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...