Maybe it’s just because I’m fighting the flu, but I’m a little down on everything today, and the Sharks are no exception.  After watching the Sharks cough up the game to the #12 seed in the east on Saturday, the Sharks lose big to the western #13 seed tonight.  Couldn’t help thinking that the Sharks would lose a series to the Ducks if it started tomorrow, but that could just be a product of my general malaise.

I wish I could point to a specific player (although I do have a stink eye peering in Devin Setoguchi’s direction), but it just seems a general lack of urgency, and the inevitable high turnovers.  Couple that with some bad goaltending, and the Sharks lose games.  At least the Sharks aren’t alone in losing games they shouldn’t – Chicago managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory today, and I’m sure Doug will be thrilled to chime in to reitierate his theory (which is looking pretty good right now) of Chicago being in deep trouble with Huet in net.

So how worried are you?  Sweating like me?  Wait, that could be the fever.  Dammit.

I see the image of a crown and a hungry prairie dog. Is it the future of the Pacific Division or Boy George's weekend plans?

The Hockey News Future Watch 2010 issue arrived in the mail this week and to no surprise, Logan Couture’s name appears on their list of the Top 100 Prospects already drafted by NHL Teams. Couture comes in at #36. As an organization, the Sharks didn’t fare as well as their best prospect, ranking 27th out of 30 NHL clubs with a C grade. This is actually a drop off from last years low rank of 25th.

Honestly, I’m surprised at the low overall grade given the Worcester Sharks overall success this season and the immediate development of some of their younger players in the AHL. Worcester has three young players in the Top 40 in scoring, with Zalewski pulling 57 points in 61 games, followed by Couture’s 54 points in 41 games and Ferriero’s 47 points in 44 games. The only other team with such dynamic AHL scoring is the Washington Capitals trio of Aucion, Giroux and Gordon. If Couture and Ferriero had been in Worcester the whole season and avoided injury, Couture would be projected at 86 points, which would put him 1st in the AHL in scoring. Ferreiro would be at 69 points, 4th in the AHL in scoring. Somehow, Ferreiro doesn’t even make David Pollak’s list of Top 10 Sharks prospects, which I would be curious to get an explanation of.

Pollak lists the Sharks top prospects in this order: Couture, Petrecki, Joslin (really?), Zalewski, Zackrisson, Sexsmith, Wrenn, Doherty, Demers and Groulx. No Ferreiro….and no Alex Stalock.

Stalock has been the rock the Worcester Sharks success has been centered around this season. He is 1st in the AHL in wins and total minutes played and 3rd in total saves, while Sexsmith has struggled all season with a 4-6-1, .860 save percentage and a 3.94 GAA and even earned a trip to the ECHL. I’m not giving up on Sexsmith at all, he had an outstanding junior hockey career with the Vancouver Giants – but does he really deserve to be ranked ahead of Stalock when he’s been totally overwhelmed his first year in the pros, while Stalock has played like a veteran leading a team to a possible Calder Cup?

I was glad to see William Wrenn on this list, he’s definitely a player of interest for the future – the way far away future since he’s in his 1st year at Denver University. I was pleasantly surprised to see Dudes on Hockey posterchild Nick Petrecki holding down the 2nd spot even though reports are he has struggled big time his first season at Worcester.

As for the rest of the Pacific Division, LA’s future continues to look bright – they are the overall #1 Future Watch leader with four players in the Top 100 including Brayden Schenn (#10), Jonathan Bernier (#15), Colten Teubert (#48), and Thomas Hickey (#72). Phoenix is ranked #6 with four players in the 100: Oliver Ekman Larsson (#3), Kyle Turris (#12), Mikkel Boedker (#14) and Max Goncharov (#44). That’s a pretty impressive take and they proved to be much deeper than I remembered or realized. Anaheim ranks #20 with two top 100 guys: Luca Sbisa (#9) and Kyle Palmieri (#70). Dallas is just slightly ahead of the Sharks at 24th and I think their ranking should be lower considering they traded Ivan Vishnevskiy (#51) to Atlanta in the Kari Lehtonen deal. Their prize prospect is Kyle Glennie (#27), a WHL forward who was cut from Canada’s Junior Team but has 88 points in junior hockey this year.

The Sharks coming in lower on this list is a product of their regular season success. LA has four 1st round draft pick prospects on the horizon, Phoenix has three 1st rounders up and coming. The Sharks haven’t had a 1st round pick in two years, dealing them to get Brian Campbell and Dan Boyle. The players drafted with the Sharks picks, Tyler Ennis and Kyle Palmieri, are both in the Top 100 prospects list at #29 and #70 respectively. Would Doug Wilson undo the Brian Campbell trade and his passion to win the Cup in 2008 if he knew he could have Buffalo’s top prospect in Ennis along side Couture in the minors? Would you rather have college forward Palmieri and Matt Carle or Dan Boyle?

Looking at this list makes me recognize more than ever that the Sharks window of dominance in the Pacific Division is closing and the era of the Los Angeles Kings could be on the horizon. The Sharks are young enough on the NHL level to still be an elite team in the NHL, but will they be a lock to win the Pacific Division in the future? With the Kings and Coyote rising and the Stars and Ducks fading, my crystal ball thinks this might be our last run at a #1 seed for awhile – making a deep playoff run this season more important than ever.

Hey Jerky!  Don’t leave the game early!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwchenZolCE[/youtube]

I love this series of commercials.  And this one, linked by Puck Daddy today, is particularly poignant for Sharks fans.  Sure, it was a pretty wretched game until about 3 minutes into the third.  But don’t try to beat the traffic.  You would have missed an unbelievable flurry of goals, the likes of which I’ve never seen before.  Like this one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmWY16C8C08[/youtube]

This prompted perhaps the latest goalie change I’ve ever witnessed, with  only 5:20 left in the game.  It was so late (and perhaps unnoticed, because Ellis is #35, Rinne #39), that it wasn’t even announced to the crowd.  My astute section neighbor noticed it.  Didn’t help much, because Rinne faced two shots, one of them a goal by Marleau.  Thanks for stopping by Rinne.

With both Pavs and Heatley on the ice bidding for the hat trick with the goalie pulled late in the game, who scored the empty netter?  Jay Leach, from 130 feet, his first NHL goal.  A perfect ending to one of the weirdest, craziest Sharks games ever.

Oh yeah.  Boys, try and show up a little earlier next time.

The Sharks are rolling on, winning games in a comeback fashion.  But this week is about you, the listeners.  The contest winner is announced, and the Dudes take several emails, talking about the Sharks possible playoff matchups, where they might finish in the standings, and weigh in on the latest headshot controversy.

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I’m not sure what I expected last night when I went to the Canadiens game.  I always try to see the Original Six teams when I can, there’s just so much history.  I’m reminded of that one episode of the Simpsons where they sent Bart to military school, and the school’s motto is “A Tradition of Heritage”.  Anyway, I just re-read The Game by Ken Dryden, and I agree with the blurb on the cover- it’s the best hockey book ever written.  You get some great writing about day-to-day stuff of the Canadiens in the 70s, with some really excellent portraints of some of the players on that team. These are guys as hockey fans we know, but not because we remember them as players.  Jacques Lemaire, Bob Gainey, Guy Lafleur, Mario Tremblay, Larry Robinson.  The team of Béliveau (one of my all time favorites), Richard, Geoffiron, et al, is still a little something special, despite the fact that they haven’t won a Cup since ’93 and haven’t really been in contention for a while (#1 seed notwithstanding).

The big knock against the Habs this year is how small they are.  They went out and got Mike Cammaleri, Brian Gionta, and Scott Gomez, giants none.  The only giant they have is Hal Gill, a 6’7 behemoth, but he gets knocked a lot for being too slow.  Think Alexei Semenov with bad ankles.  Damn, I told myself I was done with Semenov cracks.   Guess I need to take a new sobriety date.

There was a ton of extracurricular activity last night, lots of face-washing, pushing and shoving, and general nasty jabbering.  No fights broke out- both teams have jettisoned their resident enforcers.  We saw Tomas Plekanec get into a couple of altercations after some questionable play against Thornton and Marleau, then get decked by Heatley in the 3rd.  We saw Nichol injured after getting run from behind into the boards without a call.  We saw Josh Gorges (who almost led Montreal in ice time (!))  and Thornton trading a little bit of something.  And we saw a beleageured goalie, Cary Price, stand on his friggin’ head for much of the game.  The Sharks scored their second goal on their 35th shot.  No NHL team averages 35 shots per game.

But now we know why he is beleageured.  It wasn’t enough, and the Sharks turned a 2-1 third period deficit into a 3-2 victory on goals by Heatley and Malhotra.  If you were looking at the box score very quickly, you might say that Price managed to cough up another one, but really he kept them in it for much of the game.  Well, his friend The Post helped as well.  Boyle hit the bar on a penalty shot after Hal Gill somehow accidentally-on-pupose threw Price’s errant goalie stick into his path.  Then Heatley hit the post again less than a minute later on one of his signature one-timers.  Those shots go in, or one of the other 30-odd shots go in, and the Sharks win going away.

I was a little surprised at the Habs’ pluck, but I suppose they are trying to make the playoffs.  It turned into another test for the Sharks, and unlike the game against the Devils, it was a test they passed.

Update:  Here’s the Lapierre hit on Nichol.  I’m even more jazzed up about it after hearing Ray Ferraro rant.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nis1rZQWC8c[/youtube]

So many things to talk about this week!  The Dudes start it off with the great Olympic goal medal game between the U.S. and Canada, and how the loyalties were split just a little bit.  After talking about the loss to the Devils, which the Sharks managed to climb back into, Mike and Doug dive headlong into the trade deadline, because who likes talking trades more than the Dudes?  Lots of Pacific Division action, and there are some winners and losers on trade deadline day

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I don’t mean to sound too negative here, because the USA-Canada game yesterday was probably the best hockey game I’ve ever watched.  It’s hard to beat the suspense of multiple overtimes in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but this one came close.  It had a Game 7 feel with even more talent.  It seems some people are very crushed the US lost, but not me.  I’m disappointed.  Even amidst the disappointment, I’m still very happy about the results- most didn’t pick the USA to medal.  They still beat Canadan once, the most talented team, and held with them into overtime, creating an Olympic moment people will remember for many years to come.  It’s truly a victory for American hockey.  Even more so than 1980 because that game was a triumph of a system, philosophy, and coaching.  This tournament had the top teams all on roughly equal ground to start.

Now that it’s over, it’s time to attend to some Sharks business.  The trade freeze has been lifted, and trades have already started, with Jordan Leopold being dealt to the Pens.  It’s possible the Sharks could make big waves, but I think it’s less likely.  Boston is reportedly in the hunt for Dan Hamhuis.  Kaberle has re-re-reconfirmed he isn’t waiving his NTC.  Corvo is reportedly in the mix, but I would think that would have been part of the Wallin deal if it were in the cards.  We should steel ourselves for the fact that the Sharks could look very similar on Thursday.

That may not be a great thing, especially since Pollak has confirmed that Vlasic does in fact have a knee “tweak” (props to Fear the Fin on calling that one), and hasn’t skated yet.  With a whole host of Sharks not completely healthy for the playoff run last year, this provides a feeling of deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say.  At least he’s not trying to play through it, which is more than we could say for Patrick Marleau late in the season last year.  The last thing the Sharks need is to be more rickety on defense, trying to compete against the great Western Conference defensive corps of  Calgary, Detroit, Chicago, and L.A.

We’re waiting for the trade deadline to pass before we do the podcast this week, so look for that Wednesday night.

With 24 hours to go before the USA/Canada brawl in Vancouver, my thoughts are still on trade deadline day. As I scrolled through the ESPN rumor mill and noticed the reported price for Predators dman Dan Hamhuis (a scoring forward and a late 1st/early 2nd pick) I began to wonder about the Sharks 2010 draft pick situation and what kind of bullets Doug Wilson had left to fire at deadline day. Here’s the skinny, from what I can tell:

1 – 1st round pick

0 – 2nd round picks (we traded our own to Ottawa for Heatley, we traded Buffalo’s to Carolina for Wallin)

1 – 3rd round pick

0 – 4th round picks (we traded our own to Tampa Bay for Dan Boyle)

2- 5th round picks from Carolina (in Wallin trade) and Ottawa (in Heatley trade). Our own was traded to LA in 2008 to draft junior d-man Samuel Groulx (39 points in 58 games in the QJMHL with two teams)

0 – 6th round picks (we traded ours to Dallas in 2009 so get a 7th round pick to select Marek Viedensky, 46 points in 49 games in the WHL with two teams)

0 – 7th round picks (we traded ours to Buffalo in the Craig Rivet deal)

So, if I’ve done my math right – and that’s a major question mark – the Sharks only have four draft picks currently in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Not good news for a team that’s been criticized for having a lack of quality prospects in their system. So if you’re Doug Wilson, are you willing to trade that 1st round pick to get a Dan Hamhuis or a Tomas Kaberle? It’s got to give one pause…

Like I said yesterday, I’m willing to take the gamble, especially since it’s likely Setoguchi could fetch you that 1st rounder in the offseason if that’s the road you decide to go, but it’s always good to take a hard look at what Doug Wilson has to play with here. He’ll likely balk severely at parting with this first round pick, and it’s entirely possible we could see him sell off someone like Torrey Mitchell for a 2nd rounder if he thinks Jamie McGinn can do the same job – which he probably could.

Major props to Dmitry, our Dudes on Hockey Olympic advocate, proudly wearing his Dudes on Hockey t-shirt around the Vancouver games. We feel the love and Dudes madness is now wilder than Cross Country Skiing.

International hockey flavor. A Russian Dude in Canada wearing an American t-shirt.

When the NHL clock thaws, will Doug Wilson have a Spring surprise for us?

As we wait with baited breath during this roster freeze, Sharks fans are on pins and needles over whether or not Doug Wilson has another big splash up his sleeve come March 3rd. There’s been much debate on the podcast and the blog over whether the Sharks window of opportunity in the Western Conference is currently cracked open, but could be shutting. With a new powerhouse in town in Chicago and a budding threat in Los Angeles, is it possible Doug Wilson should pull out all the stops and pay whatever price is necessary to get Dan Boyle a suitable sidekick for the playoffs?

Is it time to pony up and get Tomas Kaberle?

The price has been fairly public. A top six forward, a prospect and a 1st rounder. The Sharks can meet this price with an offer of Ryane Clowe, Jamie McGinn and Mike Moore (instead of the 1st rounder). Is that a high price to pay for one player? Hellz yes – but should they pay it? That’s the question.

Kaberle gives the Sharks a 2nd top notch puck moving blueliner that activates the attack and makes the Teal powerplay just crazy dangerous. Like Tara Reid dangerous. The good news is, Kaberle isn’t a rental – he would be a Shark for another season at a reasonable 4.25M for a player with his kind of output, currently with 46 points on a fairly dreadful Leafs team. In the process, the Sharks dump Clowe’s overpriced deal, give up a guy who you hate to part with in McGinn, and an AHL d-man whose NHL future is an unknown.

With the uncertain status of Marleau and Nabby and the virtual certainty that this is this current rosters last hurrah at lifting the Cup – I have made up my mind. We need to Respect the Window. Make the final bold move and pay the high price. Give the Leafs a top six forward, a very strong prospect in McGinn and go get Tomas Kaberle and try and win it all this year. Couldn’t Couture (if healthy) fill in for Clowe on the 2nd line and provide the same production? I say absolutely. The Sharks have never been shy about plugging in their best young talent for a playoff run – and letting the talented and maturing Couture loose on the 2nd line with Seto and Pavs could be energetic and dynamic. And I understand getting Kaberle and adding that salary would mean a 2nd side deal of shipping Kent Huskins to another playoff team looking for depth on the blueline, but I would have to think someone would be interested – perhaps Buffalo, Boston or New Jersey would part with a draft pick.

Is it possible by standing pat, the Sharks risk another 2nd round disappointment and then being lapped by younger teams like LA next season? It’s all a gamble. He’ll be criticized if he makes the move and criticized if he doesn’t – but I don’t want to wait anymore. When July rolls around and the Sharks have lost again in the early rounds and Nabby has signed with Philly and the Sharks are debating whether to keep Marleau, trade Jumbo Joe or trade Seto or Pavs because you can’t afford to keep them both – it will be too late. Let’s give this roster the best chance to win a Cup and use our forward depth to get it done.

What do you say? Respect the Window or Stay the Course?

Here’s another take on the possibility of Kaberle with a slightly different offer at Fear the Fin.

If the regular season were to end today at the Olympic break and 62 game mark, the San Jose Sharks would once again be the #1 seed in the Western Conference, but not the President’s Trophy winner – that dubious distinction would go to the Washington Capitals. Capping off a 4-2 road trip that ended on with a particularly lame effort last night in Buffalo, here’s what else we’re left to ponder for two weeks.

If the season ended today:

The Sharks would likely field a 4th line of skilled players in the playoffs who will play the body, create actual scoring chances and threaten their opponents 3rd pairing with speed, unlike last years combo of Cheechoo, Grier and Shelley. This is good news and should help the Sharks get past their postseason blues.

Doug Wilson would be left with unfinished business. He still needs to address the lack of quality blueline depth and hopefully seeing Rob Blake’s dismal final three games of the road trip (-2 and two horrible penalties vs. Detroit that should have cost the Sharks the game, especially the one in OT), Doug Wilson must add another d-man who can play 20+ minutes and lessen the burden on the 40 year old Blake, who is really showing his immobility and age down the stretch. Trading Shelley helps and created a 750k cushion for either the permanent stay of Jamie McGinn or for Wilson to add someone of significance. I’m sure if something happens it will come out of nowhere, in typical Doug Wilson fashion – but watching Blake this last week confirmed my opinion – something MUST happen for the Sharks to beat Detroit or Chicago in May, or we’ll see more of Blake skating in cement as Kane and Datsyuk glide right around him.

The Sharks would draw Calgary in the first round, as the standings sit today. Could be worse (Detroit), could be better (Nashville). Calgary is a team in turmoil and they still haven’t found any rhythm since making major roster changes two weeks ago, losing three of their last four. The Flames are never an easy draw, but Brent Sutter has been a lousy playoff coach – with both his Devils teams losing in the first round his two years there. I feel confident we could beat Calgary in 5 or 6 max.

Some people say it’s to the Sharks advantage to finish 2nd and avoid the pressure of #1, but I say – Hell’s No. There is enough separation right now between Colorado at #6 with 76 points and the group clogged up for the final two spots (Detroit, Nashville, Dallas, Calgary, Anaheim and St. Louis) that the probability that Detroit will end up #7 is pretty damn high. Avoid the 2nd seed at all costs, or a date with Detroit awaits. I’ve championed the Curse of the Blackhawks all season, their dealings with Martin Havlat and RFA madness in the offseason created bad hockey karma and it will all come crumbling down around them when they draw Detroit in Round One. MAKE IT SO HOCKEY GODS! This is why San Jose must stay #1. It’s critical to our postseason success. All roads must go through Detroit – and it wouldn’t be a Cup run within having to beat the best – but let’s not have it be in the first round. We all know the ending to that fairy tale.

I'm a #7 seed waiting to happen. I can smell Huet from here!