Thirty-Three More, Just Like That

The Sharks head into the All-Star break on a good note after last night's convincing 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. They didn't play a perfect game, but it was certainly one of their best performances of the season--they did what they needed to do to beat a tired and less-talented (though much-improved) team.

Last night's contest had one detail in common with Tuesday night's game against Chicago--in both, San Jose failed to register a shot on goal until more than half of the first period had gone by. However, unlike the Blackhawks game, in which the Sharks came onto the ice looking dispirited and tentative, Team Teal worked hard, with guts and heart, right from the drop of the puck last night. So did the Blues, for that matter. Neither team managed many shots on goal in the first period last night, because both San Jose and St. Louis were playing solid, physical, defensive hockey. The effort was certainly there.

Jonathan Cheechoo's performance last night was extremely heartening--he was one of the best Sharks over the course of what was, on balance, a mediocre homestand. One of the few bright spots from the rout at the hands of the Wings was Cheechoo's tricky goal, which totally fooled Dominik Hasek. And last night he was by far the best player on the ice, working his way into the tough real estate in front of the goal and scoring two from in close. Perhaps his early struggles really can be attributed to the off-season surgery he had to deal with. I like what I see from him lately, and I'm hopeful he's about to embark upon a huge second half.

Another good sign from the Sharks last night was a bit of killer instinct. As I mentioned in my post about the Detroit game, much success in ice hockey comes from making the other guy pay for his mistakes. The Sharks made the Blues pay for their mistakes last night. The first goal occurred when St. Louis somehow lost track of Joe Thornton and let him get in behind the defense--about as big a mistake as you can make against San Jose. Thornton made another of his how-does-he-make-it-look-so-easy passes to Milan Michalek, who had some trouble with the puck initially but hung with the play and eventually tapped it past Manny Legace.

Then, in the third period, with the Blues on the power play after having scored to make it 3-1 and showing some signs of life, Keith Tkachuk did something very Keith-Tkachuk-like, initiating a pointless scrap with Torrey Mitchell and getting himself sent off for roughing, not only negating the man advantage but taking one of St. Louis's best goal scorers (himself) off the ice. When Patrick Rissmiller came out of the box to end the four-on-four and put San Jose on the power play, Cheech scored his second of the night to make it 4-1 and kill St. Louis's budding rally.

All in all, it was the kind of effort from the Sharks that I had expected to see much more of this season. Perhaps we'll see many more performances like this in the second half.

Rapid Recap: Sharks-Blues

The San Jose Sharks I watched defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 last night looked like the San Jose Sharks I had expected to see this season. It's about time.

Detailed post later.

That's Better...But it Still Needs Improvement

The Sharks were sent into a funk on Sunday, the 13th of January, when they lost a game at Anaheim that they had led going into the final minute of regulation. They did not snap out of that funk until 13:39 of the first period last night against the Chicago Blackhawks, when Sandis Ozolinsh scored a power-play goal with a nifty little backhand, the first Shark goal in a game San Jose went on to win 3-2. In the interim, they lost three games (I'm not including the loss to the Ducks), two of them against divisional opponents.

The malaise was disturbingly familiar, looking very similar to the break in morale suffered by the team in last year's playoffs, when, less than a minute from going up on the Red Wings 3-1 in the Conference Semifinals, Robert Lang scored to send the game into overtime. Of course the Wings won that game, and the next two as well to end San Jose's season.

For the first period of last night's game, the Blackhawks absolutely had San Jose on the ropes. The players in teal looked like they didn't want anything quite as much as they wanted to get off the ice before the inevitable Bad Thing happened. In short order Chicago turned this domination into a 1-0 lead, with Jack Skille scoring past a flopping, wild Evgeni Nabokov.

But for whatever reason, Ozolinsh's goal seemed to rally the team. From then on they (mostly) played with some zip--you could see it in the great individual effort of Joe Pavelski in the second period, when he beat a too-casual Patrick Kane to a loose puck and rocketed in for a short-handed goal.

It was great to see this rally, but it needed to occur in overtime against Anaheim, not more than a week later. Hockey has its ups and downs, and sometimes the other team will have momentum--the "ebb and flow" I spoke of in my post about the Detroit game. Sometimes the puck will go into your net off a defenseman's skate. But hockey teams need to have a short memory when it comes to dealing with the inevitable bad breaks that are intrinsic to the sport. The Sharks seem to brood like a bunch of sullen teenagers when things go badly.

Doug Weight's goal off of Alexei Semenov's skate is not the last piece of rotten luck the Sharks will have this season. It is not even the last piece of game-changing, couldn't-have-happened-at-a-worse-time rotten luck the Sharks will have this season. But it had better be the last time such a piece of rotten luck throws them into a three-game slide, or the team's prospects for the postseason do not look good.


On Wisconsin!

Of the five goals scored in last night's game, three were scored by former Wisconsin Badgers (Pavelski, Skille, and Adam Burish). I'm sure my buddy Badgerbucco would be proud...

"Scouts?"

On the Merc's website yesterday, David Pollak wrote about the scouts who have been present at the Tank for San Jose's last couple of home games. Two of the teams mentioned (the Canadiens and the Panthers) have been mixed up in assorted trade rumors with the Sharks from time to time this season.

I don't really have anything to say about any potential trade rumors involving Patrick Marleau--they are rumors and nothing more. There's not even any evidence to indicate that the folks from Montreal and Florida and elsewhere were at HP Pavilion to watch Marleau any more than they were there to watch any other player on the ice.

However, the blurb did get me thinking...I wonder what hockey scouts--people who make their livings observing and evaluating hockey players and making recommendations that have consequences (as opposed to, say, bloggers, or TV analysts, whose opinions really don't matter)--would say about the undeniable drop in Marleau's production this year? What might they see that could explain it? Is it something he is doing, or isn't doing? Has he lost a step? What about Cheechoo? Does his disappointing season have something in common with Marleau's? If these scouts are in a box scribbling notes about either of these guys, what I wouldn't give for a peek over their shoulders...

Wounded! We Got Wounded!

The injuries are starting to pile up for the Sharks. Worryingly, the most recent trips to the injured reserve are by key defensive players. First, Kyle McLaren had "minor knee surgery". (The Sharks have lost all four games since McLaren has been out of the lineup, and have given up nineteen goals in the process. Coincidence? You be the judge.)

Now, Curtis Brown is on the IR with what's described as a hand injury. Brown's defensive skills and general hockey sense make him far more valuable than his one goal and three assists indicate...he'll be missed.

Let's hope both of these guys are back soon.

Rangers-Bruins Observations

I had the Rangers-Bruins game on in the background while I did some unpacking today. I can't claim that I watched the game too closely, so I don't have a lot to say about it, specifically (Boston 3, New York 1 is the salient detail), but there are a few things I'd like to mention about the teams involved.


Rangers

Are the Rangers the Sharks of the East? (The tremendous majority of the hockey media would probably ask "Are the Sharks the Rangers of the West?", but we all have our perspectives.) They are a team that appears to be underachieving when one considers their level of talent, possesses a calm, laconic, underproducing captain who has been heavily criticized, induces frustration amongst their fans due to their apparent inability to bring any consistent intensity to the rink, has achieved what success they have on the strength of decent defense and strong goaltending (which has flagged somewhat lately)... That's quite a list of similarities.


Bruins

The Bruins are the team that infamously started their season on a Pacific Division swing then returned to the Eastern Time Zone, where they have remained and will continue to remain for the rest of the regular season. Thus, the Bruins make exactly one cross-country road trip all year.

Not only would radical scheduling reform (a subject I plan to post on in the future) bring the league's marquee players to more fans every year, but it would just be a lot more fair. It's ridiculous that the Bruins are allowed to get away with a single long trip in a season when the western teams are routinely crossing the continent.


Milbury

Today's game was broadcast nationally in the United States by NBC. NBC has apparently hired Mike Milbury to be a studio analyst for them this season. This means that Mike Milbury is frequently asked to comment upon player personnel issues, such as X's contract or whether team A should trade player Y.

This seems to me to be a bit like engaging Gary Bettman to offer commentary on the subject of avoiding a work stoppage in one's professional sports league. Milbury was a famous flop as an NHL general manager for the New York Islanders.

(Additionally, during the second intermission of today's game, Milbury erroneously stated that Evgeni Nabokov has started every game this year for San Jose. Sometimes one wonders if NHL observers on the East Coast actually pay any attention at all to what's going on out west...)

Measured and Found Wanting

Ice hockey is a game of mistakes. The action of the play is free-flowing, possession of the puck is tenuous at best, turnovers occur constantly. It's all about minimizing the damage caused by your own mistakes and taking full advantage of your opponent's. Tonight, after largely controlling play for the first twenty minutes plus, the Detroit Red Wings somehow, against all reason and justice, found themselves tied 2-2 with the San Jose Sharks, and with their opponents in possession of all of the momentum.

Then, the Sharks made a series of mistakes, mostly of the discipline-related variety, and the Wings drove the advantage that had been dealt to them lethally home. Almost before you knew it a 2-2 game had turned into a 5-2 game, and Detroit eventually coasted to a 6-3 win.

That's why the Wings are the class of the league. Every hockey game between reasonably competitive opponents has an ebb and flow, and we saw that tonight. The first period of the game was tight and listless--some of the dullest hockey I have seen all season, frankly--but the Wings were clearly in charge, not even conceding a shot to San Jose until more than seventeen minutes had passed. After a short-handed goal at the beginning of the second period put the Sharks down 2-0, they mounted a rally, with newly-recalled Devin Setoguchi tipping in a Sandis Ozolinsh drive to make it 2-1, and Jonathan Cheechoo showing a nose for the goal and scoring to make it 2-2. Now, San Jose seemed to have the momentum. Ebb, flow.

Then the Sharks began a grim march to the penalty box, sometimes two-by-two, and the Nicklas Lidstrom-led Red Wings power play made no mistake about making San Jose pay.

(At this time I must mention Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek's dreadful dive in the course of this sequence. Go find the replay on the internet if you want to look at it--essentially, Christian Ehrhoff skated by Hasek behind the Detroit goal and Hasek went down like a stuntman in a western feigning being blown up by dynamite. The Sharks didn't lose tonight because of this call--they made a whole series of other errors, too lengthy and depressing to tabulate--but for the sake of the quality of play in the league, players who flop like Hasek need to be suspended. If the officials on the ice miss the call and fail to hand out the minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, fine, whatever, it's a fast game and they miss some calls, but the dive is so obvious on the videotape that there's no excuse for the league's disciplinary committee not to take action.)

It's becoming increasingly difficult to regard the 2007-2008 edition of the San Jose Sharks as a Stanley Cup contender in any except the broadest sense (that is, the sense that any team making the playoffs has a legitimate chance to reach the finals). Except for a few stretches, the Wings dominated San Jose tonight. I wrote in my mid-season assessment about the nagging feeling that the Sharks, even when they were putting together their remarkable road winning streak and sitting in second place in the West, were living on borrowed time. This makes four losses in a row now, and one gets the sense that that time is running out.

Rick Nash is Good

I've been mostly out of the hockey loop for the last few days, while I've been getting all of the technology back on-line at the new pad...so I missed this goal by Rick Nash from the other night.

What makes this one special, even compared with other highlight-reel goals, is that it was a game winner. With less than thirty seconds left.

Wow.

In the Pipe, Five-by-Five

I'm back online. Huzzah! Big thanks to Jay at my ISP for dealing with Qwest so I didn't have to...

Just a couple things...

Thing the First: I hate losing to Dallas. I hate losing, in general, but I really hate losing to Dallas, for deep-seated personal reasons.

Thing the Second: Hosting the Wings tonight. The way things have been going, it's tough to feel optimistic.

Watch this space for an after-action report...

Box Score Blogger

My internet connectivity is still "transitional" with the move, but as long as I'm hot-internet-connection-adjacent at the moment (sitting in an empty and horribly dusty room at my just-vacated apartment) I thought I'd post a few comments on last night's 5-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes.

This was the first game I haven't watched since I started this blog, so I'm reduced to commenting upon the box score. What can one really tell from a box score? Not much, especially not in ice hockey, where a player can have a very strong game and make little impact on the score sheet. However, that won't stop me from making a series of Reckless Inferences...

Fact: Phoenix won.
Reckless Inference: The Coyotes are evolving into a pretty decent team. Their recent hot streak has ended, but they've followed up their two most recent losses (at Edmonton and at Minnesota) with strong wins (at Vancouver and home to the Sharks). Every team loses, but good teams avoid making it a habit.

Fact: Sandis Ozolinsh replaced Alexei Semenov in the lineup.
Reckless Inference: This is the first thing I checked when I drilled down from the NHL mainpage at Yahoo! Sports to the actual box score. Alexei Semenov is not a quality defenseman and Ron Wilson knows it.

Fact: The Sharks gave up two goals in the first minute of both the second and third periods.
Reckless Inference: The troubling habit this team has of coming out of locker rooms flat and unprepared continues.

Fact: Evegeni Nabokov gave up five goals.
Reckless Inference: This is one statistic where the numbers really can't be relied upon to tell the story. I didn't watch the game, so I really can't comment on how well or poorly Nabby played. In any event, he's been having a lights-out season, but the team can't be dependent upon him giving up two goals or less in every game...it's too much to ask. The Sharks need to find some consistent scoring. There, how's that for a reckless inference?

Cujo to Calgary

I've officially packed up my TV, so the big move must be close. I still wanted to take a moment to resolve this story.

Curtis Joseph will be a Flame. Story here and a billion other places...

Okay...back to the boxes...

The Bogeymen

I'm surrounded by boxes and clutter in my apartment, and I still have some work I want to get done tonight, but I do want to make a few comments about tonight's 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

1. AAAARGH!!

2. Remember, this was basically a tie. Anaheim gets the extra point in the standings for winning the cool little exhibition that follows a tie.

3. Overall, the Sharks played a strong game tonight. The spirit and the effort were there. As I've alluded to before, this team still seems to save its biggest mistakes for the very worst times, but honestly I'd rather lose because of mistakes than because of a lack of hard work.

4. Alexei Semenov has been a healthy scratch for the last several games for a reason. Let's hope Kyle McLaren gets better quick.

5. Thomas Greiss played well pretty well tonight. What a way to start your NHL career, huh? Against the defending champs in their building. He looked like a rookie goalie during Anaheim's first serious attack, and his anxious flopping contributed to Bertuzzi's goal, but I thought he really came into his own during the Ducks' power play early in the second period. He cannot be faulted on the game-tying goal.

6. Loving Torrey Mitchell, Mike Grier, and Curtis Brown on the penalty kill. The defensive skills and hockey savvy of the veterans are very nicely complemented by the rookie's speed and counterattacking ability.

Okay, that's all for now. Time to continue putting things in boxes...

Sunday Scraps

Don't Look Now...

In the last few years the Pacific Division has been composed of three teams that are amongst the best in the league and two also-rans. This season seemed to be shaping up in a similar fashion, but over the last month the Phoenix Coyotes (who the Sharks outscored 15-1 over a three-game stretch in November) have put together a good run of hockey and now have 47 points, putting them squarely in the playoff hunt. They are only five points behind the Ducks with three games in hand. Like San Jose, Phoenix has been playing very well on the road, and they bounced back from a 5-2 loss at Edmonton on Thursday with a 4-3 victory at Vancouver the next night.

The Coyotes are at the X over in St. Paul this afternoon...I'm eager to get a look at this team, and I half considered going over there to check them out, but I'm moving to a new apartment in a few days and am busy with the associated packing. Also, of course, Coyotes-Wild conflicts with Sharks-Ducks tonight.


Light, Unsatisfying Snack or Famine

Speaking of the defending champs, it seems like every time San Jose and Anaheim face off, either it's a really close game decided by a late goal or a shootout, or the Ducks blow the Sharks out of the water. Just for once I'd like to blow them out of the water. (You'd think a Shark could take a Duck, after all... Maybe not a Mighty Duck, but certainly a regular Duck...)


Fave Goal?

I'm trying to decide what San Jose goal over the first half of the season has been my favorite. It's either this one by Marleau off a pass that only Big Joe could make, or this one by Torrey Mitchell. I'm leaning towards the one by Mitchell, because I admire the way he played through the foul and also because that particular goal was so crucial in that particular game.


Movin'

As I mentioned earlier, I'm moving to a new apartment this week. The associated chaos is likely to disrupt both my viewing of games and my posting for a short time. But I'll be back to normal soon.

Gotta get packing. Go Sharks!

Do Call It a Comeback...

...Because For a While We Really Weren't Here.

Toronto 1 1 0 - 2
San Jose 0 0 3 - 3

I don't know how many recaps of Sharks games I've read this year in which one San Jose player or another (or their coach) has been quoted as saying "We just didn't come out ready tonight," or words to that effect. And it doesn't matter that I haven't kept track of the number, because the only acceptable number is zero.

The Sharks came out with very little spirit or energy tonight (again) and were outworked by the Toronto Maple Leafs for the entire first period and most of the second of a game that was broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada, falling behind 2-0. On the first goal, by Nik Antropov, San Jose was casual with the puck in their own zone and paid for it immediately. The second Toronto marker was as soft a goal as I've seen Evgeni Nabokov give up this season--a Pavel Kubina shot that went five hole. Goalies are always particularly bothered by goals that go through them, and this one went through Nabby. (A short time before, a scary moment as he went down to the ice for the better part of a minute after taking an inadvertent knee to the head from Antropov, and one wonders if that had anything to do with it).

After a period and three quarters of obliging playing Dr. Feelgood for a reeling team, the Sharks finally started to play with some spark towards the end of the second, putting the Leafs back on their heels and drawing a penalty just before the intermission. Then, at the start of the third, on the carry-over time of the ensuing power play, something finally went right for Patrick Marleau. After missing on the doorstep, he scored on a long shot that was deflected by Hal Gill and snuck through Toskala. That's hockey.

To the Sharks' credit, once they got rolling they kept their foot on the gas and pressed for the kill against a fragile, dispirited team. Another goal for Craig Rivet from the blueline is very encouraging--let's hope this trend continues. And it was great to see Joe Pavelski put one in the back of the net after a couple of good performances.

But the Sharks were very fortunate to play badly for more than half of the game and still thieve a come-from-behind 3-2 win tonight. What precisely will it take to get this team to come out with intensity and hard work every single night? With games against Anaheim, Dallas, and Detroit in the near future, an answer had better be forthcoming, and soon.

Friday Fragments (January 11, 2008)

Cujo

News services are reporting that "sources" claim goaltender Curtis Joseph (presently out of work) is interested in signing with either the Sharks or the Calgary Flames, and that these teams are in turn interested in him. TSN's article has characterized the process of Joseph narrowing the number of teams he would like to play for from five to two as a "sweepstakes".

All reports are he played well in leading a team of Canadians to victory in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland, making 38 saves in the final against Russian squad Salavat Yulaev of Ufa. Even at age 40, then, he probably still has something in the tank...but if he winds up in a Sharks uniform I'm pretty sure I'm unlikely to feel as though Ed McMahon just showed up at my door with a giant novelty check. I'm uncertain where the notion that Curtis Joseph is the best free-agent goalie in the world comes from.

Look, are the other goalies in the Sharks' system ready or not? Thomas Greiss has never played an NHL minute, but there was a time when Evgeni Nabokov had never played an NHL minute, either. Then he showed up and won the Calder. If Greiss is worth having in the system he needs to play sometime, and there's no such thing as an unimportant game, so now is as good a time as any.

If Cujo wants to have a job in the NHL I'm sure he can find one, and I wish him well. Maybe he'll be unbeatable...stranger things have happened. But given the choice between Joseph and a young goalie scouted and developed by an organization with a league-wide reputation as one of the best when it comes to scouting and developing goalies, I think I'd rather have the kid.


Crumbling Leafs

Tomorrow night the Sharks host the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are absolutely on the verge of disintegrating. On a swing through SoCal the last few nights, the Leafs lost to the Ducks 5-0 then fell behind the Kings 5-0 before pulling two back to make the margin a little more respectable. Vesa Toskala, returning from an injury, stopped only 19 of 24 shots in Anaheim, but did better in relief of the torched Andrew Raycroft against L.A. Will the late signs of life against the Kings stir Toronto to make a stand against the Sharks? Or will the collapse continue? We'll see tomorrow...


Almost a Caps Fan?

In an earlier post I expressed some fondness for the Washington Capitals. (And no, I have nothing to say about the Ovechkin deal). I used to live in the D.C. suburbs when I was a little kid, and on a recent visit to my parents' house my mother confirmed for me that she and my father did indeed take me to a Caps game when I was little--I couldn't have been any more than five or six. (I've had a dim memory of this, but I wasn't entirely positive the event had actually occurred).

At some point in the future I'll relate the story of how I became a Sharks fan, but for the moment it's sufficient to say that the tale involves the theft of the team I grew up rooting for (the Minnesota North Stars). Sometimes I wonder what team I would've wound up supporting if particular events in my life hadn't led me to the Sharks. I'll bet I would've been a Caps fan...

A Good Start to the Second Half

Sweep

The Sharks defeated the Vancouver Canucks tonight 3-1, completing a four-game season sweep of one of the better teams in the Western Conference.

After a first half to the season over the course of which they were plagued by inscrutable inconsistency, Team Teal needed a strong effort to start the second half, in order to convince themselves, at a primitive level much deeper than public expressions of coolness and confidence, that they really are working with a fresh slate. They got such an effort tonight, taking the game to the Canucks right from the start.


Respect your opponent. (But not too much...)

The Sharks' first goal was scored by Craig Rivet and came in transition off a 4-on-2 break that was initiated by Mike Grier. Against a goaltender with a fearsome reputation (such as Roberto Luongo) a player often succumbs to the temptation to make a complicated play (read: extra pass) in hopes of producing a can't-miss layup. But with Luongo obliged to respect the three San Jose forwards charging the goal, he was unable to get into his "butterfly bunker" and seal off the goalmouth, as he is so adept at doing. Rivet (a D-man, remember) correctly made the decision to drive to the net, found a gap, and scored. Nice.


The Anxious Advantage

The emotional dynamics of "lopsided" power-play situations (by which I mean 5-on-3's and five-minute majors) are odd, and have always been quite fascinating to me. Whenever one of these circumstances occurs during a game, I become anxious for my team. If it's my team that's shorthanded, I am anxious for obvious reasons. If my team has the advantage, however, I am equally anxious, because many times I have seen failed lopsided power plays turn the emotional tide of a game.

I've come to regard these types of situations as sort of "forced wager". Imagine a blackjack player sitting at a table betting, say, a dollar a hand. Then imagine a gentleman in a referee's outfit walking up, tapping the player on the shoulder, and saying, "Oh, by the way, you need to bet fifty bucks on your next hand." That's what getting a lopsided power-play feels like. If you win, great. But if you lose, you could be in real trouble.

The expectation of a 5-on-3 or a major is that the team with the advantage will score, and the pressure can be tremendous--both the pressure that a team puts on itself and the pressure that can be produced by the crowd, be they hostile or friendly to the team on the power play. Few things can turn a friendly crowd restless more quickly than a weak performance on a 5-on-3 or a major. Few things can serve to rally a crowd faster than the growing feeling that their team is about to escape from grave peril. (What Sharks fan can forget this?)

The Sharks controlled the first period tonight, but the decisive segment of the game was initiated when they killed off a 5-on-3 situation in the last five minutes of the opening frame. You could really start to hear the crowd hum as it became clear that the Canucks weren't able to get anything going despite their two-man advantage. During the 5-on-4 that began when Marleau came out of the box, San Jose had two separate shorthanded attacks, one of which turned into a legitimate chance by Milan Michalek. The reeling Canucks were saved by the bell when the first period ended a few minutes later, but the Sharks also controlled play during most of the second, drawing penalties and eventually adding the second goal. It wasn't until the last five minutes of the second that the Vancouver attack started to look at all scary.


Don't Make Me Say "Fragile" Again!

Midway through the third, Vancouver's Ryan Kesler scored on a bad angle shot that hit the post, then hit Evgeni Nabokov, then found its way across the goal line. Subsequent to this the Sharks again (as in the Columbus game) looked a little worried and shaky, but Nabby made a huge stop on a Daniel Sedin breakaway (that's why he's deservedly an All-Star), and shortly thereafter a little luck (in the form of a bad officiating call that put San Jose on the power play) helped sap Vancouver of any spirit or energy they may have had for a rally.

A better response that what they showed to a nearly identical situation in the Columbus game, but still short of what I'd like to see.


Congratulations...

...to Jeremy Roenick, for moving into sole possession of second place on the list of all-time American-born NHL goal scorers.

41/82

Shows What I Know...

One thing before I get into my mid-season musings...

I'll be the first to admit that my hockey knowledge, such as it is, is pretty much limited to what happens on the ice, between the opening faceoff and the final whistle. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the fine points of NHL contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and so on. As a sports fan, I pretty much am happy with the game itself. (When I am forced to stare at the other stuff, as during the lockout, I become grumpy).

Although I knew that Dimitri Patzold had to clear waivers when the Sharks sent him down to Worcester, I was under the impression that the Sharks would have had the right to pull him back up to the big club if any other team had put in a claim. (I'm not positive, but I believe there are circumstances in which this is possible under Major League Baseball's waiver system). From reading some of the articles on the Merc's website today, I guess that's not the case...if he would've been claimed, he would've been gone.

This is obviously a huge difference, and it changes my thinking about this situation (see previous, badly-informed post here). I'm now of the opinion that Thomas Greiss, who has been seeing the bulk of the action in Worcester, has been brought up to give Evgeni Nabokov the occasional spell. It might have been difficult to ask Patzold, who's seen only a handful of playing minutes and then only in games in which Nabokov has been pulled, to start. Greiss, although he's never played in the big league, at least ought to be reasonably sharp. Wait and see, I guess.


Muddling Through

In discussing the state of the team at the season's halfway point, I must necessarily continue a theme that I alluded to in my post about the Columbus game. Namely, the theme of "Exactly what do I expect?"

Who would I rather be? A Leafs fan (15-18-8 and in a tailspin, hanging on for dear life until Vesa Toskala returns?) A Tampa Bay Lightning fan (last place in the worst division in the league?) A Buffalo Sabres fan (major offseason losses after a conference finals appearance, now in eleventh place in the East, and in possession of a seven-game losing streak?) How can a Sharks fan complain when the only team we're looking up at is the Wings?

I cannot help but be pleased with San Jose's 52 points through 41 games. But I'm still nervous, and a look at the numbers is instructive in trying to understand why.

As of this writing, the Sharks are tied for the second-best goals-against average in the league with Vancouver (2.14). On the other hand, they are eighth from the bottom in goals per game (2.47). And that pretty much says it all--the Sharks are playing extremely well defensively, but they've been struggling to score.

The two leading goal-scorers from last year, Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau, are sitting on five and seven goals, respectively. They both have less goals for San Jose this year than Devin Setoguchi, who is currently skating for Worcester. Sharks defensemen, combined, have nine goals so far this year. Chris Pronger has nine goals so far this year by himself. (Montreal blueliner Andrei Markov has eleven).

If Cheechoo were on pace to match his goal total from last year, he would have eighteen goals at this point. Marleau would have sixteen. That's a 22-goal delta from where they actually are. If San Jose had twenty-two more goals as of January 9, 2008, they would be sixth in the league in terms of raw goals scored, ahead of Dallas (125) but still behind the Canadiens (128).

The point of the preceding isn't really to pick on Cheechoo and Marleau--they've been hammered sufficiently. It's to point out that this isn't a team that's designed to eke out wins by the score of 2.5 to 2.0. A lot of teams have been successful winning in just that way, especially in the several years pre-lockout, but I think a lot of us really expected this squad to blow the doors off people, to the point that we would be speaking about them in the same breath as the Wings. Certainly the hockey writers (and there were a good number) who picked San Jose to win it all this year expected a different team than the one we're seeing.

And therein lies the anxiety. As much as I like the 23-12-6 record, little of what's happening on offense seems very sustainable. I feel as though the team's attack is chugging along like a four-engine airplane with two starboard burnouts, tattered control surfaces, and leaky hydraulics--yes, we're in the air, but for how long? Two-goal games from Patrick Rissmiller (vs. Columbus) and big goals from Kyle McLaren (vs. Minnesota) are great, but can't be expected to last. A ten-game away winning streak is great, but that kind of road success can't be expected to persist. What happens when all of that goes away?

I don't know, maybe it won't. Can the team continue to rack up wins this way? With a goal by Craig Rivet here, a goal by Roenick there, whatever? I guess it's not impossible, if Nabby continues to shine in net, the penalty kill continues to rock (huge first-half kudos to Mike Grier and Curtis Brown on that--they're doing their jobs) and the team continues to play great defense in general.

But I don't like the odds. Ultimately, in order for the Sharks to be the Stanley Cup contenders that they really ought to be, someone (or sometwo or somethree) is going to have to emerge as primary scoring. Someone other than Joe Thornton--he's been even better than usual this year, but his magic is primarily as a setup man, and he can't be asked to carry the goal-scoring load as well. It doesn't have to be Cheechoo or Marleau, either--it can be Steve Bernier and/or Milan Michalek and/or Torrey Mitchell and/or whoever. If the Sharks hoist the Cup and Jonathan Cheechoo winds up with nine goals for the season, I won't complain.

To end the post on a positive note, I'll again note The Facts of the Case. 23-12-6. Fifty-two points. First in the Pacific. Second in the West. And that's with all the offensive woes I've bemoaned above.

If someone (or sometwo or somethree) in teal finds the scoring touch, this team could really make some hay.

An Original Six Matchup

Watched Hawks-Habs tonight.

Of course I was pulling for Montreal (want that Western Conference team to come home empty-handed!), but I still gotta say I feel great about the rise from the ashes by the Chicago Blackhawks this year. Over the past few seasons, there hasn't been any story around the league (except for the lockout itself, I guess) quite as dispiriting as the reports of half-capacity crowds in an Original Six team's building. Suddenly--almost in the blink of an eye--the Hawks are back. The United Center is full again, or nearly, anyway (the place seats over 20,000).

Certainly the fantastic young talent in Chicago has a lot to do with this. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are both nineteen-year-old rookie phenoms, and Minnesota's own Dustin Byfuglien is a great young defenseman. Toews is hurt at the moment (although his extraordinary goal against Colorado earlier this year has become the centerpiece of a Blackhawks promo, I see), and Kane didn't have the greatest game in the history of hockey tonight, but newcomer Jack Skille (former teammate of Shark Joe Pavelski at the University of Wisconsin), in his fifth NHL game, scored his first NHL goal and added an assist later, so the hits just keep on coming. As you might expect from a team this raw, their performance has been up-and-down, but watch for them to get scary-good sooner rather than later.

Canadiens 4, Blackhawks 3, OT. Chicago gets a point for the regulation tie...oh, well.


In Related News...

In a previous post, I noted that Montreal rookie goalie Carey Price had a bad game against the Capitals the other day. Apparently, that made a few tough outings in a row for the kid...today Canadiens GM Bob Gainey sent him down to the minors.

Greiss Up, Patzold Down

Press release from the team here.

Goalies have to see live pucks to play well. Dimitri Patzold, of course, has seen almost no playing time as Evgeni Nabokov's backup. I suspect this move means that A) Nabokov will continue to start every game, and B) Doug Wilson sees Patzold as the emergency replacement should something happen to Nabokov (knock on wood), wants him to stay (or possibly get) sharp, and will recall him if disaster strikes and he can't acquire a more seasoned goalie by other means.

Sweeter Sweaters?

So the Sharks changed their crest and their sweaters this year. This is really the kind of thing I should've commented upon at the start of the season, but, well, this blog wasn't around then. Unlike most hot preseason topics, it's not too late to address this one. (Given my keen fashion sense (ahem) this issue probably would've been at the top of my preseason list, anyway...)

My buddy who went to the New Year's Eve game with me said, at one point, "So what's with hockey uniforms being so ugly?" I guess I did a bit of a double take when he said that, because I've never thought of hockey uniforms as being particularly ugly. (I suppose he could have been referring to the legendarily wretched Vancouver Canucks uniforms from twenty-five years ago, but I don't think so). Maybe my fashion sense ain't so great. I dunno, I guess I've always liked that big ole' crest right on the front of the sweater, displayed in all its glory, not relegated to the cover of the team media guide, or miniaturized and simplified to fit on the side of a helmet. Who wouldn't love the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs' crest? Is that cool or what?

Anyway, more to the point, I've always liked the Sharks' uniforms, so it was with some chagrin that I greeted the news of the change. They were different, so they scared me. Good heavens, even the crest was different! What's with that yellow eye? What is this, some sort of...demon shark? You expect me to wear that around on my chest?

It took half a season for me to stop panicking and get a grip, but I think I'm finally there. So my calm, considered verdict is as follows:

I like the home (dark) version of the uniform. The crest itself is not any better or worse than the previous crest--it would've been nice if the Sharks' original crest could have stayed the same for a half century and become a true league classic, like the Blackhawks logo or the Wings logo, but seriously...who am I kidding? There was no way that was going to happen, and it could've been a lot worse. The new crest is really only a slightly-tweaked version of the old crest. At least it's not a slightly-less-cute version of SJ Sharkie skating around with a helmet and stick, which I'll bet a nickel was on the drawing board. (I mean, I love SJ Sharkie, but...*shudder*)

However, after much consideration I've decided that I still don't like the road (white) sweaters. It's the yellow...I've never thought of yellow as being one of the Sharks' colors, and the color yellow is far too prominent in the road sweaters. They look like the St. Louis Blues out there to me. Now, I realize that in fact there is no more yellow in the road uniforms than there is in the home uniforms...it's just that it pops out far more, for some reason an eye doctor and a physicist could probably explain.

One change that I heartily approve of is the block numerals...those are classy. A hockey fan should never have to squint at a TV and think, "Um, what's that guy's number, exactly?" (Anaheim Ducks, I'm looking in your direction).

So overall, let's call it a qualified thumbs-up. Now that I've got this crucial issue out of the way, I can proceed in future posts to other, secondary topics such as the state of the hockey team. Actually, the schedule has granted a bit of a convenient break here at the precise halfway point of the season, so watch this space for some midseason comments before the Vancouver game on Thursday.

These Are the Facts of the Case, and They Are Undisputed

The San Jose Sharks defeated the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets tonight by the score of 3-2. They are now 23-12-6, for 52 points, good for second in the Western Conference behind the Detroit Red Wings, who are pretty clearly in a class by themselves. The Sharks are in sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division, and have two games in hand on Dallas (50 points) and three in hand on the Ducks (48 points).

These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed. So what's not to like?

For the second period and the first several minutes of the third, the Sharks asserted themselves as the better team and opened up a 3-0 lead. You finally got the sense that they were playing with a bit of cockiness. You could feel Columbus's morale starting to crumble. Then the Jackets' Andrew Murray stuffed one in short-side on Nabokov for his second NHL goal ever, and things started to come apart for San Jose.

If you get ahead of, say, the Ottawa Senators 3-0, it's reasonable to expect that they're going to roar back and make a game of it. (You could say the same thing about the Wings, but you're deeply unlikely to ever get ahead of them 3-0). The Columbus Blue Jackets are not a team that should be able to come back on you from three goals down.

This isn't to say the Jackets aren't a good team--they are. I predicted last season that they would make the playoffs this year, and halfway through the season they're certainly in the hunt. They are well-coached by Ken Hitchcock, tight defensively, and, most importantly for any team scrapping to make the playoffs, they're getting great goaltending from Pascal Leclaire (who mysteriously left the game after the second period tonight...still not sure what's up with that). But if you're going to get beat by them, you ought to get beat by them in a Ken-Hitchcock-style game--they work hard all game, frustrate your every offensive effort, and manage to slip in a goal late to win 2-1, for instance. But if you fancy yourself an elite team, you ought to be able to finish the Jackets off without too much drama if you manage to get a three-goal lead on them.

I want to stop being able to use the adjective fragile to describe this Sharks team, but I don't feel that I can. Not yet. After Murray scored tonight, it seemed like they started to panic. They were chasing on their next couple defensive shifts and quickly Jeremy Roenick was in the box for cross-checking. On the ensuing power play Nabokov, typically so calm in the net, suddenly can't find the puck off a long shot and looks for it behind him (as clear a sign as there could be that a goalie is expecting the worse). Where is it? Under his pads, loose on the ice. Sergei Fedorov saw it. 3-2.

This isn't soccer. It isn't reasonable to expect a shutout every night. You're going to be scored upon. Tonight, as soon as the Sharks were scored upon any cockiness evaporated and they became a very anxious group of hockey players. Mental toughness is so important in hockey. You have to be able to shrug, say, "Well, they'll never be able to beat us that way again," and get back to dominating. You can't be expecting things to fall apart at the first sign of trouble, because this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At this point, I could with some justice be accused of failing to acknowledge the big picture. The Sharks won. Period. And they have shown some resiliency over the past couple of games--Minnesota's rally was pole-axed by Cheechoo's quick goal on New Year's Eve, and, as I mentioned in my post about the Calgary game, I thought they bounced back well against the Flames after giving up a potentially morale-breaking 2-on-1 right off the bat. So let's hope that by weathering the storm tonight, they've put this can't-win-in-the-Tank bogeyman behind them, and the next time an opponent on the ropes scores a goal to potentially spark a rally, the Sharks will have the confidence to put on a bored sneer and calmly snuff that rally out.


On the Subject of Luck

Steve Bernier's goal was described as "lucky" or "fortunate" by everyone asked to comment upon it tonight, including Bernier himself. (A bouncing puck landed just right for him in the slot, and he did a little spin-o-rama and shot it past a surprised Pascal Leclaire). I beg to differ. It's one of the oldest cliches in hockey, indeed in sports--good teams make their own luck. The Sharks worked hard tonight and it paid off. Good goal Sharks, good goal Bernier.


Empty Netters

What would have been lucky for Bernier is if he would have actually scored an empty-net goal by shoveling the puck backhanded into the air from just inside the red line while going to the bench. That probably would have been the most entertaining empty-net goal I've ever seen. Unfortunately, he hit the post...

And it actually still comes in second in my all-time ranking of most entertaining almost empty-net goals. I was present at a San Jose-Minnesota game during which Minnesota, having pulled their goalie for an extra attacker during a delayed penalty, nearly shot the puck into their own net on a pass gone awry. That one hit the post, too.


Fedorov

Sergei Fedorov continues to contribute in Columbus. He doesn't score like he used to, of course, but his hockey savvy is still there. Hitchcock actually played Fedorov, a forward, at defenseman for significant stretches last season. That's a testament to his defensive skills and overall hockey sense--we tend to remember Fedorov in his heyday as a scorer, but he's always been a terrific defensive player.

Caps-Habs Observations

Washington and Montreal played an early matinee today at Le Centre Bell, with the Capitals winning 5-4 in OT. I have warm feelings towards both of those organizations, so I tuned in.

Alexander Ovechkin had a couple goals today. I love watching him play...his enthusiasm for the game is extraordinary, and he always looks like he's having fun. He has a bit of Martin Grammatica in him, seeming to celebrate every goal as if it were an overtime game-winner.

Oh, and let's not forget that he's capable of feats like this. Still one of the standout individual efforts of all time, I would say...


Goalies

Highly-regarded Canadiens rookie Carey Price had a bad game today. He looked shaky all day and gave up one really awful goal. It happens to every goalie, of course (except maybe Marty Brodeur), so we'll have to see how the kid bounces back.

Speaking of goalies, Olaf Kolzig seems like he's been in the league so long that you'd bet his first game in Montreal was against the Maroons. Curious, I looked it up...his first year in the league was the '89-90 season. That's before the Sharks even existed, folks. And all of it with the Capitals.


Logos

Speaking of the Caps, it's nice to see that they're back to what I consider their "classic" logo, having moved away from that lame, tepid eagle-thing they had for a while.


TV

The feed for this game was the one from Washington, and the broadcast periodically visited the set of Redskins Live! during intermissions, et cetera, for a few words about the upcoming Redskins-Seahawks playoff game. After the third period, we stopped by again, and the Redskins Live! studio crew could not hide their irritation that a hockey game had had the cheek to go into overtime, thus curtailing their scheduled ninety minutes of pregame show by five, or possibly as many as ten minutes.

I understand that ice hockey is a niche sport. I understand that the eyes of the DC sporting world are firmly fixed on the NFL playoffs, and that's cool. (I'll probably watch some of that game myself). But I think that those in the American sport media for whom nothing matters but NFL football could ease back on the arrogance juuuuuust a little bit, and probably be none the worse for wear.

(For the record, the hockey game ended at 3:02 PM Eastern, delaying the scheduled start of Redskins Live! by 120 seconds...)

Friday Fragments

My Awesome Winning Streak

I suppose a salient detail I ought to mention is the fact that I actually saw the Sharks play the other night. Like, in person...they played Minnesota over at the X in St. Paul, and I was there (in full Sharks regalia, of course). That makes a four-game winning streak for the Sharks at the X, and I've been there for all four...


It was a great game...San Jose took a 2-0 lead into the third, then Minnesota fought back to tie it. But right off the face-off following the Wild's second goal, Cheechoo took it in to score the eventual winner. Did that ever silence the crowd in a hurry! Heh. Still, even though they're The Opposition, the Minnesota crowds are great...totally passionate about their team. Great atmosphere.

Still, there's nothing better than going into an enemy building in your team's colors and coming out with a win.







"I got that guy's hockey card at home. I'll show it to ya."

My folks got me some packs of hockey cards as a stocking-stuffer for Christmas. And what card do I get...?



Oh, you know it's Big Joe! He shoots, he scores!!!

Thanks, folks!


Elsewhere Around the League

I watched the first half of Atlanta and Carolina's home-and-home on Wednesday, and kind of half-watched tonight's game while puttering around the apartment and writing this. Some observations...

Ray Whitney scored a goal tonight for Carolina and had a pretty assist on the game-winner. Whitney broke into the league with the Sharks many years ago...followers of Team Teal may remember his sudden-death series winner versus Calgary in the 1995 playoffs. (My roommates at the time may remember me running around the house and screaming with joy.) His goal tonight was his 20th of the year...obviously he is still playing top-notch hockey. This is a guy who's quietly put together a great career, and it's nice to see him doing well. The Hurricanes are, as of this writing, on top of the Southeast Division, but they're having trouble in goal and have suffered a raft of injuries--they had some emergency call-ups from Albany tonight who looked like they were barely old enough to drive. To right the ship, they'll need a guy like Whitney to provide leadership.

Another guy having a great year is Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk. This is a guy who for many years had a rep as a fabulously talented goal-scorer, but a one-dimensional player with a bit of a questionable attitude. He always seemed to end the year, like, -30 or whatever. This year, though, he's gone from being merely a talented goal-scorer to becoming a great hockey player. In addition to his highlight-reel goal on Wednesday that I raved about in a previous post, he had three assists in that 5-4 OT win, including a perfect dish to Marian Hossa for the winner. (Oh, did I mention he's leading the league in goals?) I'm betting this is the year he finally becomes a force in the NHL.

The Terrible Tank

*Sigh*

Entertaining game at the Tank tonight, but yet another winless home game (OTL tonight), this time on the heels of a 4-0 road trip and a ten-game road winning streak. Some bad blood, some good goals, some good hits, some chirping...the only thing I didn't like was the result.

Well, okay, that's not the only thing I didn't like. This team still seems to have the power to take its eye off the ball at critical moments. How do you allow a 2-on-1 to Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay in the first minute of a homestand? That can't possibly end well. Perhaps worse, though, was the lame power play in the middle of the third period. The Sharks were working hard, having their best shifts of the game, totally dominating, and eventually drew a penalty when Dion Phaneuf pushed the net off the moorings. Then they come out with a flat power play. ("What have I done to deserve this flat, flavorless power play?") It was the turning point of the game--from then on the Flames had the better of the play. Working hard and drawing penalties is good, but it doesn't get you anywhere if you can't make the other guy pay.

Also, Patrick Marleau looks like he has no confidence whatsoever...

On the plus side, Torrey Mitchell played a whale of a game...his confidence seems to go up every time he steps on the ice. Ever since he got that shorty in Anaheim. He has a bright future. Also nice to see the scoring from the blue line continue.

When Tanguay got that goal right off the bat, I could practically hear 17,000 people say "Heeeere we go again" all the way over here in Minnesota. I thought the Sharks showed some good resiliency after that setback.

But the bottom line is, the team's gotta start winning some games in the Tank...

On the Subject of Outdoor Hockey

If any single event can be said to have inspired me to actually log on to blogspot and create this thing, I would say it was the NHL's "Winter Classic" game played on New Year's Day. This is not to say that I felt the need to run out and create a blog specifically about this particular topic--however, it's been a controversial event in hockey circles, and it made me realize I have some things to say about the sport.

For those who missed the event and the reportage around it, here's the skinny: over the course of the last week of 2007, an outdoor hockey rink was constructed in the middle of Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, where the NFL's Buffalo Bills play their home games. On January 1st, the Buffalo Sabres hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins in a full-scale, regular-season NHL hockey game. It was not an all-star game or otherwise an exhibition of any kind--it was worth points in the standings just like every other game. The game was broadcast live in Canada and in the United States (on NBC). Over 71,000 fans attended. The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and was eventually won by Pittsburgh in a shootout, with the game-winning goal being netted by twenty-year-old Penguin center Sidney Crosby, the young phenom who has been proclaimed across the continent as the savior of a league in dreadful need of a savior. Upon scoring the goal Crosby leaped into the air with joy as pure as the snow that was at that moment falling onto the ice, rushing to celebrate with his teammates.

It was fabulous television. The entertainment media has reported this week that NBC achieved the best ratings for a regular-season hockey game in over a decade. Few, if any, of the raucous crowd left before the end. In the aftermath of the event, most in the sports media had nothing but praise, declaring that the long-suffering NHL had finally scored a major publicity victory. Calls have gone out for more outdoor games to be played, starting next year. It was a total success.

Wasn't it?

Well...remember that snow? The stuff that was falling from the sky as Crosby scored his shootout winner, providing me with a lovely metaphor for emotional purity? It fell for most of the game, occasionally turning to sleet, and it did more than provide NBC with postcard-perfect televised moments. It affected the play of the game. And not in a good way.

As pretty and atmospheric as the snow was, it really gummed up the works. The puck refused to glide over the ice, and had to be shoved from player to player. In addition, despite heroic effort it was clear the ice crew was having some trouble with the playing surface--the game had to be stopped frequently for rather lengthy repairs, disturbing the rhythm of play.

The irony is that this game, which, it has become apparent, really was a hit for both the fans in the stands and those watching on TV, didn't remotely display the NHL game at its best. The players were game and worked their hardest--I wouldn't dream of disparaging the spirit or effort of either team--but they were forced by conditions to play a very slow, deliberate game.

Last night in Carolina, Atlanta Thrashers wing Ilya Kovalchuk scored a brilliant, unassisted, end-to-end-goal, basically beating every Carolina Hurricane on the ice single-handedly. Could he have scored a similar goal in Buffalo on Tuesday? I seriously doubt it. To me, Kovalchuk's goal is representative of NHL hockey at its best.

Far more important than the issue of quality of play, however, is the issue of safety. Several observers have noted that the snow on the ice obliged the players to skate with their eyes on the puck, because the conditions for stickhandling were so poor. Hockey players are taught very early on to skate with their heads up, as doing anything else leaves them extremely vulnerable to being absolutely clobbered. And then there is the quality of the ice...as well as the event went, what would we be saying right now if any player, let alone someone of Crosby's marquee value, had gone down with a season-ending knee injury because they hit a rut in the ice?

For all this, though, I am not ready to go on record as being against any further outdoor games, as are a vocal minority of hockey observers. Because it was a joy to watch. In the run-up to the game, I was very excited and intrigued. I invited some friends of mine, who aren't really big hockey fans, over to watch the game, and I think they enjoyed it. With all the criticism the league (justified) and the sport (not so justified, IMHO) have taken in the last decade, how can any hockey fan turn their back on 70,000 screaming fans and the best TV audience since 1996? I know I can't.

So let's say that I want to want more outdoor games. But I still need some convincing. The quality-of-play issue I can deal with...I can accept a game that never gets out of first gear if it brings with it 70,000 crazy fans on hand, an interesting setting, and a TV audience that is having a blast. I'm much more concerned about the safety...I would feel awful if a player suffered a serious injury because of a marketing stunt gone awry.

Perhaps the success of this event will motivate some serious, creative thinking about how to make an outdoor ice sheet of as high quality as those in NHL buildings. Engineering is an amazing thing, and nothing is impossible.

A Statement of Welcome

I am a longtime fan of the San Jose Sharks, a professional hockey franchise that plays in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League. I am also a longtime fan of the sport of ice hockey in general, although I have never played the game (in fact, I can barely skate). I live in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Readers who know a bit about the NHL may also know that there is a perfectly good franchise right over in St. Paul (Minneapolis's "Twin City") known as the Minnesota Wild. So why do I subject myself to various forms of heartbreak and delirium over the fortunes of some team way the heck out in California? Good question. I think I'll save the answer for a blog post...

It occurred to me recently that I have a good deal to say about the Sharks, the state of the NHL, and various other hockey-related topics, and since all the cool kids have blogs these days, I figured I would give this a shot. Feel free to leave a comment if you like.