Mike and Doug are back in the New Year talking Sharks, resolutions, the Sharks good streak, and realignment.  Plus, this:

Who has two thumbs and likes the Dudes?

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Sharks fans have received a early gift this year- a four game winning streak.  Mike and Doug talk about Havlat, Niitymaki, and others, and continue with the Christmas tradition of asking Santa for Sharks-related gifts.

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The Sharks have pulled themselves out of their slump with four games in a row with points, and a two-game winning streak.  But that’s not all; there is a ton of NHL news and stories to discuss as well.

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The Dudes talk about the penalty kill, which has improved to 28th overall, and go through their quarter-pole awards.

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The biggest news of the season so far is the announcement of a complete overhaul of the NHL alignment, going from six 4-team divisions and two conferences into four conferences, two with 7 teams, two with 8.  The idea would be to make the travel a bit more equitable (see this Puck Daddy post for all the gritty details).  But with most things, you can’t make anything completely equal- the 8-team conferences, of which the Sharks will be a part, will have one more team to contend with to make the postseason.  Each conference will do a 4-team mini-playoff, with the winner of each conference heading to the Stanley Cup Semifinals.

It’s a radically different scheme than today.  Most people (myself included) are somewhat leery and afraid of change, so my initial reaction was, “that’s crazy, and therefore bad!”.  But after thinking about it for only a short while, I’m getting used to the idea, and I kind of like it.  Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

• Visibility.  The biggest pro of the new scheme is we will see every NHL team in San Jose every year.  For instance, this year we won’t see the Rangers, Flyers (Pronger BOOOOO), or Maple Leafs in our barn. Not being able to crack  jokes in person at Joffrey Lupul’s expense just hurts me a little bit inside.
• Travel. More games against fewer teams that are closer mean fewer time changes.  Playing Nashville or Detroit in the first round of the playoffs really sucks from a travel standpoint, and under the new alignment, this would never happen.
• Playoff potential. The Final Four thing is just cool (new and improved Frozen Four, anyone?).   Right now the Stanley Cup Semifinals are just another step on a long journey to the Cup; if I were the league, I’d really play up this angle.

• Rivalries. It will be hard to maintain the same bad blood with the Wings or Chicago if we only face them twice a year, and never in the playoffs until the 3rd round.
• OD’ing on a few teams.  When you play a terrible team six times, the games can often be snoozers.  With the larger conferences, the chances of two or even three teams being bad is much higher.

I will leave you with a chart I made indicating how the number of matchups will change.  I used this year’s schedule, and assumed, for simplicity’s sake, that the three teams we will play 6 times next year are the Ducks, Coyotes, and Kings.

Pie charts suck, you get your bar chart and like it

After a middling effort against Montreal where the Sharks barely pull out an OT win, the Sharks start well against Florida, then throw the game away. Doug and Mike talk about all the various woes and challenges, and reveal some news of their own.

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After a nice run where the Sharks managed to accumulate the best points-per-game rate of any team in the NHL, the lean times have come in two bad losses in the last two games. And frankly, if it were not for the near-goalie-steal performance of Antti Niemi against the Hawks, we’d be looking at a 3 game losing streak, disturbingly to the class of the West. I can never really decide if losing to the best teams is better to losing to the worst teams. Which is worse, irritating inconsistency (losing to Columbus) or depressing mediocrity (losing to Vancouver)?

The famine is not without casualties.  First and foremost is Justin Braun, who Pollak said “was reassigned to Worcester less than 24 hours after his misplay cost San Jose a goal in Monday’s loss.”  I suppose it’s possible that particular blunder led to his demotion, but I don’t buy it (wasn’t it Niemi’s fault more than his?).  As we’ve said on the podcast several times, Braun is a good young defenseman that you want to play early and often, and continue to develop his game.  If he’s clearly head-and-shoulders better than his offensive contemporary, Jason Demers, then you keep him in San Jose.  With Demers playing more the last few games, and Braun not playing quite as well, Braun would fall into the mixing bowl that is the 3rd defensive pair.  Which means he’s in, he’s out, he doesn’t get consistent minutes.  Which means I agree with the decision to send him East to the struggling Worchester Sharks. Lord knows they need all the help they can get over there.

The next two games might be what the doctor ordered.  Neither Montreal nor Florida are patsies, but they are not in the same conversation as Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Chicago.  Doug and I are going to wait until the weekend to record the next podcast, mostly due to scheduling, but we’re hoping for a good effort against the Habs to help balance what would have likely been a negative-Nancy episode.

The Dudes are back in the DOH studio, with some more wins to talk about, those against Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, and Detroit.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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I was going to post something about my trip, which has very little to do with hockey, but I can’t in good conscience now.  Sid’s comeback is just a hair more impressive than mine.  I hope you’ve seen the game or highlights.  Two goals (both backhand shots, no less) and two assists.  Remember, he missed 68 games.  It’s impossible not to make a comparison with Mario Lemieux here.  Lemieux had a much longer absence, to be sure, but from a hockey perspective, Crosby means just as much to the Penguins now as Mario did then.  And, to top it all off, they both scored four points in their respective returns.  Just amazing.

Back to the Sharks- it’s been a great welcome home present for me to see them dismantle Detroit, Dallas, and Colorado in the last three games.  Of course the number one thing to talk about is the penalty kill, which I’m sure we will when we record the podcast this week after the Chicago game.  Just wanted to give a bit of a funny stat.  I decided to calculate how the Sharks ranked in terms of the percentage of games they gave up a PP goal, instead of just overall PK%, where they currently stand at 3rd worst (74.6%).  I fully expected the Sharks to have given up a PP goal in a greater percentage of games than any other team- it seemed like every goddam game the opponent scored with the man advantage.  But it’s not actually the case:

1. Dallas 65% (13/20)
2. Carolina 63.6% (14/22)
3. Islanders 61.1% (11/18)
4. Winnipeg 60% (12/20)
5. Columbus 60% (12/20)
6. Los Angeles 60% (12/20)
7. Detroit 57.8% (11/19)
8. Ottawa 57.4% (12/21)
9. Toronto 57.4% (12/21)
10. Colorado 57.4% (12/21)
11. San Jose 55.5% (10/18)

Dallas is a full seven percentage points better in PK% – 17th overall, the best on this list-  and yet has given up a PP goal in 65% of the games they’ve played.  I don’t really know what that means, but it’s interesting.

The Sharks finish up a road trip just as Mike begins his. Live on tape delay from India, Mike and Doug discuss the Sharks 5-1 east coast swing, the emergence of Joe Pavelski and preview the homestand. Enjoy this Podcast Masala, extra spicy!

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