It's a Business

Veteran defenseman Kyle McLaren has been waived by the Sharks, and as no other team claimed him he has been assigned to San Jose's AHL affiliate in Worcester. (Story here and many other places...McLaren's career stats here.)

The placing of McLaren on waivers was a move that even the most casual Sharks watchers saw coming. Something had to happen to get the team under the salary cap, and he was pretty clearly the odd man out in a defensive corps that features three new imports (Dan Boyle, Brad Lukowich and Rob Blake) and three up-and-coming homegrown players (Christian Ehrhoff, Douglas Murray, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic).

He didn't have a very good year last year--he struggled with injuries, and I'll bet he couldn't be as physical as he wanted to be--but as a fan of the team, I have to recognize that McLaren was an essential member of some of the best Sharks teams ever to hit the ice. This seems such a melancholy way for him to leave...dismissed by the team, unwanted by any other, sent to Worcester to suit up against the Lowell Devils and the Hershey Bears. A tough reminder that at the end of the day, professional sports is a business, and a particularly hard-nosed and unsentimental one at that.

I hope McLaren catches on with another NHL team. He's been a tough, solid player for many years, and I hope that when the end of his career comes it can be on his terms.

Apparently, the Sharks Have a Player Named "David Setoguchi"

Hockey play-by-play guys have a tough job, I need to state right away. I try to temper my criticism, as should all fans. However, one of the funny things about watching the same team play so many games, as I have this season and last, is that it really becomes clear just how tenuous a grasp broadcasters can have of the opposition's roster.

During tonight's game against Chicago (which the Sharks won 3-2), Blackhawks broadcaster Dan Kelly called Sharks forward Devin Setoguchi "David" several times. Someone must have slipped him a correction at some point, because later on he called him by his correct name (although mostly he seemed content to just refer to him by his surname).

On a number of instances I have heard Craig Rivet's last name pronounced as though it describes a fastener used to join pieces of steel. And I suppose opposing broadcast teams can't be blamed for shortening Douglas Murray's first name to Doug, but Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda always call him Douglas, and it's my understanding that this is what the guy in the #3 sweater goes by.


Good Game

'Twas a good one tonight in front of a boisterous crowd at United Center. Both teams showed some jump early--although the Hawks maybe had a little more, possibly fueled by an emotional pre-game ceremony honoring legends Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita--and the score was tied at two after one. The game simmered down a bit in the second, and remained tied until a series of crisp passes found Patrick Marleau, who made a pretty move to get some room and beat Patrick Lalime for what stood up as the eventual game winner.

Marleau...well, there's not much to be said that I didn't say in my post about the Ottawa game. I don't know where this has been all season and it doesn't matter. Now that it's back, I'd like to see it stick around.


Unsung Hero

The official "Three Stars" of the game were Joe Thornton, Brent Seabrook, and Jonathan Cheechoo, but tonight my vote for first star would have gone to Kyle McLaren. And not just because he scored a goal...he was a nasty physical presence all night long, and may have saved what would have been the tying goal by deftly sliding the puck out of the crease with Nabokov down and out, denying the salivating Rene Bourque a crack at an open net with a little under three minutes left.


What's that thing that just whizzed past our ear?

The Hawks thought they tied the game with Lalime pulled and less than a minute left on a goal by Bourque, but replays clearly showed that he had advanced the puck into the net with his glove, and the goal was correctly disallowed. For a sickening moment, though, I thought that San Jose had let yet another lead slip away with only seconds remaining.

They dodged a bullet tonight, but the Sharks have to figure out some way to play better 6-on-5...they are likely to face this situation many more times this season and into the playoffs. And in the playoffs you can't console yourself with the knowledge that at least you got a point...


Hey! Which side is that guy on, anyway?

It's not too often you see an NHL general manager on the ice before a game wearing the other team's sweater, but that's just what we saw tonight. Doug Wilson took part in the pre-game ceremony, wearing 'Hawks colors. Wilson, of course, was a lethal offensive defenseman for Chicago for many years (39 goals in 1981-82!), before closing out his playing career with the Sharks.

Since I started off this post with a criticism of the 'Hawks broadcast team, I'll close it by extending kudos to them for recognizing the class of the Sharks organization in taking part in the pre-game festivities.


Next Game on Sunday at the X

I'll be there...