Two questions if anyone can answer them..................

WIll Marleau be wearing #21 since Iginla will most certainly be wearing #12?  If not, does anyone know what number he is going to be wearing?

My second question is whether anyone knows how to watch the Olympic games on TV?  I have tried Googling Comcast along with Olympic Hockey with little success.  Does anyone know if the NHL network or the Center Ice package will be related to the showing of the games.........

Please help!

10. Richard Nixon

9. Perez Hilton

8. Dick Cheney

7. Richard Hatch

6. Dr. Evil

5. Ron Popeil

4. The entire writing staff at Us Weekly

3. Drew Rosenhaus

2. Brett Favre

1. The guy from the Shamwow commercials

I have decided to never again visit that site as long as Eklund is the headlining blogger.  What is sad is that many of the other bloggers on that site do have some insightful information but are relegated to being page 8 stories. 

His predictions are garbage and if Marleau does actually end up in Buffalo, Dallas, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, or any of the other hockey cities outside of San Jose I will puke, burn my Shark's jersey, and assassinate Sharkey to steal his Segway.

Seriously?  What the hell is going on.  I would have prefered to have what we lost.  We trade youth for a bunch of useless scrubs?

We are in big trouble people.  Is Doug Wilson trying to lose his job.  This offseason has been very strange and next offseason is going to be even more weird.  We're going to have an excess of money to spend with no returning players. 

Am I wrong?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=34751

 


It appears that Doug Wilson has made his first offseason move.  Too be honest, I am still in a little bit of shock.  In a surprising report from a Spanish speaking television station out of L.A., we have the new "Sharkie" mascot.  It looks like they tested him out at a few Earthquakes games to see the fan's reaction.  I don't know how I feel about this.  The only thing I can say with confidence is that I hope he stops beating that drum and starts viciously mauling Duck jerseys like he does in this video.  Wiping his ass with them would surely get the crowd riled up.

What are everone's top 5 places to watch a Sharks game?  This of course needs to be outside of the tank and your home where you can sit and watch it on your 52" LCD.  I know I have fun watching games at Rock Bottom..........especially in the playoffs.  I hear the restaurant at Shark's Ice is pretty cool and I bet the Brit downtown is good.  I have never been there though.  So let me see everyone's top 5 or 3 list. 

Lets go guys.............we have a good four months to collectively figure out our team for next year.  I want to see a little more activity here.  I KNOW Doug is reading our posts sitting on the edge of his chair.  He is dying to read our next suggestions.  So let me hear your answers to our little game of "Would you?"  We're going to collectively solve any salary cap problems for next year and for many years to come.  As far as I can see, we only have 16 of the 34 players with ice team signed for next year.............So would you????

1. Offer Marleau a lengthy contract extension?  How about 6M per year up through the 2013-2014 season?  I know he currently makes more than this but he is a SHARK and a quality person.  I can see him taking less for an additional four years?

2.  Bring Owen Nolan back??  There's got to be another skill player on the Minnesota roster that we can package him with?  I am not a huge Ehrhoff fan nor am I a fan of his contract.  How about we ship him off to sunny Minn.  I have been dying to suggest this ever since he started scoring two goals a game every time he plays us...............would be a nice replacement for JR if he can't make it back. 

3.  Sign Mitchell and Setoguchi to decent extensions?  How much could you sign them for now before they become big stars?

4. Ask Cheechoo to restructure his contract en lieu of having his name come up in trade talks every year? 

Other questions to ponder.....

What do we do about Clowe and Goc?  They are both restricted free agents correct?

Do we all agree that we would want to let Joe go after the 2010-2011 season if we can't win it all?  Do we wait until that season to trade him for some quality talent? 

Should we have held Mitchell out of the playoffs since he's now a restricted free agent?  Unfortunately the rest of the NHL got to see how talented he really was and that his injury had healed.............doesn't bode well for us in negotiating with him. 

Let me know what you all think.

So the veterans here at “Fear The Fin” are going to criticize me because I am exactly what they hate….one of those people that signed up late in the playoffs…and they are justified because I signed up with every intention of adding my two cents about why the Sharks weren’t winning.  I even penned a letter to Joe telling him that the tables I had turned!!!!!  I had come up with a million reasons as to why the Sharks didn’t need him anymore.  I made so many points as to why HE needed the Sharks more than they needed him………to make sure he cemented his legacy as a star in the NHL.  Otherwise he was just going to go down as another #1 pick, another Hart Memorial Trophy winner who never won the Stanley Cup.  He would have a great career that meant nothing.  Even though I still believe that to be somewhat true, that is not why I decided to finally post.  He is still a star but many of the other Sharks have matured to his same talent level.

Before I get to my point I want to tell you a little bit about myself.  I grew up playing baseball.  It was my life.  It was all I knew.  I was good enough to get drafted out of high school and play a short college career.  I was a carbon copy of Kenny Powers who thought he was better than the rest of the world and I can tell you first hand that adjusting to the real world after having a semi-successful baseball career is exactly what you see on HBO.  Real life was hard.  Other sports, especially hockey, were completely foreign to me.

The strange thing NOW is that I can say without any doubt in my mind that I completely HATE baseball, and it has nothing to do with the whole steroid thing.  It’s the simple fact that the assholes that play the game give you nothing to root for.  They cost me money, cost me time, and give me actually nothing in return.  I have no sense of pride in what they do.  They are jokes of human beings who make money by excluding us as fans from what they do for a living.   They are so disconnected from the fans and think they are better than the rest of the world (note my Kenny Powers reference above).

So why do I love Hockey?  I love Hockey because they actually hold themselves accountable by answering our questions.  The “State of the Sharks” press conference that was provided to the fans free of charge blew my mind.  I love Hockey because the players aren’t total dicks.  I bet you could approach one of the biggest assholes in the NHL like Sean Avery they would entertain you………..if only you treated them like a normal person.  I love Hockey because you can watch them practice.  You don’t need to be rich.  You just need to be dedicated enough to go watch at 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon………possibly sacrificing your lunch hour at work.  I love Hockey because you can run into these guys at Aldo’s or Forbes Mill Steak House and they’d engage you in a conversation about the team……..or you can drink beers with them at Carry Nations on a Saturday night after a game.  

But here is my point of this entirely long post.  I am going to be the first to say it…………..are you ready?????????????????????  I know you’ve been waiting for it.

I WANT what they did to us in the playoffs.  I certainly didn’t feel that way on  April 28th.  I wanted them to die.  I wanted Joe gone.  I wanted Patty to grow a pair and I wanted Sexie to finally be brought up from the WHL affiliate.  Nabby needed to be shipped away…………….

I realize now that I not only want what they did to us in the playoffs but I want every single one of the Sharks from the 2008-2009 team back next year.  I want Joe and his arrogance.  I want Patty and his lack of emotion.  I love Cheechoo and his damaged knees.  I even want Nabby and his complete and utter laziness.  I want the frustrating goals and I want the frustrating losses.  I want the seasons that end earlier than they were supposed to.  I want to live with their failures………because they give me something to root for in my life.  They give me good people and good characters.  They give me a team to love………….a team to feel prideful about…………..even when they lose.  I don’t want to be the team that wins.  I want to be the team that wins after losing for so long.  Every single guy on our team, on OUR Sharks team, has made us feel better at some point in the past.  I hope that Doug doesn’t change too much because otherwise I am going to lose faith in the one last true professional sport.  I love hockey and I love the San Jose Sharks.  Please make sure that we don’t just have a team to root for, but a team full of good people to root for.