Game 19: A Good Game for Shopping

Well, it looks like the Sharks have "reset the bar" again, only a lot lower. And that's not a limbo metaphor, I should clarify. I think it's a high-jump metaphor. Or pole-vault, maybe.

This was a terrible 3-0 loss to Columbus. I don't even want to talk about it. The Sharks are now 8-10-1.

I expect bad things for the Sharks on Wednesday vs. the Blackhawks. They've repeatedly shown that 1. they suck after a break and 2. they suck against the Blackhawks. But hey, things change; the Sharks were an elite-level team last year.

In a totally disheartening loss against the Blue Jackets, I pick three stars:

3rd Star: Mike Commodore.

This guy committed a dozen penalties and only got called for one. Good job, Asshole!

2nd Star: Todd McClellan.

How he retains his composure right now is beyond me. If it were my job, I'd be shitting a brick after they lost two consecutive two-goal leads and then got shut out at home by the Blue Jackets! It's the BJs' first regulation win in San Jose ever! But Todd's still got that calm, assured manner that makes me think we're going to make the play-offs after all. The man should be a dentist.

1st Star: No question, it's Jason Demers' mustache.

It's not the most manly mustache on the team, which has to go to Niclas Wallin or Ryane Clowe, but it works for him. I think he looks a lot cooler with it and I can't say that about most of the players. Plus it fights prostate cancer! So good going, Jason. Way to make "Movember" work for you!

One positive note before I sign off: shopping at the Sharks Store doesn't get any better than after a shut-out loss! Hooray for no waiting in line!

My Idea to Take the All-Star Game from Mediocrity to Brilliance!

Here it is *drumroll*:

The ANTI-BALLOT!

That's right, the Anti-Ballot. Vote the most despised villains in the NHL off the All-Star Roster. Think of the glory! A chance to vote Pronger, Perry, and Getzlaf off the [to be announced] All-Star teams! How awesome would that be? I think we can all agree, almost too awesome. And definitely too awesome for the NHL. Unless we can get some seriously grass-roots shit going down, like some kind of petition I don't even have the first clue of how to begin. And even then it's a long-shot, because I'm certain that Gary Bettman doesn't give a rat's ass what the fans want if it's not what he wants.

Game 14: "Kill the Zebra!"

It was Thornton's first game back and he lost no time getting back to his usual form, turning over the puck at the defensive blue line in the first minute. Although Pavelski continued to struggle, Boyle had a great game, Couture continued to look good, and Demers made several outstanding plays and looked strong overall. Unfortunately, what stood out most to me was the terrible officials! The first goal by the Islanders: the linesman in the corner skates backward out of Parenteau's way and picks Dan Boyle right off of him! It would have been an interference call on any player. And the revocation of Pavelski's goal was crap. Couture was standing between Roloson and the net, but so was an Islanders player and neither of them were in the crease. Everyone was just standing around. They thought the play had stopped because Roloson was acting like he had the puck covered and that is why Roloson got back to the net too late.

Now that it's over and we've won, it was nice to see a low-scoring game; we haven't seen many with fewer than four goals in a while. It was also a confidence-inspiring shoot-out, if you're into that sort of thing.

Sharks now 6-7-1

Game 12: "Free Jumbo!"

Congratulations to San Francisco on its first World Series Championship! Yeah, Man. Sweet. Maybe I'll buy a ball cap. Okay the real news, though, is that Joe Thornton has been suspended for two whole games! For hitting some dude in the head! The replay looks bad, too, like, really bad. Thornton, stepping out of the box after serving a penalty he didn't like,* drops his shoulder into Perron's head while Perron is moving 20mph, looking behind himself. In that respect it looked vicious. On the other hand, what was Joe supposed to do, let Perron skate by with the puck because he wasn't looking where he was going? In this respect, I think that the NHL is sending mixed messages. The only thing this suspension shows is that players are unclear on what the penalty is. They can suspend Joe as many games as they like to "send a message," but he still isn't going to know what he did wrong.

But regardless of the penalties, I was excited to see what the Sharks looked like without Joe Thornton on the first line/power play. Now, having seen the Tampa Bay game, I can say that they looked awesome! Power play was great, too. Couture fit right in on the first line (love that guy) and got a goal to put him right in the middle of the race for the Sharks' goal-scoring lead. I would also like to take this time to note that Jamal Mayers has been making a big impression on me. I think he's really added to the scoring potential of that fourth line, but, not only that, there have been several moments when a puck squirts loose, where all I can think is "Somebody ------- get that!", and Jamal Mayers turns on the jets and gets there first. He's far speedier than I expected. Of course, the only thing anybody could tell me about this guy when he signed was "Was he the guy who shaved his eyebrows into tiger stripes in the playoffs?" So my expectations weren't high.

Go, Sharks!

6-6-0

*and his first of the season

Game 8: Don't Bring a Hat You're Not Willing to Throw

Congratulations to Joe Pavelski and his wife, Sarah, on their newborn son!

In other news:

The Sharks are once again at 500! They improved their record to 4-4-0 with a big win over the Devils and looked okay doing it! The gameplay wasn't all that smooth overall, but even though the Sharks aren't at the strength they were at this point last season, Devils are almost completely in shambles. Trading away a veteran defenseman for Ilya Kovalchuk and then signing him to a prohibitive, career-ending contract with a no-movement clause seems like madness to me. To add to their miseries, the NHL decided to disallow one ridiculous contract, allow a second ridiculous contract, and then punish the team for one of the two (does it matter which?). I don't understand that at all. At any rate, the Devils look awful.

Joe Thornton had a hat-trick (you don't see that every year) and a point on all five goals. And what do I see the rest of the night? Thousands of dickweeds still wearing baseball caps. But what am I supposed to do, walk up to each of a thousand people and say, "Hats off, Jackass. I know that Giants cap was expensive and you just bought it in the last two days, but can you at least take it off? The man just scored three goals for your stupid ass."? It seems disrespectful to me to flaunt your hat after somebody scores a hat-trick. Even for the other team. Apparently, that's just me, though.

Games 5-7: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad"

All-in-all I thought that was about as good a road trip as we had any right to expect, based upon the first four games of this season. The Colorado game was a little shaky at times, but a good win. The Edmonton game, besides the embarrassment of that short-handed goal (the one highlight from that game showed repeatedly on NHL network), was a gratifying blowout. In fact, one could say that the Sharks “responded well” to the bad play early in the game. The Calgary game was only bad for a little over ten minutes. The Sharks controlled most of the rest of that game and took the crowd right out of it, only thwarted by the outstanding play of Miikka Kiprusoff. Did anybody else hear how quiet it got in there? It sure didn’t sound like a 4-0 game. I wasn’t even prepared to own up to the fact that the Sharks were probably not going to come back until half-way through the third period. Antti Niemi can’t carry the blame for the three he let in and Niittymaki, who looks like he might have a leaky right pad, looked really solid the rest of the game. In fact, if that puck hadn’t been rolling on only one of its edges there’s no way it would have gone in for the one goal against him. It was close enough that I’d call it a fluke. The only worrying thing is that that makes two flukes in four games for Niittymaki. Despite the loss, I thought it was a confidence-inspiring road trip. And as I begin to look forward to tonight’s game against the NJ Devils (completely ignoring game one of the world series for today), I leave these words for those still looking back on the road trip:

Don’t be sad, ‘cause two out of three ain’t bad.

Game 4: Home-Ice Advantage Nowhere to Be Found

Another disheartening loss in San Jose. By my count, the Sharks are 1-3-0 at this early point in the season. Starting goalie Antti Niemi looked pretty solid in the 5-2 loss tonight. That's how bad the Sharks' play was. The Hurricanes had been on a skid so they came to play hard and they outmatched the Sharks from the start. The first goal of the game was a short-handed goal against, leaving us all feeling like we were picking up right where we left off against the Thrashers. Sometime in the second period the Sharks got their act a bit more together. They kept giving up the odd-man rushes, but successfully got in the way of the Hurricanes' passes across. Also Marleau scored two goals to bring the Sharks within a goal of tying. That kept the game interesting for most of a period.

I like the new lines! Rather, I really like seeing Marleau/Thornton/Setoguchi back together. I still like seeing Couture getting time on the second line. McGinn/Pavelski/Mitchell aren't loooking too bad. It is, however, at this time, when Mayers is injured and McLaren is scratched, that I can't help but fantasize just a little about how monumentally super bad-ass it would be to have Owen Nolan trolling the bottom two lines for under a million dollars right now.

I also can't help but feel that we may have lost our Home Ice Advantage. We miss Nabby. He was key to our home ice advantage. He was steady, homegrown (if drafting someone from Kazakhstan makes makes them homegrown), and fans loved to cheer him. Sid feared him and he was the last goaltender Ovie had never scored on (right up until he did it twice in 24 seconds). For the first time in a while, expectations seem to be lower than the year previous and the fans are a little more hesitant. Some of them are still cheering for Nabby from the rafters. The line juggling has also cost us some familiarity. In the end it means we lost our first two home games and looked bad doing it. And a big part of what made the HP Pavilion the most vaunted arena in the league* was not just the travel or the noise-level of the fans; it was the knowledge that it is the home of the Sharks and they will beat the crap out of you and take your two points.

We'll get the Advantage back, but we (the Sharks and the fans together) will have to earn it back.

*based on a sampling of 272 players by Sports Illustrated