Controversy

"Referees don't normally cheer for teams, but I'll guarantee you, they're cheering for Detroit to tie this game up." (Detroit Red Wings Analyst Mickey Redmond, February 29th, 2008, 13:21 of the third period.)

Absolutely @&%!#$ing right, Mickey.

The Sharks defeated the Detroit Red Wings tonight 3-2 at Joe Louis Arena. Leading the game 2-1 midway through the third period, the Sharks were attacking the Detroit net when a shot deflected up and hit the netting behind the goal. The puck flopped back down onto the ice just outside the goal mouth, and Devin Setoguchi poked it in. The whistle was never blown, the referee pointed at the puck in the net, and the Sharks were ahead 3-1.

The Red Wings, naturally, protested, and they certainly had a case. But unfortunately for them, rulings on whether or not the puck leaves play are not subject to video review (much as, say, pass interference is not subject to review in the NFL). The officials really had no choice but to award the goal to the Sharks, who were guilty of no crime other than continuing to play when there was no whistle.

Missed calls like this are simply part of hockey, or indeed of any sport--they are a consequence of having human, fallible officials. In this sense having the puck go into your net after the puck leaves play but isn't blown dead isn't really a whole lot different than, say, having an official accidentally obstruct a clearance attempt and thereby inadvertently hold the zone for the opposing team. Such a thing happened to the Sharks earlier this season in a game against Boston, and the Bruins went on to score the game-winning goal off that sequence.

So what happened tonight wasn't so much unfair officiating as it was human officiating. Things like this will happen now and then, and if I were a Wings fan I'd be hopping mad. The officials no doubt felt bad about it, but they should not have let this influence how they called the game from then on.

Instead, they pulled one of these.

By sending Christian Ehrhoff to the box on a galactically weak interference call with Detroit already on the power play, thus handing the Wings a 5-on-3 that of course they immediately converted, the referees demonstrated that they were in fact thinking precisely what Mickey Redmond thought they were thinking. They crossed the line from human officiating to bad officiating. Inadvertently penalizing one of the teams due to a mistake is just something that happens every now and then and is unavoidable. Deliberately penalizing one of the teams to "even things up" should never happen and is totally avoidable.

I should point out, since I've mentioned Redmond in this post, that I have no quarrel whatsoever with the Red Wings' broadcast team's passionate disputation of the Setoguchi goal. Even if the play had been more marginal (and it looked pretty clear to me that it went off the net) I would have no quarrel with them. I strongly believe that hometown broadcast teams should cheerfully and unapologetically call games in a way that is biased towards their own squad. Seriously. (Broadcast teams on nationally-televised games are a different story).

Disputed goal or no, the Sharks played well tonight and deserved to win. Teams that are playing well tend to get the breaks, and that's what happened in this one.

Blues tomorrow, although I won't be able to watch because I'm having the 'rents over to the new place for dinner (finally).

Sweet Hockey Card of the Week (February 29th)

A resounding Welcome! to all hockey fans, and card fans, and hockey-card fans who have tuned in for this week's edition of the Team Teal in the Twin Towns Sweet Hockey Card of the Week.




The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens

Gaze, o hockey fan, upon possibly the greatest team ever to lace 'em up. The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens compiled an amazing record of 60-8-12, and won the Stanley Cup in a four-game sweep of the Boston Bruins. They lost only once at home all year. In the sport of ice hockey, in which games are so often decided by the thinnest of margins, that level of success is truly extraordinary.

This team is only the shiniest of a series of gleaming Habs squads that reclaimed dominance of the National Hockey League from the upstart Philadelphia Flyers in the mid-to-late seventies, winning the Stanley Cup in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. I recall my uncle, who saw these teams play the North Stars, telling me once that Montreal's control of play would be so comprehensive that Habs' goalie Ken Dryden would occasionally leave his crease and skate around his own zone just to stay loose.

The back of this card is a list of other Montreal Canadiens who were featured on Topps cards this year. Steve Shutt. Serge Savard. Jacques Lemaire. Bob Gainey, the current GM of the Habs for whom the Selke Trophy (best defensive forward) was essentially invented. Dryden. Guy LaFleur. Yvan Cournoyer. The peerless Larry Robinson. It almost makes you dizzy. (Check out the team's stats here.)

I hope you enjoyed this week's sweeeet hockey card. By now you are certainly wondering about next week's selection. I'll give you some hints. He played for the Rangers. The back of his hockey card says (correctly) that he is "Known for clutch plays, especially in the playoffs". And he has a connection to my very own San Jose Sharks. Intrigued? Watch this space next Friday, when all will be revealed!

I'm Glad I'm Not a Wild Fan

Very quick post today, but I just wanted to mention the trade deadline news here in my home metropolis of Minneapolis-St. Paul, which was the acquisition of Chris Simon by the Minnesota Wild from the New York Islanders.

There's a huge difference between a stick-swinging thug like Simon and an honest, tough enforcer like Jody Shelley. The list of Simon's crimes against hockey is lengthy and depressing, and if I were a Wild fan, I would be wincing. I'd be embarrassed to cheer for the guy.

Three Down, Three Up

After a 4-2 victory at Columbus tonight, the Sharks have now won three in a row after dropping the first three games of their eight-game road trip. I missed the first period of tonight's game, but tuned in just in time to see the Sharks falter (giving up a goal to David Vyborny and falling behind 2-1) then slowly take control of the game. By the middle of the third, San Jose was dominating the play, completely stifling the Columbus attack while generating fourteen shots of their own.

I certainly liked what I saw from new Shark Brian Campbell tonight. He chalked up an assist, was on the ice for one of the two San Jose power-play goals, moved the puck crisply out of the defensive zone in transition, and--best of all--came up with a huge open-ice hit in the third period. Campbell has played his entire NHL career prior to today in Buffalo, a terrific hockey town, and from press reports it is clear that although he suspected it was coming, the trade hit him hard. One always wonders how a reluctantly traded player will respond (Peter Forsberg, for instance, clearly never felt at home in a Nashville Predators uniform last year). The big hit suggests to me that Campbell, even though he was understandably sad to leave Buffalo, has brought all of his intensity to San Jose. That's good news.


Bernier the Sabre

In related news, Steve Bernier scored two goals tonight in the first period of his first game as a Buffalo Sabre. I mention this not only because I wish Bernier the best and hope the change of scenery will continue to do him good, but also because he helped do his old team a favor--Buffalo's 8-4 victory tonight came at the expense of Nashville, a team that is in competition with San Jose for Western Conference playoff position.

Wings on Leap Day.

Welcome, Brian Campbell. Happy Trails, Steve Bernier

Today was the NHL trading deadline, and I feel that the Sharks came out as one of the day's winners with their acquisition of All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell and a seventh-round draft pick from the Buffalo Sabres, in exchange for Steve Bernier and a first-round pick. Talented defensemen, particularly those who can contribute offensively, are the most in-demand players come trade time, and Campbell was certainly one of the top two blueliners whom one might have reasonably expected to be available. (Toronto's Tomas Kaberle was up there at the top, too, but he has a no-trade clause and it sounds like he invoked it).

I'm quite certain that San Jose's generally mediocre power play motivated Doug Wilson to be a very aggressive bidder in the Campbell Sweepstakes. Campbell's ability to create offense from the blue line will be very very welcome on a team that has struggled to get scoring from D-men all year. (The Sharks' leading scorer on the blue line, Craig Rivet, is twenty-sixth in points amongst all NHL defensemen at the time of writing, with 29 points. Campbell has 43 points so far this year). I had hoped that Matt Carle would develop into that offensive D-man/power-play quarterback, but he is one of a number of young Sharks who has simply not progressed this year--indeed, Carle has regressed, with only eleven points in fifty-five games, far off his pace from last year. With any luck, Campbell can step into that role and give the San Jose offense a shot in the arm.

Speaking of young guys who haven't developed, meet Steve Bernier, the world's newest Buffalo Sabre. Bernier has shown flashes of strong hockey so far in his NHL career, and his production hasn't taken the nosedive that Carle's has, but he still has seemed to be standing still, frustrating Sharks fans and no doubt the organization as a whole. Bernier is the type of guy who is classic trade bait--young, skilled, but falling short of expectations. The hope is always that a new coach/new teammates/change of scenery/whatever will provide a spark. Hopefully things will work out for Bernier with his new team.

I hope Doug Wilson intends to sign Campbell to a long-term deal. Guys like him are rare, and now that he's in teal, I'd like to see him stay in it for a while.


Davison to Long Island

Speaking of well wishes, hopefully new Islander Rob Davison will see more playing time than he did with the Sharks. Davison was sort of swept aside when young guys like Carle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic emerged...he's barely played at all in the last couple of seasons. Let's hope the Islanders have a good role for him to play.


Okay, so it's not quite a trade...

Also on the transaction front today, the Sharks signed Philadelphia Phantoms goalie Brian Boucher to a one-year deal, thus apparently confirming the suspicion that the organization doesn't really have confidence in either Thomas Greiss or Dimitri Patzold to serve as an adequate backup to Evgeni Nabokov this year. Is Boucher really any better? Well, at least he's a been-there-done-that veteran...not a bad trait in a backup netminder.

I'll Take It

I was in an airplane during the Sharks 2-1 shootout win over the Penguins yesterday, so I missed it. I just have a few quick observations about the game that I note from a review of the box score...

1. Cheechoo scored again. Not only is the guy no longer cold, he's now red-hot. This is good news heading down the stretch.

2. The power play provided no offense once again. This is bad news heading down the stretch, and especially into the playoffs.

3. Once again, the Sharks were unable to hold a lead. Since they were playing an Eastern Conference team, the fact that the Penguins came out of the game with an extra point doesn't really matter from San Jose's perspective, but it still makes me nervous that the Sharks seem to have an inordinate amount of trouble playing with a lead.

4. I want to see Joe Pavelski in every shootout.

That's all for now. On Wednesday the Sharks visit Columbus to meet a team fresh off of road wins against Ottawa and Montreal, two of the better teams in the East. The Jackets could still sneak into the playoffs if they play well down the stretch, so you know they will be a desperate, determined team. Team Teal had better be ready.

Sweet Hockey Card of the Week (February 22nd, 2008)

Hey there, hockey fans! Well, it's Friday again, and that means it's time for another Team Teal in the Twin Towns Sweeeeeet Hockey Card of the Week!

This week's sweet hockey card (drum roll please...)


Glen Sather, Minnesota North Stars, 1975

I actually didn't know that Glen Sather was once a member of my Minnesota North Stars until I turned up this hockey card a few years ago. Sather, of course, is far better known as the coach of the spectacular Edmonton Oilers teams of the eighties that won four Stanley Cups.

Sather (career stats here) only played one season for the North Stars. It was his final year in the NHL before jumping to the WHA, where he actually played for the Oilers for a time before becoming player-coach towards the end of the 1977 season.

In his excellent book The Rebel League, about the WHA, Ed Willes tells how then-Oilers coach Bep Guidolin, saying of the team "They're not responding to me," thrust Sather, his captain at the time, into the player-coach role. The Oilers seemed sparked by the change, and went on to edge out the Calgary Cowboys for the last spot in the WHA playoffs. A few years later, four WHA teams merged into the NHL (in addition to the Oilers, the Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers, and Winnipeg Jets made the jump). There was this kid called Gretzky on the Oilers' roster. And the rest, as they say, is history...

New Sweet Hockey Card next week!

How to Win a Hockey Game

The Sharks got a badly needed win tonight in Philadelphia, 3-1 over the reeling Flyers. This ends a five-game San Jose losing streak.

This is as happy as I've been with a Sharks effort for a very long time. They did (almost) everything a hockey team needs to do to win tonight. Let's break it down...

How to Win a Hockey Game

#1: Get great goaltending. Check. Evgeni Nabokov played an outstanding game tonight. He made not one or two but several tough, crucial saves. Without him, the Sharks play most of this game from behind, rather than with the lead.

#2: Get goals from your go-to guys. Check. Sure, you want to have a balanced attack, but every hockey team has a handful of guys you look to for the core of your scoring. When these guys are finding the net, things generally tend to go pretty well. When these guys aren't finding the net, there's much anxiety (see: earlier this season, subjects Marleau and Cheechoo). Tonight, Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek, two of the Sharks biggest guns, both scored goals.

#3: Get a big play or two from an unexpected source. Check. In the 1994 playoffs, the Sharks got critical goals from Shawn Cronin and Vlastimil Kroupa in the course of winning their first playoff game ever. That victory came at the expense of the mighty (then as now) Detroit Red Wings. The Sharks, of course, went on to take that series in an upset the likes of which may never again be seen in the NHL. As you can see here and here, neither of these guys lit the lamp much--Cronin had not scored that season, had only three goals in his NHL career up to that point, and never scored again--but it was the sort of thing that made you believe that anything was possible.

Tonight, Douglas Murray scored the Sharks' third and final goal of the game--his first goal in 115 NHL games. (Congrats, Douglas!) Coming as it did so quickly after Michalek's goal, it was a real kick in the teeth for the Flyers, who never really looked like much of a threat for the rest of the game.

#4: Show mental toughness. Check. Craig Rivet took a gamble on a San Jose power play very late in the second period, and things went badly awry when a misplay at the blue line, combined with Rivet pinching, sprung the Flyers on a three-on-one. A properly executed three-on-one should end with someone shooting at an empty net, and the Flyers properly executed their three-on-one--goal, Mike Knuble, with only 5.8 seconds left in the second period. The immediately preceding San Jose power play had looked promising, but instead of going into the second intermission up 2-0, the Sharks went into the locker room tied at a goal apiece.

It's always bad to give up a goal late in a period, and the later in the period you give it up the worse it is, but for a team on the skids, playing their fourth road game in five nights, that could've been a genuine back-breaker. It wasn't. The Sharks came out at the beginning of the third and picked up right where they left off, continuing to control the play, and before long they were ahead 3-1 and it was the Flyers who were collapsing.

#5: Stay out of the box. Check. The Flyers had nary a power play tonight. The only San Jose penalty minutes were assessed to Jody Shelley for a tough, gutsy fight against Flyer PIM leader Riley Cote.

And, finally, the complement to #5...

#6: Make the other guy pay when he's in the box. Ch--er, wait. No check. The Sharks' power play looked dangerous at times tonight, but they still couldn't put one away. Against a team that takes a lot of penalties, like the Flyers (or the Ducks) you really have to take advantage of your power plays.

So, it wasn't a perfect night, but still a very good one. I've been rough on the Sharks when they haven't played well, but tonight they played well. I'd be happy to not be rough on them for the rest of the season...of course, this would require them to play well for the rest of the season.

We'll see which Sharks team shows up on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Is There an Echo in Here?

Devils 3, Sharks 2

Another game, another blown lead, another loss.

I think we can lay to rest any idea that the Sharks are some kind of awesome "Road Warriors" by now, can't we?

I'm feeling more blue than teal right now.

Flyers tomorrow.

Holy Toledo!

Check out this boxscore...

You wouldn't think a team as venerable as the Montreal Canadiens would have any history left to make, but you'd be wrong...

Is anyone else getting the feeling that maybe the Habs are the one team this season that seems to have a little penumbra of destiny about them?

Glad I Missed That One

The Sharks blew a two-goal third-period lead today on Long Island and lost to the Isles 3-2. The game was an afternoon matinee, and I was at work, so at least I didn't witness the debacle.

Evgeni Nabokov took a hard slap shot off the mask in the second period, sustaining what sounds like it was a pretty bad cut. He went to the locker room and got stitches, then came back at the start of the third period and gave up all three New York goals.

Since I didn't see the game, I am not in a position to judge whether or not Nabokov's injury may have contributed to any of the goals he gave up. So I don't know for sure if this was just an ordinary, garden-variety third-period collapse, or if Nabby went back in when maybe he should've been taking the rest of the day off. The latter would suggest that Ron Wilson really doesn't trust his backup goalie (Thomas Greiss, today). Either way, it's bad news.

After the last-minute loss against Calgary last week, I worried aloud in this space about the Sharks going into a funk similar to the one they experienced after a nearly identical loss to Anaheim earlier in the season.

Well, in the three games since losing to the Flames, the Sharks have yet to earn a point.

"Intensity! A Sense of Urgency! Desperation!"

"Things lacking from the San Jose Sharks' game?"

Yes! Congratulations, Bob, you've made it top of the pyramid!

Okay, you know if I start referencing cheesy game shows that must mean I'm looking for new ways to say something I've said a thousand times. The opponents of the San Jose Sharks just seem to want it more.

I developed a theory about this today as I watched the Sharks lose 3-1 to the New York Rangers, thus starting their critical eight-game road trip on very much the wrong foot. If I look at the standings, at the time of writing, I see that in both conferences there are eight teams that either A) are currently in playoff position but are within four points of falling out, or B) are currently out of the playoffs but are within four points of being in. In other words, for sixteen teams--more than half the league--the playoffs are already underway.

The Rangers are one of those teams and they seem to understand the situation, based upon the intensity, sense of urgency, and desperation they brought to the Madison Square Garden today. The Sharks--don't look now--are also one of those teams...yes, it's true, the Sharks are mere points away from being out of playoff position entirely. But they're not playing like they understand this. I get the sense, frankly, that they feel like they're entitled to a playoff spot based upon their talent level and great road record alone.

Put two hockey teams on a common ice sheet, when one is playing for their season and the other is coasting until spring, and you'll get...well, you'll pretty much get what we saw this afternoon.

One member of the team--I've decided I'm not going to say who, to avoid singling anybody out, although it's hardly a secret, you can look it up if you want--was quoted as saying, of the Rangers, "Defensively I think we played well. They were forechecking, and it was surprising a little bit how hard they played." (My emphasis.)

Jiminy Christmas, guys. I'm as big a San Jose Sharks fan as you'll find, I love the team and always will, but you guys owe it to yourselves to take a look in the mirror and dig down deep and find the psychological and emotional resources to perform an attitude adjustment. In hockey as in life, guts and heart offer no guarantee of a happy ending, but no team will succeed without them. You guys are simply too good to let a promising season slide into mediocrity because everyone else in the league wanted it more. I know you don't want that, and I know I don't want to watch that.

Islanders tomorrow.

Sunday Scraps - February 17th

Awesomeness or Cartoonish Super-Awesomeness?

The Detroit Red Wings have a 41-14-5 record (good for 87 points) which places them very comfortably atop the NHL. Yet their current five-game losing streak cannot be ignored. It has included losses to last-place (but improving) Los Angeles and second-to-last-place (and floundering) Toronto, not to mention a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets Friday night (at home). All-Star goalie Chris Osgood has been chased in two consecutive games. Is there cause for concern in Detroit?

Probably not. Any discussion about the Red Wings pretty much boils down to a debate about whether they have achieved awesomeness or cartoonish super-awesomeness (to paraphrase Waylon Smithers). It's a long season and no team will maintain any particular level of play, good or poor, from wire to wire. Roll together a couple of injuries (Niklas Kronwall has been out for a while and Brian Rafalski didn't play against Columbus), a bit of a slump by an otherwise good goalie, maybe a game against an inferior opponent who happened to get hot at precisely the wrong time (Toronto had won at Le Centre Bell two nights before beating the Wings in a shootout--perhaps the Leafs dug deep and found some pride after getting smoked by the Panthers 8-0 on February 5th), and BAM!, there's your five-game losing streak.

A brief survey of the internet appears to reveal some rumblings among the Red Wings' considerable fan base about the need for the team to acquire some help at defense. What's this? A contending NHL team is looking for another solid defenseman as the trade deadline looms? Stop the presses! Seriously, at this time of year, every GM in the league who thinks they have a shot at a Cup run is shopping for help at the blue line.

If this current slide has any consequence, it's that the pressure to make a move could oblige GM Ken Holland to overpay for a quality defenseman. Regardless, there's little doubt in my mind that the Wings will win the President's Cup and be the odds-on favorite to win it all.


Kings-Coyotes Observations

Los Angeles visited Phoenix tonight and I decided to check it out. The Kings and the Coyotes are both intriguing teams lately, especially for a fan of another Pacific Division squad. Phoenix, unexpectedly, is in the playoff hunt out west--if they do squeak in, I think that Wayne Gretzky has to be considered a legitimate candidate for the Jack Adams Award. Los Angeles, as of this writing, is dead last in the league in points, but one gets a strong sense that they are headed in the right direction. They just finished an eight-game road trip with a very solid 4-3-1 record; they are very young and seem to be getting better by leaps and bounds.

Good game tonight in the desert. Phoenix took a 3-1 lead into the third period, then the Kings rallied to tie before Radim Vrbata scored to win the game for the Coyotes 4-3. The highlights are worth checking out if for no other reason than to see Phoenix's second goal, scored by Joel Perrault. Perrault was very deep in the attacking zone, nearly to the goal line and outside the dot to Dan Cloutier's right, when he took a pass from Shane Doan and snapped a beautiful one-time laser short side. Extraordinary shot from a very bad angle. (There was also a weird sequence late in the second period in which Kings defenseman Brad Stuart's stick became entangled in Cloutier's equipment during the course of play. With the Coyotes attacking, neither player could really do anything about this, so Cloutier continued to play with Stuart's stick sprouting from his equipment...he looked like a mammoth that had been speared by an ice-age hunter. I'm not sure if that will show up on the highlight reel, though.)

(UPDATE: But it is on Youtube...)

Part of the reason I was interested in watching this game was to have a look at Kings rookie center Brian Boyle. A Massachusetts native, the kid is enormous--listed at 6'6", 222 pounds--and a veteran of four years of high-level play at Boston College. He scored four goals in his first seven NHL games, and though he wasn't listed on the scoresheet tonight, I have a feeling he's going to be giving Sharks, Ducks, Stars, and Coyotes fits for a while.

The Kings aren't quite there, yet. They definitely have some guys who can score--Anze Kopitar, Alexander Frolov, Mike Cammalleri, Dustin Brown--but goaltending is still a bit of a question mark. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Bernier, who actually did get a little NHL playing time this season early on, is presumably the goalie of the future for the Kings organization. If he matures into that role, and the young guys who seem to be meshing now continue to do so, this could be a dangerous team before you know it.

(Incidentally, Los Angeles' old war horse, Rob Blake, has been mentioned in various trade rumors as the deadline approaches. He has been dealing with some injury issues, which would presumably drive his trade value down at least a little bit. With the Kings' kids seeming to bloom recently, one wonders if maybe Blake doesn't have more value as a veteran presence in the Los Angeles locker room than he does as trade bait. Just a thought.)

From the perspective of a Sharks fan, all of the above means that the Pacific Division is not only likely to remain the toughest division in hockey, but is likely to get even tougher in the near future.


R'uh R'oh!

Speaking of tough opposition, I caught a little of the Rangers game today. They were firing on all cylinders and blew the doors off Buffalo, 5-1. The Sharks, of course, visit Madison Square Garden tomorrow. Zoinks!

Sweet Hockey Card of the Week

In the course of my recent move, I uncovered a great many possessions that had not seen the light of day for years. Amongst these were a few old hockey cards, some of which are pretty cool. So, just for kicks, I thought I would start a little feature in which I share one a week.

And the very first Team Teal in the Twin Towns sweet hockey card is...




Rick Kehoe, Pittsburgh Penguins, 1975

Rick Kehoe played fourteen seasons in the NHL. Most of these were spent with the Penguins, although he broke in with Toronto. According to the Pittsburgh Penguins Official Site, he ranks fourth all-time in games played in a Penguin sweater (722), and is the third-highest scoring Penguin of all time (312 goals and 324 assists for 636 points), trailing only Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. That's some good company, eh?

The really remarkable statistic when it comes to Rick Kehoe, however, is his mere 120 penalty minutes over an NHL career spanning a total of 906 regular-season games. That's about one minor penalty every fifteen games. In the 1980-81 season, Kehoe played 80 games and recorded only six minutes in penalties. In the 1979-80 season, he played 79 games and took only four minutes in penalties. All of this while playing through the worst of the "Broadstreet Bully" era of the league--in 1973-74, when the Flyers won the Stanley Cup following a season in which they piled up 1,750 penalty minutes, Kehoe recorded eight minutes of penalties in sixty-nine games as a Maple Leaf.

By the way, all of the statistics I've quoted are from my copy of The Complete Encyclopedia of Hockey, Fourth Edition, 1993. (Probably time for me to get a new one, huh?) If you don't feel like hunting down dusty books to get your hockey statistics, check out this awesome site.

Okay, that's all for now. New sweet hockey card next week!

Well, Dallas Lost Tonight, Too. So There.

The Sharks played poorly tonight against an undermanned and less-talented Edmonton Oilers team that will likely (although by no means certainly) be on the outside looking in come playoff time, and lost 3-2.

I did not get the sense tonight that the Sharks were deflated in the wake of Tuesday's last-minute loss to Calgary. This wasn't like other poor outings I've had the displeasure of writing about since I started this blog, in which San Jose came out with zero energy. There was at least some energy tonight--J.R., Jody Shelley, Marcel Goc, and Jonathan Cheechoo were among the players in teal who put in good efforts, and Joe Pavelski scored a hard-working goal--but this doesn't change the fact that the Sharks were sloppy and disoriented for most of the night, and there were significant stretches of poor and even lazy play (notably a dreadful effort on a 5-on-3 in the first period). Even Thornton had a relatively crummy game.

No disrespect to the Oilers, whom I generally like (unless they're playing San Jose), but they are a very beatable team this season and they represent the type of team the Sharks will need to pile up wins against down the stretch to win the Pacific. To their credit, the Sharks never gave up tonight, and they made the game close just because, well, they have better players than Edmonton, but if they were to turn in a performance like that against Anaheim or Dallas or even Minnesota they'd lose by three, easy.

Not a good way to end a six-game home stand. Now they set off on an absolutely crucial road trip, starting Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Hey, at least the game will be on at a reasonable hour for those of us who don't live in California...


Blockheads

The revised rules standards of the post-lockout NHL have decreased the defensive utility of small hooks and holds and other bits of interference and substantially increased the importance of shot blocking. But blocked shots are more than just a defensive weapon--they are also often the catalyst for a counterattack. We saw this tonight on Edmonton's third goal--the real back-breaker that put the Sharks in what turned out to be an excessively deep hole.

You could see the nightmare developing as soon as Christian Ehrhoff made the decision to flip the puck towards the net with an Edmonton Oiler obviously in the way. The shot was (inevitably) blocked, the puck was instantly behind Ehrhoff, and the play was headed the other way. Seconds later Fernando Pisani was clear and beat Evgeni Nabokov on the breakaway. Oilers 3, Sharks 1, just like that.

Players in general--and particularly defensemen who spend a lot of time at the points seeking to create offense by driving pucks toward the net--have to be extremely aware of the potential for shots to be blocked. Frequently I see players wind up and attempt to shoot even when there is clearly a defender in position to block the shot. Unsurprisingly, these shots are, in fact, typically blocked, rebounding the opposite way with considerable speed. At a minimum this can allow the defense an easy clearance, and at worst it can wind up behind the shooter's goalie. Now more than ever, generating open shooting lanes is crucial. This requires precise, rapid movement of the puck and movement of players away from the puck. If the shot ain't there, it's best not to try.


Data of Questionable Value

In a previous post I alluded to the danger of putting too much stock in shots on goal as a measure of how a game is going or did go. Good example tonight--San Jose outshot Edmonton 30-18, but the Oilers were the better team all night long.

And Another Thing...

The really frustrating thing about that game-tying goal last night is that the Sharks had possession of the puck only seconds before the Flames scored, and they gave it up on their own accord. You'd think at that point in the game, "Give it to Dion Phaneuf" would be about 11,873rd on your list of things to do with the puck, right after "Pick it up and eat it like an ice-cream sandwich", but possibly before "Shoot it into your own net".

Even if no one were to ever read this blog, at least it would still give me a chance to vent...

Swear Word. Swear Word. Different Swear Word.

Every now and then a team will give up a goal late and let one slip away, but it has happened waaaaaaay too often to the Sharks this year. Tonight. That Anaheim game. That early one against the Bruins. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'd go research the topic and get an exact count, but that would just be a bruising, depressing exercise, so forget it.

One could argue that the Sharks deserved to win tonight because they controlled 59/60ths of the game. But the fact is they deserved to lose because they let Calgary take it to them when it really counted.

With both Dallas and Anaheim en fuego, the Sharks cannot afford to let games like this get away. Period.

The last time something like this (very, very like this) happened, the Sharks went into a tailspin for about a fortnight. That can't happen now. We'll see how Thursday's game against Edmonton goes.

Zednik Update

It appears that Richard Zednik's life is at least no longer in jeopardy. Story here and probably many other places. Here's hoping you're on your way to a full recovery, Richard.

God bless the emergency medical personnel of the world. EMTs, surgeons, nurses, ambulance drivers, all of 'em.

The Worst Thing That Can Happen During a Hockey Game

Florida Panther Richard Zednik was cut in the neck by a skate today in a game against Buffalo. The latest reports I can find online report that he is "stable".

Longtime NHL fans probably remember a similar thing happening to Clint Malarchuk years ago. Malarchuk's life was saved by an athletic trainer who was a medic in Vietnam.

Suddenly the Western Conference playoff race doesn't seem so important.

The hearts of the entire hockey world are with Richard Zednik tonight. Best wishes to you, Richard.


UPDATE: 9:03 PM Central, the Miami Herald is reporting that a Panthers spokesman has said that Zednik's injury has stopped bleeding.

UPDATE: 10:27 PM Central, WGR in Buffalo is reporting that "A representative of the Florida Panthers confirmed that Richard Zednik is out of surgery and resting at Buffalo General Hospital."

Cheechoo Hat Trick. 'Nuff Said.

I spent this evening hanging with my fantasy football buddies (yes, for those who may be wondering, I am in a fantasy hockey league...but I do play fantasy football as well, because, you know, it's the law) and getting my posterior handed to me at poker, so I missed tonight's 4-3 victory over Nashville. When I checked the score on my cell phone after going all in and getting stomped, I didn't have to look far for the exciting news of the night, which of course is Jonathan Cheechoo's hat trick. He's been playing noticeably better hockey for several games now (as I've noted in this blog), and the feeling that he's finally back on track is growing continually stronger.

If the Sharks continue to get the strong defense and goaltending that they have had all year, and continue to get brilliant work from Big Joe (three helpers tonight) as they have all year, and add to that regular goal production from Cheechoo, they become a team that even the best teams in the West will have trouble with. Catching the Red Wings at this point is too much to ask, but winning the Pacific and getting the #2 seed in the playoffs seem like very legitimate and achievable goals.


Congrats to Coach Wilson...

...on becoming just the eleventh coach in NHL history to reach the 500-win mark. When you read that he's now tied with the legendary Toe Blake, that really makes you sit up and take notice. I'll admit I've done a bit of grumbling about Coach Wilson now and again over the years of his tenure in San Jose, but tying someone like Toe Blake in career coaching wins is one hell of an accomplishment. Well done, Coach.

Playing the Role of Arturs Irbe Tonight is Evgeni Nabokov

I wasn't able to watch last night's game, and probably won't be able to watch tonight's either (end-of-year party for my fantasy football league, followed by the inevitable male ritual of Playing Texas Hold 'Em), so once again the question on the table is, "What can one learn from a box score?"

In this case, the answer to that question is, "You'd better look at the calendar, occasionally, lest ye mistake the year for 1994." From a glance at the box score, last night's 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets fits almost perfectly the template for victory that San Jose employed in their 1993-94 playoff season...get outshot Lots to Not Much, get great goaltending, hang around, score a goal late to win. Back then it was Arturs Irbe in net for the Sharks thieving those victories. Last night it was Evgeni Nabokov.

The recaps in the press reinforce the feeling that Nabby stole the game last night. As Nabokov correctly points out in this AP article, stealing the occasional game when your team gets outplayed is very much the job of an NHL goaltender. So I think Sharks fans have to continue to be pleased, indeed head-over-heels thrilled, with the performance of their goalie this season.

But at the same time, getting outshot 23-5 through two periods yet still hanging around and sneaking a win late seems like something the Columbus Blue Jackets ought to be doing to the San Jose Sharks, not the other way around. It's very very easy to read too much into shot totals, but last night's--outshot 10-3 in the first and 16-2 in the second?--are so badly skewed that one cannot help but be alarmed.

Joe Thornton was quoted as saying last night, "Now we owe Nabby a good game." He could not be more correct. Hopefully that good game will come tonight against Nashville.

Get 'em Next Time

It seems that for once Ron Wilson is more unhappy with his team's performance than I am. After spending several weeks earlier this season grumbling through his insistence that we look at the positive side of a team that was clearly underachieving, I'm not going to complain.

Overall I thought the Sharks played a decent game last night against a Colorado team that is injury-depleted (Joe Sakic, Paul Stastny, and Ryan Smyth are all out) but still very tough. They didn't get out of the gate very well, and went on to lose 3-1 (the final margin being provided by an empty-netter with a fraction of a second to play), but in contrast to earlier losses that left me a bit gloomy, I'm still feeling optimistic about the way the team is playing right now. I saw effort and intensity last night--if there was something missing in the first period it was simple technical proficiency, possibly due to the three-day layoff since the shootout win against Chicago. And you have to hand it to the Avalanche...they played a very solid road game, and Jose Theodore was stellar, stopping all but one of San Jose's chances cold. (The one goal he did allow was created by a magnificent Sandis Ozolinsh pass to Patrick Marleau--Theodore had no shot at that one.)

It was just one of those nights last night when the Sharks couldn't finish. Some days you eat the bear, as The Stranger says, and some days the bear, well, he eats you. No, you can't really be satisfied with any loss, but there are losses and there are losses. The Sharks played a much better game last night than they did in, for instance, their 3-2 victory over Toronto in January. As long as they sustain the level of effort they showed last night, finishing checks and being a hard team to play against, they'll win more nights than not.


I Still Hate Losing to Colorado, Though...

You know I wouldn't be saying anything kind about the Avalanche if I didn't truly believe it was true, because I really can't stand them. First of all, no self-respecting sports franchise should have a singular nickname. Second of all, the Avalanche have standing second only to Dallas in my personal Hockey Hall of Karmic Infamy for abandoning Quebec City with an excellent team and promptly winning the Stanley Cup in their first #$%@!$!ing season in Denver. The hockey gods are truly fickle and cruel...

The Great Mid-Season Tournament

In my last post I described my overwhelming lack of enthusiasm for the NHL All-Star Game, and asserted that it is not a particularly strong vehicle for promoting the sport of ice hockey. In this post I will suggest an alternative mid-season event that I think would be much more enjoyable and infinitely more meaningful (since the current all-star game is meaningless, and anything divided by zero is infinity).

The twenty-words-or-less version is this: I propose that both the Eastern and Western Conferences of the NHL conduct four-team, mid-season tournaments.

With a modest amount of juggling the league's schedule could be structured such that each team plays a reasonably balanced schedule prior to the date of this proposed event--that is, an equal number of home and road games versus an equal number of division, conference, and non-conference opponents. For instance, over the first forty-two games of the season each team could play sixteen games against division opponents (two home and two away against each of four opponents) sixteen games against non-conference opponents (eight home and eight away) and ten games against conference opponents outside of its own division. Or something like that. Then, after forty-two games have been played, the three division leaders and a wild card team from each conference get together and play a four-game, four-team tournament over the course of the weekend before the Super Bowl, with some extra points available in the standings.

Each of these little tournaments is composed of a first round and a second round, with the second round involving a third-place game and a championship game. The winners of the first round each get two points in the standings for a win, plus a bonus point. The eventual winner of the championship game gets another two points in the standings for a win, plus another bonus point, for a grand total of six points heading out of the tournament. There are no bonus points available in the third place game, but the winner still gets two points in the standings.

Unlike standard regular season games, there is no OTL point available in these games. This is to ensure that the runner-up will always come out of the tournament with more points (3) than the third place team (2). It would be cool to go with play-till-you-drop overtime in these games, but probably not a good idea, so ties will be resolved in the same manner as they are under the current rules. This goes against my general belief that an OTL point should be awarded if you're going to resolve games with shootouts, but I'm making an exception here.

These events would be held at venues that are selected before the season begins, allowing the proper marketing and merchandising blitz to take place. The Eastern Conference would start first, with the first game of the first round facing off at 12 PM Eastern Saturday, and the second game of the first round facing off at 3:30 PM. Then the Western Conference would start up in the evening, with the first game at 7 PM Eastern and the second game at 10:30 PM Eastern. The same schedule would be followed on Sunday, with the third-place game of course preceding the championship for each conference.

All this stuff about scheduling may seem trivial, but it's not. For an event such as this to really reach its full potential I believe it is essential that it be presented as four two-game sessions, with spectators buying one ticket and getting to see two games (and without having to leave in between). I've always found attending sporting tournaments to be a huge blast--I think that anyone who has attended the NCAA basketball tournament, the WCHA Final Five, the Minnesota State High School Hockey tournament, or any other event in which the final buzzer of one game induces a happy feeling because you know another game is coming right up knows what I'm talking about. It's like that scene in True Romance where the girl can't quite believe Christian Slater wants to take her to a Kung Fu movie, and he points out he actually wants to take her to three Kung Fu movies. You just know that three Kung Fu movies is way more than three times as good as one Kung Fu movie. Hockey's like that, too.

With potentially six extra points in the standings available to the winners, there would be a great deal to play for, so you know you would see all of the guts and intensity that is the heart of the sport. Even the third-place game would mean something. This event would put the best teams in the league on display, and it would address one oft-heard criticism of the NHL, which is that the games don't really matter until March. I personally think this particular criticism is bunk (ask any team that's missed the playoffs by a point), but we're talking about marketing, here, and perceptions are important. With a shot at six points as a reward for a strong first-half showing, I think this issue could be put to bed.

A pair of mid-season tournaments as I've described here would make for a vastly more exciting showcase event than the current all-star game. Let's give it a shot.

The Problem With the All-Star Game

I dislike all-star games. All of these ersatz contests are fundamentally flawed in that they mean nothing or next to nothing (to my knowledge, only the outcome of Major League Baseball's all-star game has any actual significance whatsoever), and consequently are sapped of any competitive spirit. Sure, it's possible to enjoy the rare and amazing skills of an athlete who is participating in an exhibition, whether that athlete be a point guard or a figure skater, but without the sense that something is at stake, that the outcome is being hotly disputed by the competitors, there isn't the sense of participation in a drama that I believe is the core emotion of the sports fan.

This lack of meaning harms ice hockey more than the other major North American team sports. Baseball probably does the best under all-star conditions--the duel between pitcher and batter is central to the sport, and probably does not lose much for taking place in the course of an exhibition, and the last time I checked the representative of the league winning the All-Star Game gets home field advantage during the World Series. (Although it's worth pointing out that one of the most infamous moments in the history of all-star games--Pete Rose's clobbering of Ray Fosse--occurred during baseball's version of the event). The NBA's all-star game tends, like hockey's, to be absurdly high-scoring, but basketball is a high-scoring game to begin with, and something about a bunch of phenomenally talented hoops players running-and-gunning playground style just seems kinda right. The Pro Bowl, taking place after the season, is probably the most anticlimactic of the set, but it still bears at least some resemblance to a typical scrimmage football game, because the sport literally cannot exist without blocking and tackling, so even in the Pro Bowl, guys get blocked and tackled. And the fact that it takes place after all the real games are over at least means that anyone who gets banged up has plenty of time to get well before his team needs him again.

Like scrimmage football, ice hockey is an extremely physical and sometimes perilous contact sport. Unlike scrimmage football, however, ice hockey can exist--sort of--without a great deal of physical contact. And so, in the NHL All-Star Game, it does. Players who are just embarking upon the drive to the playoffs--and who night after night during the regular season expose themselves to all manner of athletic violence and peril in pursuit of victory--would prefer (quite reasonably) not to suffer a concussion/broken bone/sprained ankle/pick your trauma in a meaningless exhibition game, thank you very much, and consequently the game is, by mutual consent, a no-checking, no-defense affair (much to the relief of coaches and general managers across the league, I'm quite sure).

If someone from NHL HQ were to comment upon the preceding, I am sure they would say that the All-Star Game is a valuable opportunity to sell the sport, and that any risks incurred are worthwhile, serving the greater good of the league as a whole.

The problem is that the sport of ice hockey, as displayed during the All-Star Game, only vaguely resembles the sport as it is played during meaningful NHL games. The guts, passion, and intensity that makes the sport so great in the eyes of those who love it is absent. I find little appealing about the All-Star Game and usually don't watch it (I didn't this year), and I suspect many if not most other old-fashioned hockey fans feel the same way. And for those who are new to the sport, what are we selling them? We hold up an 8-7, defense-less goalfest, but should any of those to whom we are trying to market the league's product decide to check out a regular season game, they are as likely as not to see a close-checking 2-1 game (unless their local team is in the Southeast Division, which is generally defense-less, anyway). It's a little like holding up this and delivering this (or vice versa). And no, I'm not looking to get into the issue of whether higher-scoring = better, and I'm not making any kind of judgment about whether the MISL or the English Premier League version of soccer is superior...I'm just saying that the product on display during the All-Star Game and the product on display during the rest of the season are two very different things, and this would seem to work against the game's utility in selling the sport.

Thus endeth my dissertation on why I think the NHL All-Star Game needs to be replaced. In my next post, I'll set forth a proposal for an alternative mid-season event that not only involves some meaningful hockey in what I think would be a very enjoyable format for fans, but also addresses another oft-heard criticism about the NHL. Stay tuned.

Hola, Amigos

...I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya.

Seriously, it's been several days since my last post, as I've been working pretty much nonstop to get the remaining little bits and pieces of junk out of my old apartment. I'm finally free of that place, however, so I ought to be able to get back to a more regular schedule of updates.

Much has happened since my last post...

1. The NHL All-Star Game was played. I personally think All-Star games in general, and the NHL All-Star Game in particular, are lame, and I have a proposal for an alternative, which I plan to articulate in these pages in the next couple of days. Since I'm quite certain that Gary Bettman reads this blog frequently, I have no doubt that my idea will be before the NHL's Board of Governors within hours of being posted. (Ahem.) That said, as a Sharks fan I can't help but be a little proud of how Evgeni Nabokov played during the game--he stopped all eight shots he faced, including two denials of Ilya Kovalchuk that sent the Thrashers forward into operatic demonstrations of disbelief. Way to go, Nabby.

2. The Sharks acquired thousand-penalty-minute man Jody Shelley from Columbus for a draft pick (a sixth-round pick in 2009, I believe). Seems like a bargain to me...every NHL team that wants to be seriously competitive needs a guy like Shelley. The Sharks have been without a designated enforcer since they dealt Scott Parker to Colorado last year. I wonder if Doug Wilson was thinking of the struggles the Sharks have had against tough-guy-laden, division rival Anaheim when he made this move. Crazy prediction: March 21, Shelley vs. Parros, for the heavyweight championship of California.

3. San Jose split a two-game trip to Alberta. I didn't watch either game, as I was busy hauling rubbish out of my old apartment, shopping-cart load after shopping-cart load. The best I can discern is that they dominated Edmonton and were kind of sloppy against Calgary the next night. Those back-to-back road games are always tough, though, so I can't complain too much about coming out with a split.

4. Today the Sharks beat Chicago "3-2" in a shootout. That's ten in a row over the Hawks for San Jose. Some teams you own and some teams own you, I guess. It was a really entertaining game--the Sharks outplayed Chicago for the vast majority of the afternoon, but the Hawks put in a spirited effort (Nikolai Khabibulin had a phenomenal game) and refused to quit. Both teams certainly deserved a point today (my opinions about the OTL will be articulated here in the near future, as well).

Some good and some bad from San Jose this afternoon. Certainly in the "good" column is the continued strong play of Jonathan Cheechoo, who had another goal today. I think he's back, folks...he's working his way to the goalmouth and scoring from within about a stick's length of the net, and that's what we want to see from him. In the "bad" column--too many penalties, and, in a sequence that conjured up images of the game at the beginning of January against Calgary, the Sharks seemed to shift into low gear during a mid-third-period power play with the score tied. As was the case in that Flames game, they appeared to come to some collective conclusion that the man advantage was not an opportunity to press the attack and break the deadlock, but merely a two-minute respite in which they didn't have to play quite as hard as they had been. Against Calgary it was a game-turning event, and the Flames went on to win in overtime. Today, the outcome was better, thanks to shootout goals by Joe Pavelski and Jeremy Roenick and another solid game by Nabokov.

This was the first game of a six-game homestand, and I'm a bit relieved that it started off with a win. If the Sharks had lost today, it would have been impossible to keep everyone's minds from turning to the whole home-ice-disadvantage bugaboo. A nice little Shark-Tank winning streak would sure help put that to bed...