Pause & Reflect

All thirty teams in the NHL were in action yesterday, and today they all rest. My own life has been joyously busy for most of the last two weeks, and while I've been having a blast I have not had much of an opportunity to update this blog. So today, while the NHL is taking a league-wide timeout, seems the perfect moment for me to get back on the proverbial digital horse.

So, where are the Sharks nine games into the 08-09 season? Honestly, it's tough to tell.

At first glance, the state of the team looks very good indeed. They are 7-2 and atop the Western Conference with 14 points. Captain Patrick Marleau, who I asserted would be the bellwether player for the Sharks this year, leads the team in points (9) and is tied for the team lead in goals (5) with the emerging Devin Setoguchi. Unlike last season, the team is getting balanced scoring--after Marleau, there are four players with eight points each. The promised increase in blue-line contributions to the offense has indeed transpired--Dan Boyle has two goals and six assists and, more surprisingly, the talented but (formerly) frustrating Christian Ehrhoff (who had one goal all last year) has identical numbers. Furthermore, there is substantial reason to believe Ehrhoff's increased production will continue, simply because he has clearly taken to heart the importance of putting his shots from the blue line on goal. This was absent from his game last year. Ryan Clowe, who I believe has legitimate claim to being a genuine NHL badass, is showing aptitude for getting to the costly and painful twenty square feet right in front of the enemy goal and causing opposing defenses serious problems. Comparisons to Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom are reasonable.

So far, so good, right? Well, maybe. Look beneath the gaudy record and the surface positives, and there are some reasons for concern.

San Jose's schedule so far this season has been extremely soft. Of their nine games to date, only four have come against teams that made the playoffs last year, and those four games were against two teams (Anaheim and Philadelphia) that have struggled badly so far this season. They lost one of the four (4-0 to Anaheim), and another game, a 7-6 shootout win over the Flyers, had everyone in the organization sour-faced over the dismal defensive effort.

It's the absence of a level of team defense remotely close to what is required of a contending NHL team that has me most worried. Yes, they shut out Tampa Bay 3-0 last night, but the Lightning are the consensus worst team in the league, so I hope my skepticism can be forgiven. I watched the 4-3 loss to Florida on Friday night, and the Sharks made a Panthers team of very modest offensive talent look at times like Gretzky's Oilers. San Jose still put fifty shots on the Florida net and probably would've won if not for the heroics of Panther goalie Tomas Vokoun, but maybe it's good that they didn't...after getting away with similarly bad defense in back-to-back games with Philly, a deserved loss may have provided a much-needed kick in the pants.

The Merc reports that a Saturday-morning meeting of Shark defensemen occurred. Maybe this meeting can be credited for last night's shutout over Tampa. Maybe Tampa's own ineptitude had more influence on the results. Maybe it was a little of both. Upcoming games at home against last year's two Cup finalists should provide a more legitimate test of this new San Jose team.