Tippet responsibility has turned them into a big pain in the ass.