For those of you fortunate enough to witness the Remenda-Ratto debate after the game, you basically witnessed, as Elvis very aptly put, a microcosm of the Sharks fanbase dynamic. On one side you had Ratto claiming that the Sharks are too skilled and need to win games like these, no excuses. Drew immediately rebutted that its not that easy and that the Sharks tried hard and did all the right things, were good but not great, and just didn't get the bounces. You know who was wrong and who was right? Both of them. Although Drew won the debate because he was louder, both of them made some good points, but also perpetuated a few myths that I have noticed on FTF lately and want to address. Some of them defend the Sharks, and some of them will criticize existing defenses of the Sharks; but I assure you this is not one of "those" posts.

Myth #1: The Sharks are doing everything right, we just aren't getting the bounces.

This one is partly true as the Sharks do sometimes do the textbook right things on the ice and do get unlucky at times; however, it's mostly false. Every sport is mind blowingly simple: score more points than the other team. Basketball, Football, Hockey, whatever sport it is, you need to score more than the other team and it doesn't matter how you do it. It doesn't matter how good you look doing it or how you get it done, the point is to win (and if you're younger, to have fun). Every coach I ever had made that abundantly clear; if you got shut out, you did NOTHING right. You had one thing to do and you didn't do it. If doing what you believe is right isn't getting you goals or points, then you need to change what you are doing. In the words of Moneyball: "adapt or die". If your shots from the point aren't getting through, stop taking them. If you aren't getting chances from your behind the net offense, try the side boards.

This isn't to say that the Sharks need to always change their game when they go a few minutes without scoring. But when you get shut out by the same team three times and all you change are your lines then something is missing. A lot of fans are saying that the bounces will start to go our way...WHEN DUDE? I've been hearing that excuse for months and there are only 4 games left! Is it not possible that we need to adapt a little bit? It's getting a little old watching the Sharks in the locker room or Curtis Brown saying they are doing everything right.

Myth #2: Patrick Marleau is gutless and needs to play angry.

Fact: Some players play better when they are angry, some players play better when they are happy, but NO ONE plays better when they are afraid. Playing angry worked well for Roenick, that doesn't mean that it will work well for Marleau. Every athlete is different. I have had teammates that have needed to be removed from games by the coach to cool off when they get angry. Some players make boneheaded decisions when they get angry, and for some it turns on another gear. I'm glad it worked for Roenick, but let's not force those expectations on Marleau.

Myth #3: The Sharks are mailing it in and aren't trying.

I saw someone propose this in the gameday thread and I could not disagree more. Yeah when a team is down 7-0 with 2 minutes left they might just go through the motions. But I cannot make this more clear: PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES CAN'T NOT TRY. Their competitive drives simply do not let them. They have gotten where they are today by always trying their hardest, being driven by competitiveness and testosterone. Their very pride and essence relies on it. I had the privilege of being a NCAA intercollegiate athlete and you could not pay the men I played with to not try no matter what our record was. I can only imagine that these athletes are significantly more driven than anyone I have ever met.

Do you need proof? Watch the Columbus Blue Jackets; they still skate damn hard, jump and shout when they score, and they just beat the Red Wings. They haven't a prayer of making playoffs but still can't help but try every time they touch the ice. Another example in a different sport: In 1968 the Philadelphia Eagles were 0-11 and were in the position to draft the highly touted OJ SImpson in the upcoming draft. But then they went on to win two completely meaningless games and lost the chance to draft OJ. In a situation where it actually MADE SENSE to lose they still could not help but try and win.

These Sharks of ours go out and try harder every night, although I do think that that sense of urgency has reached new heights today. Before the game, Murray was quoted regarding why he wasn't playing tonight: "It's nothing major, but you can't risk it at this point". That rubbed me the wrong way. If now isn't the time, when is? I don't think the Sharks will be saying that anything cannot be risked at this point anymore.

Myth #4 All the Sharks need to do is make playoffs

Bret Hedican couldn't have put it better: "even if the Sharks make the playoffs, I don't see them making it past the first round". The way the Sharks are playing, especially on the road, they will not make it far in the playoffs. As a lower seed, we will be on the road at least 50% of each series. Winning the division is still in reach, but it's up to the Sharks to go get it. Joe Thornton said after the game they needed to go 4-0, that is not mathematically true, but for the morale and momentum of the team it just might be true. This team only has one more week to turn their game around for us to feel confident about our chances. I'm not saying we will and I'm not saying we won't. I'm not Ray Ratto and I'm not Drew Remenda; the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Go Sharks

First of all, I know most of you haven't seen me here before, I'm more of a contributor on the San Jose Sharks blog Fear the Fin.  But all you need to know is that I am a lifelong Raider fan and come here and read all the time.

The NFL follows a very basic formula: struggling teams draft a franchise quarterback and then build around him.  This process can take anywhere between 2-5 years but it has been proven to work for several teams in the NFL and is currently a work in progress for several modern franchises.

Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, and Josh Freeman are all potential saviors of the St Louis Rams, New York Jets, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers respectively but have been regressing of late.  Youngsters Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan have been serviceable since their entrance into the NFL.  Their teams will go as far as they will take them.  When healthy, Matt Stafford has performed quite well, and what was once an 0-16 team a matter of seasons ago is now a legit playoff contender.  Cam Newton is well on his way to resurrecting the Carolina Panthers and the Cleveland Browns will probably want a do-over on Colt McCoy.

Look for new teams (Colts being one of them) to go for future potential superstars like Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley to replicate this formula in the near future.  It is a formula that is simple and will continue to be used every year by any declining franchise.

He who shall not be named was SUPPOSED to be the savior of our franchise after we toyed around with quarterbacks like Andrew Walter, Dante Culpepper, and Kerry Collins and had the worst stretch of football in NFL history having double digit losses season after season.  We finally had the first overall pick of the draft and used it to get a franchise quarterback, but he purple drank his way out of the league.

The Raiders have found recent success without him and are on pace to making the playoffs for the first time since the Rich Gannon era.  However, one huge question remains: what is to be done regarding our future quarterback situation?

Carson Palmer is already 31 and on the decline in his career.  Trading for him cost us a first round pick in next years draft and what could very well be another first rounder in the year after that.  So getting a new franchise quarterback sometime in the next 2 years is probably out of the question.  We have built a solid corps with a lot of young (and fast, of course) talent and finally have a proven quarterback at the helm.  However, as Palmer gets older, slower, and less mentally agile; without another franchise quarterback within reach in the NFL draft for at least 2 more years.  What will the Raiders do?

So what does the Raider nation think?  We are one of the few teams not currently employing this formula and we probably won't be able to anytime soon unless we trade up.

Ok so first of all, yes I am still "waive kent huskins".  I tried emailing SB nation to change it to something else but got no response so this is just who I am and will always be and I accept that.  But now to the purpose behind this thread.

As some of you may remember, last season we ran a fanpost thread for people buying/selling tickets.  That worked pretty well but it was annoying because we had to get a lot of recs to stay near the top and even that didn't work forever.  It also clustered the sidebar sometimes, getting in the way of real articles.  This is by no means a solution for all sellers, but something that I am going to offer this year.  Instead of running a fanpost thread every now and then, I am going to create an email list for people interested in purchasing my particular pair of tickets.

My seats are in Section 214, Row 12, Seats 17 and 18 where the Sharks shoot twice

Some of you may remember my policy of giving discounts to FTF bloggers an I maintain that policy.  Also, even though the price of tickets, food, and parking in san pedro square have all gone up; my price is the same as last year at $90 for the pair for FTF bloggers.  It's $90 and always will be, I don't care if its the Edmonton game or the Detroit game.  Even though I have now graduated from college and have moved back to the bay, the trek from Oakland to San Jose and back is not one that I can make 40+ times this season, therefore there will be games that I won't go to.  Let me explain how this system will work:

1. Email me at mattsummer10@gmail.com (my last name is not summer, its just an email address I created in 2010 specifically for selling sharks tickets) with "FTF Sharks" in the subject heading.  In the body say that you want to be added to the list and what your FTF name is.

2. I will send out an email to everyone on the email list any time I cannot make a game.  This could be anywhere between 7 hours to 2 weeks in advance depending on how hectic my life is, but my policy is: If you haven't gotten an email from my by 12:00 noon on gameday, assume I am not selling those tickets and look elsewhere for them.  The subject heading of the email will read: "FTF SPECIAL: (Name of opponent), (Date of game)"

3. Once the email goes out to everyone, it's first come first serve.  The first person to email me saying that they want them will get them.  Just remind me of your FTF name for a reason I will explain next:

4.  I realize everyone does not have a smart phone and does not have immediate access to email.  To counter this inequality, I will keep a tally of how many times everyone has gotten the tickets.  For example, if I notice that Plank has gotten to go with my seats 6 times and Matt Taylor has always emailed me a little too late, the next time Plank emails me first I might say "alright Jason, let's give it a little bit more time to see if maybe Matt wants to go and if i don't hear from anyone else who hasn't really gotten to go they are all yours."  I will keep tallies of people who have gotten the tickets as well as those who have tried but were too late so I can see if anyone consistently is trying to go but is too slow.  Let's share the love.  But if you have seriously like been the second person to email me like 10 times, I will just email you privately before the 

5.  30 minutes after I receive the first email from the first person I will send out an email with a subject heading: "(Name of Opponent), (Date of Game) SOLD".  I will wait 30 minutes because that will give me time to see if anyone else was interested for the purposes of the equality tally.

6. If you emailed me first and it has been confirmed that you are getting them, forward payment via paypal and I will email you the tickets (YOU NEED PAYPAL, it's the easiest for me).

There are only two rules that I have:

1) If I catch you reselling the tickets for a higher price somewhere else you will be removed from the list permanently.  Selling the tickets at a higher price goes exactly against what I am trying to do here.  And don't think you can be slick, I know where my seats are.

2) If you agree to buy the tickets but then back out at the last minute you won't be removed from the list unless you bailed without telling me.  But regardless it will move you to the bottom of the priority list.

I am doing this because I don't want to always have to put up and maintain a fanpost.  I charge below face value to you guys because my goal isn't t to make a profit.  If I wanted to make a profit I would invested my money in something more profitable and I wouldn't go to any games myself.  I love the Sharks, and I love you guys on this blog.  And whenever I can't make it, I wouldn't want it any other way than for an FTF mate to go in my stead.  I've sold to people on this blog before, so they can tell you that I'm not here to jerk your chain.

You can join or leave the email list whenever you want.  I'm just hoping that enough people see this post.  Maybe a rec or two would help keep it high to give people time to read it.  This will be the one and only time I make a fanpost related to selling tickets.

GO SHARKS!

This isn't really going to be much of an article.  But I've found that fanposts are more conducive to open conversation than fanshots.

Very sad news for the NHL today in what has been a very sad offseason.  This news is very recent and the story is still developing, but Wade Belak was just found dead; adding to the list of hockey players to pass on this last offseason.  The one thing I want to bring up is that all three of the players who have passed this offseason starting from mid-May were all enforcers.  Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and now Wade Belak have all passed away.

I'm not sure exactly what this means because all three passed under sudden and mysterious circumstances.  But there could definitely be something more to the enforcer role that we are not aware of.  The life of an enforcer is rough for many reasons:

1. Enforcers move all over the place.  Enforcers are often cut or traded for low draft picks and can float between 3-7 teams throughout their career

2. Enforcers don't get paid well in comparison to other players.  Enforcers get paid between league minimum and $1 million a season.

3. Enforcers only play a few minutes a game and fight a lot.  You won't read about enforcers a lot or see them on the scoresheet.

I'm not sure what it is about enforcers that is causing this string of deaths this summer.   It could perhaps be depression due to a career with a low ceiling and being generally unnoticed.  Or maybe it could be brain damage related due to the amount of punishment they take.  Or maybe it's all just coincidence (although the sociologist within me refuses to believe that).  The role of the enforcer has always been under a lot of scrutiny due to the controversial nature of fighting in the NHL.  Regardless, i still think enforcers are taking for granted and are under appreciated.  They may not score goals or get paid much, but they are still NHL hockey players and above all else, are still human beings.

Since I can't admit to knowing much about the life of an enforcer, any insight anyone has to add on this subject would be greatly appreciated.  This is just a fanpost to create awareness of the deaths of these enforcers and to create healthy dialogue.  As it says in the title, this is an open forum.

Boogaard, Rypien, and Belak:  You will be missed and we appreciate the services you all gave to the NHL, even though it may have the NHL itself that led to your deaths.

RIP

The offseason is always such an interesting time to be following hockey because of all the moves, trades, and signings that occur throughout the NHL.  This isn't really much of an analytical piece, but I was hoping we could talk about a question that I hear from people all the time during this time of year: "Players claim that they want to win, so why don't they sign a contract way below their market value so that their team can use the extra cash to sign other players?"

This question is, of course, not exclusive to hockey; and it does bring up an interesting debate.  Last year, Chris Bosh and Lebron James (James more so), both accepted less money from the Heat to join forces with Dwane Wade to make a run at the NBA title.  They made it to the finals, but fell short to the Dallas Mavericks.  The move almost worked.  Of course all three of them still made a ridiculous amount of money, but if they would not have been able to assemble that team if each of them signed according to their market value.  Miami offered Lebron the least amount of money and he still went there.  But back to hockey.

We have seen players over the course of history sign for a "hometown discount".  Sometimes a player will accept $1-$2 million less than he could have gotten elsewhere.  But never do we see someone like Joe Thornton sign for $500,000 a year.  This infuriates some fans that I have met.  I have heard people exclaim things like:

"A person can live perfectly comfortably on $500K-$2 million.  Why do they need $6 million?"

"He says he wants to win the cup, and then he makes his team resign him for $5 million? If you really want to win, sign for less and let us go after Player X, Y, or Z you liar!"

There is some validity to those statements.  A player making league minimum is still making 10 times as much as the median household income in America.  In reality, if star players accepted less, their team could go after more star players and they could increase their chances of winning the cup.  But here are my two reasons why most players don't (and shouldn't) take too steep of a discount for the sake of winning the cup:

1) Nothing is guaranteed.  In a contact sport, bad things can happen to you.

Let's say that Player X is a consistent player for an NHL team.  His first few years with the club have been outstanding as he averaged 80 points a season and only missed 6 games over the past 3 seasons.  His rookie contract just expired and he is a restricted free agent.  His market value is estimated to be between $5-$7 million.  But he decides he wants to win the cup with his current team and through pure altruism he signs a 5 year, $5 million contract.  A cap hit of only $1 million per year.  Game 10 of the first year of his new contract, and player X takes a terrible hit and breaks several vertebrae.  After careful evaluation, he learns that he can never skate again, his career is over.

Player X now has considerable medical bills to pay and is out of a job.  His life has revolved around hockey since he was 6 and he doesn't have much of a job history to fall back on.  If he had more money at his tender young age, he would be able to cover his expenses and continue to have financial security while he looks for a new career.  But his altruism has cost him.  Now he has no cup, and not enough financial security.

Players in several sports all run the risk of having their career's cut short.  That's why guaranteed money is such a big deal in the NFL, the most injury prone sport.  Players want some sort of financial security should the worst case scenario occur.

2) (Yet again) Nothing is guaranteed; like your tenure on the team.

Devin Setoguchi is a recent and tragic example of this.  He resigns with the Sharks for $3 mill per year.  An upgrade from what he was making before, but with his offensive upside, he might have made more on the free market.  Setoguchi is happy with the money he is making and happy to be with the Sharks.  The next day, he is traded to the Minnesota Wild.  He will still be making $3 million a year, but now for the Wild.  No imagine the scenario above with Player X making $1 million per year.  A good player with a low cap hit is certainly good trade bait.  It was worth it for him to accept less to make his team better; but is it still worth it to be making that little with a team with no shot at a cup?  This is why many players opt for NTCs, but not every player can negotiate for one of those.  Had Player X or Setoguchi known they were going to be traded, they may not have signed for so little.

The moral of my story is that when players say they want to win the whole thing they do sincerely mean it.  But in a sport where nothing is certain, you have to look out for number 1.  So when I read about players going into arbitration or leaving their team for more money, I'm not angry with them.  

What are your thoughts about this offseason phenomenon? And the questions/dilemmas that it presents.

I'm sure the comment board of the main post has some wonderful and insightful analysis.  I'm just not going to read all 400+ of them so if I repeat anything you said, forgive me.  I just had a few thoughts about what this trade means for our team as a whole including obvious upsides and more subtle downsides.  I'm sure most people have already got a grasp on the more obvious aspects of the trade like the fact that we finally have a #2 D-Man and we just lost a fan favorite, but this fanpost will address the other questions: who took the bigger risk? what does losing Charlie Coyle mean? What does this trade do to our lineup? Are there any red flags about Burns? Let's get started:

Other than losing a fan favorite in Setoguchi, the most obvious downside in my opinion is that we have lost the future potential of Charlie Coyle.  Power forwards take a while to develop but there is no doubt that the kid showed some potential in the past few years with his performance on the Junior USA squad along with his numbers from other teams.  Will he be great?  We still do not know, but I can see him being Ryane Clowe in about 6 years.  If it weren't for the fact that we have Freddie Hamilton, I would be much more upset at this trade.  

Some would say that the biggest downside of the trade is the risk we are taking knowing that Burns could just pull a Brian Campbell (BOOOO! jk...sort of)  and leave when the season is over.  But I honestly think Minnesota is taking the far greater risk.  We are sacrificing a lot of POTENTIAL but the Wild are sacrificing a lot of CERTAINTY.  Burns is a 26 year old All-Star.  The kind of player you can build a team around.  Setoguchi has struggled with consistency but has a lot of upside, Coyle is a developing power forward who is a few years away from the NHL, and who knows what you're gonna get from the 28th overall pick.  When thinking about losing Setoguchi, Milan Michalek comes to mind.  Another player with a lot of upside who struggled with consistency despite showing an ability to post 50+ points.  As you all know, that trade didn't go so well for the Senators.  From a risk perspective, San Jose comes out on top.

If San Jose keeps Ian White, our defense would be one of the most dangerous corps in the NHL.  But I don't think we will do to an obvious downside that has emerged: lack of secondary scoring ie. no supporting cast.  With the departure of Setoguchi, I think Heatley will return to the top line.  That leaves a hole on the second line, but that's not the problem because Pavelski would most likely fill that slot.  The problem emerges from the third line down.  In terms of roster players under contract, our bottom six currently stands at: Torrey Mitchell...yeah i'm done.  Crazy isn't it?  With the news that Mayers and Nichol are goners, I would figure that Eager, Desjardins, Ferrerio, McGinn, and possibly Wellwood will be made offers with the hopes of keeping at least the first 4 of the 5 I just mentioned.  But with the exception of Wellwood, none of those players are third line players.  We now have a giant hole in our bottom six that must be addressed from a scoring standpoint AND a penalty killing standpoint.  Not resigning Ian White, will leave us $3-4 million to help fill out the bottom lines.

Make no mistake that the Sharks DID indeed get better today with the Brent Burns acquisition.  But believe me when I say that there are still many moves left to be made.  Some needs have been met, while the status of others remains the same.  Acquiring Burns as an indication that White is gone due to financial reasons unless he is willing to come back cheap (he won't, nor should he be).  The Sharks will need to go outside of their organization to fill the holes created on our third line, but our top 6 will still be dope.

I really wish i knew more about Burns.  I don't want to jinx him, but here is the only red flag about Burns in my book (i'm not worried about his +/-):  In the past 3 seasons, he has missed 58 games.  That's almost 20 games per season or about 25% of each season. Durability a concern? Only time will tell.

Welcome to San Jose Mr. Burns, we'll miss you Seto.  Best of luck to you in your still promising young career that will hopefully continue to blossom in Minnesota (when you're not playing us).

Go Sharks

Those of you who follow the NHL at large (more than just the Sharks) no doubt remember the falling out between Dany Heatley and the Ottawa Senators.  Heatley claimed that the Senators were no longer using him as much or as properly as they should have been and wished to be moved.  His numbers dropped from 105 points in 2006-2007, to 82 points in 2007-2008, and eventually to 72 points in 2008-2009.  This drop in stats implied that:

a) His whole team was worse which made it more difficult for him to perform

b) He was correct in that his team was not using him correctly

or c) He was no longer trying as hard

Throughout the offseason between his last season in Ottawa and first season in San Jose he had developed a reputation as a prima dona who needed to be given his way or he would simply stop playing.  Doug Wilson took the risk by shipping over-the-hill Jonathan Cheechoo and the speedy Milan Michalek to the Senators.  

This ended up being a brilliant move in the first year of the Dany Heatley experiment.  Cheechoo was a disaster in Ottawa and Michalek proved to be rather injury prone, never able to contribute much.  Heatley scored 82 points in his first year with the Sharks and looked like he could easily reach 100 points again playing next to Thornton with a year already under his belt.  And then this year happened. 

Heatley dropped down to a lowly 64 points.  Far too few for a $7 million sniper.  He also only had 26 goals, tied with his rookie season for his fewest goals in a full season.  He has been the target of criticism this season and this post-season.  It did not take him long to be demoted to a second/third line role this year, where he has remained since.  This season has me concerned that history could repeat itself in our Dany Heatley saga, although Heatley has remained quiet thus far.  Let's compare this year to his last year in Ottawa by the three points I mentioned earlier:

a) His whole team was worse which made it more difficult for him to perform

2008-2009 Senators: True. They went from playoff contenders to the bottom of the barrel while he was there.  

2010-2011 Sharks: Definitely NOT true.  This time around, this is not an excuse for his drop in numbers.  Our offense is as deep as it's ever been and our goaltending found stability.

b) He was correct in that his team was not using him correctly

2008-2009 Senators: Probably.  Heatley saw less Power Play time in his final year which is where he is so deadly with his shot.  I didn't watch them enough to know how their even strength lines changed but I know that the Heatley/Spezza/Alfredsson line was the deadliest in the NHL

2010-2011 Sharks: Possibly.  Much like his time with the Senators, Heatley spent time on one of the deadliest lines in the NHL.  The Heatley/Thornton/Marleau line was almost on par with the Heatley/Spezza/Alfredsson line at it's peak.  Heatley spent most of his time away from the HTML line and has clearly missed playing alongside Thornton.  his PP time has also been slashed considering that he has spent a majority of the year on the second PP line.

c) He was no longer trying as hard

2008-2009 Senators: Yes.  It was no secret that Heatley stopped being satisfied with his diminished role on the Senators.  By the end of the season, they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

2010-2011 Sharks: Sadly, it sure looks like it.  Heatley has a history of not performing well when he isn't put in the situation he wants.  He isn't someone who can be motivated by being demoted.  McLellan will probably only reward Heatley when he produces, but Heatley will probably only produce when he is rewarded.  Hence the awkward Catch 22 of Dany Heatley we are now stuck in.

Diagnosis:

Heatley is a player that flourishes when surrounded by talent and given opportunity to produce.  He was on the best line in the NHL last year, and the best line for a few years in Ottawa as well.  I do not think that reuniting the Heatley/Thornton/Marleau line at this time is a wise move, but, I do think it might be worthwhile to give Heatley more powerplay time.  The powerplay is where Heatley is the most dangerous.  Today Heatley was demoted to the third line; IMO, that is not how you are going to motivate him.  It might be worthwhile to sort of let the baby have his bottle.  If we continue to demote him and not give him opportunities to play alongside our elite, I have no doubts that we could have a similar falling out as the Senators did with him two years ago.  Currently, Heatley is not being motivated in the right way, and his play is suffering.  I'm not saying that we need to give him whatever he wants, but maybe if we give him a taste, he will wake up.  Heatley is a player that is WORTH motivating.  Don't forget that he is a two time 50 goal scorer.  If we cannot motivate him eventually, he will no longer have a place on this team.

Go Sharks

The past two games have revealed a lot about the nature of this series.  The box scores and statistics don't really tell the whole story; although they give a decent summary.  These are just a few observations I have had so far.  Please let me know if you guys disagree or have anything else to add.  I like hearing other people's opinions.  I'll start with the bad and end with the good (so you can leave happy!):

The Bad (The Duds):

1) Referees:

Starting it off with some conspiracy (gotta get it out of the way), but I haven't really been able to figure out the reffing situation this series.  The reffing was much better in game 2, but in game 1 they blew so many calls (including the hit from behind on White) I was in utter disbelief.  It also seems that our centers have been getting kicked out of the faceoff circle on an alarming basis.  Thornton won 11 faceoffs on saturday but I could have sworn that he got kicked out of just as many.  Almost feels like faceoff bias against the Sharks in games 1 and 2.  The charging call against Murray at the very end of the game was also questionable but they then no one cared.  

2) Penalty Killing and Penalty Taking:

Penalty killing is obvious so I won't even talk about it.  But our penalty taking in game 2 was awful.  Many of the penalties we took were in the offensive zone and were clustered very close together time-wise.  Right after one penalty was over, we took another one.  Because of this, our lines could not develop any momentum.

3) Niclas Wallin:

Wallin was a big skating liability in game 1.  He took two bad minor penalties and failed the hold the puck in the zone during our longest sustained offensive zone time of the game.  He has had trouble handling the puck at the point this series.  His game 2 was better.  The one penalty he did take prevented an easy goal so I can't knock him for that.  He is on this roster for his experience.  He had better start showing that he has experience in more than taking penalties and fumbling passes.

4) Thornton and Marleau:

No points for the duo in what is already looking like our typical top-line type of play during the playoffs.  These two are going to have to find a way for the Sharks to go deep in the playoffs.  We will only go as far as these two will take us.  However, I think this problem might be due to the final problem of this section

5) Coaching:

I'll be blunt: Todd McLellan is getting out coached.  He has never been known to utilize the advantage of last change that you get with home ice.  No Jarret Stoll should have been huge.  McLellan should have been able to capitalize on several great match-ups but still chose to roll his lines normally.  Thornton and Marleau have seen a ton of Doughty and Mitchell this series.  McLellan had a lot to capitalize on going against the Kings with no Kopitar or Stoll but could not adjust his gameplan.

The Neutral (Eh)

1) Ryane Clowe:

Clowe's 3 assist game 1 was cancelled out by his undisciplined game 2 where he took two ill-advised penalties in the first period that helped put us out of the game very early

2) Dany Heatley:

Heatley can't really seem to find his grove.  He hasn't been noticeably bad, but he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing.  His goal in game 1 was a result of what is known as being in the right place at the right time, but that's what he needs to do.  Heatley needs to continue to go to the front of the net and pick up those dirty goals.  I think he could benefit from some time with Thornton.  The chemistry he had with Couture in the middle of the season seems to have disappeared IMO.

The Good (The Studs)

1) Logan Couture:

Why is he on this list? In Game 1, Couture made a huge mistake on the penalty kill by not putting the puck on the net on a fast break.  The puck wired around the glass and ended up as a 2 on 1 for the Kings that they cashed in on.  How did our stellar rookie respond? By getting that goal back minutes later.  Couture hung in tough and didn't let that mistake get him down.  He has always stepped up when we needed him this season and game 1 was no different

2) Antti Niemi:

If it weren't for Niemi, the Sharks would be down 0-2 in the series right now.  He has some stellar saves in game 1 that saved the game including one where he robbed Clifford on a 2-1 break with what has easily been the save of the playoffs so far.  His big game experience last year is showing in the first 2 games.  You can't blame our 4-0 loss on him.

3) Devin Setoguchi:

Don't let his 0 points in 2 games fool you.  Seto has 12 shots in that span and has created many good scoring opportunities with his aggressiveness and speed.  Setoguchi has been a bright spot on our top line and has played hard and well even though it hasn't shown on the scoreboard.

4) Marc-Edouard Vlasic:

Not a prolific point scorer but was probably our best player on the ice last night.  He has been sound in the defensive zone and his back-checking has been superb.  He is doing for us what Willie Mitchell is doing for the Kings.

5) Joe Pavelski:

Was there any question about this one?  Pavelski suffered from having less than 6 minutes of even strength ice time in the first 2 periods of Game 2, but came up huge in Game 1.  Whenever no one else will step it up, The Big Pavelski will.  He has continued his playoff magic this year and will continue to be looked for to come up big for us.

So as you can see, there are still plenty of good things that we have seen this series so far that we can't forget about because of this 4-0 loss.  All the experts predicted the Sharks would win this series but no one thought we would win it in 4 games.  Losing games happens in the playoffs sometimes.  After Game 1 people loved the Sharks more than a fat kid loves cake, and after Game 2 people loved the Sharks about as much as a fat kid loves treadmills (not very much).  The loss was bad, don't get me wrong; but, there still are still a lot of good things to work off of.  The Sharks six game losing streak made them stronger.  This embarrassing loss and the potential return of Ian White in Game 3 could do the same.  How the Sharks respond in Game 3 will be important.  Look for Setoguchi to finally get rewarded on the scoresheet and for Ryan Clowe to tighten up his game from a discipline standpoint.  Don't sleep on  Thornton or Marleau, how they play will determine how far we go. And watch out for the Big Pavelski to keep doing his thing.

So, who are your Studs and Duds?

As always, Go Sharks

Right now the Sharks stand pat at the Number 2 seed in the western conference holding a 1 point lead after a blowout loss to Anaheim and a shutout loss for Detroit.  There is no doubt that most of you are upset at tonight's loss to Anaheim, and we should be for a myriad of reasons.  I will not go into any of those reasons here because Jason and Matt will no doubt do a much better job anyway.  However, what I am willing to discuss is our postseason.

For those of you unfamiliar with playoff scenarios, the Sharks clinched the Pacific Division on monday which means that we cannot enter the playoffs with a seed any lower than 3rd.  Also Vancouver clinched the presidents trophy what seems like forever ago so there is no way the Sharks could enter the playoffs any higher than 2nd.  For the past few days, if the Sharks had to enter the playoffs as the second or third seed I would honestly rather have the third seed; and here is why:

The way that the western conference has been totally log-jammed has led to a lot of desperate play by some of the fringe teams.  Teams like  Los Angeles or Phoenix have been in the middle of the standings playing some mediocre hockey and Detroit is playing its worst hockey of the year.   However, teams that have been flirting with the 7th and 8th seed like Chicago, Calgary, Anaheim have been fighting hard and not doing too poorly doing so.  Calgary is on a three game win streak.  Chicago came back from a two goal deficit to win tonight.  And Anaheim has won 8 of its last 11 sans Jonas Hiller and just spanked us tonight.

History has shown that the bottom seed teams are not to be taken lightly.  The two teams that take the 7th and 8th seed this year will be dangerous because of how hard they will have fought to get there.  They will be riding emotional highs and copious momentum into the playoffs.  Two years ago, the Ducks went on something like a 10 game win streak to steal the 8th seed of the western conference and proceeded to eliminate us in the first round.  I didn't mean to open up any old wounds but you see the point I am trying to get across.  Vancouver, Detroit, and our Sharks better watch out for those bottom three teams this year.  There hasn't been a whole lot separating the third seed from the 8th seed this year (7 points as of tonight,  and only 2 points between the 4th and 8th seed!)

The seedings could look completely different in a few days which is why I put the word "might" in the title.  All I know is that I would prefer to avoid teams like Anaheim, Chicago, and Calgary in the first round and would MUCH rather play teams like Los Angeles or Phoenix right now.  Nashville is also quite scary right now the way they wrapped up the month of March.  The seeds are deceiving my friends.  There isn't much to separate the wheat from the chaff this year.  Just no one go jumping off a bridge if we enter the playoffs as the third seed.  Seeds might not mean as much this year as they used to be.  It's going to be an exciting playoff for the western conference.

And in case you are curious, regardless of whether or are the 2nd or 3rd seed, the earliest we could play Vancouver is the western conference finals. 

So my fellow finatics, which team scares you the most of our potential first round opponents?

With the long road trip the old thread got buried since the Sharks weren't at home for what seems like forever.  I was meaning to create this thread earlier but tonight's game kind of snuck up on me.  If you want to sell tickets to the community or buy, please post here.  Please no spam, scams, or price gouging.  We're all family here.

Also, rec this if you want this article to not get pushed off the fanpost sidebar anytime soon.

Yesterday (February 1st) I turned 22 and was looking forward to some post-all star break Sharks Hockey.  I came home after my birthday dinner with the girlfriend and found the Sharks losing 2-0.  I then found out that the government had seized atdhe so I watched the game through veetle, during which the Coyotes went up 3-0.  No more atdhe, and a Sharks blowout loss on my 22nd birthday.  Things were not looking good for my birthday, and I was very close to turning the game off to focus on other things like not being depressed on my birthday.  But I maintained my tradition of finishing every Sharks game (including last year's 7-2 loss to the Hawks and this year's 4-0 loss to the Kings), and oh boy was I rewarded.

The Sharks proceeded to do many things I did not know they were capable of.  Not only did they come back from a 3-0 hole to win 5-3, but in the dreaded third period of all ways.  I found myself elated, jumping in my room, Pacifico spilling on the floor and me not caring one bit.  Goal after goal was pumped in and it almost felt like they knew it was my birthday.  I'm not trying to selfishly say that tonight's victory was for me or anything.  But I wanted to express my gratitude to the San Jose Sharks for one helluva show and making my 22nd birthday a night to remember.  I also reflected a lot on the Sharks season so far, and realize how good we have had it in the past few years and how little we appreciate it.

Usually around this time of year, we are asking the question "how far will we make it in the playoffs?" rather than "will me make the playoffs period?".  That says a lot about our team's performance over the past few years.  We have totally taken having a consistent playoff contender for granted in my opinion.  So much so that even when we are in 8th place (still in the playoff picture), everyone starts getting all panicky and jumping ship.  Coming into our game against the Coyotes, we were 4-0-1 in our last 5 games, earning 9 of the possible 10 points during that stretch.  And yet I had never seen the kind of pessimism that I saw heading into the game.  Everyone was talking about how our streak was snapped and how we always play terrible post-break hockey.  Well if you ask me, we can't ask much more from our boys than we have gotten in the past 6 games: 11 of the possible 12 points.  That is damn good you guys.  Our game is still not perfect, but we have a lot to be thankful for as Sharks fans (imagine if we were Islander fans or Thrasher fans).  

Seeing as I go to college in socal, I'm thinking of invading the Duck pond to see the Sharks play tonight.  This most recent game was a catalyst of appreciation for me, and I hope it was to all of us.  I hadn't been that amped during a Sharks game since our 6-5 victory over the Redwings two years ago.  (Seriously, watch this if you need to remember the good days)

FTF has always had reasonable criticism in my opinion.  We never get too doomsday-esque when things are bad.  However, let's remember that we fans of the greatest franchise in the NHL, and we should never hang our heads in shame.  We might be asking ourselves questions we are not used to asking around this time of year.  We might feel a sense of urgency this time of year we have not felt in some time.  But don't ever lower your chins my brethren.

Thank you San Jose Sharks for all of the good times

I'm tired of the experts and players trying to find the bright side of these losses.  After every loss I hear people saying "the sharks did everything right.  They couldn't have played better".  While it is true that the energy is there and they seem to be going through the right motions, the fact remains the same that if you only score 1 goal in something like 117 shots then SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU. I just don't know what it is.

We are getting shots on goal, we are getting good puck movement and doing a good job winning the battles, so I really don't have true diagnosis although I have some theories.  People have noticed that HP pavilion has been quiet this year; well, we're not having fun watching the Sharks because there don't seem to be having fun playing.  Thornton has not been the same player in the offensive zone as he used to be and is committing too many turnovers in the neutral zone, we have already talked about Marleau enough, Pavelski is injured but even when healthy has not been getting it done, Boyle has actually been quite mistake prone lately and is missing defensive assignments, and Huskins really hasn't looked healthy since he came back and I feel like he should be bumped down to the bottom pair.

I'm not here to be completely pessimistic but something has to change.  The only statistic that really matters in hockey is goals, and we can't seem to get there.  The Sharks have found a way to make every opposing goalie seem legendary.  Miller, Rinne, and Hiller have looked like Gods between the pipes going against us.

One final note: The Sharks have found a way to disappoint its most die-hard fans the most.  What I mean when I say that is when the die-hard fans here at FTF or other communities go out of our way to back them up we get let down.  Anyone remember FTF Night at the Tank?  4-0 Shutout to the Kings in the worst game in recent memory. And tonight, 350 Sharks fans woke up before sunrise and drove 400+ miles to support this team; and while the effort was better, the outcome was the same: a shutout loss. 

There are a few things to be learned from this:

1) Quantity does not equal quality when it comes to shots. Many of those shots on goal were right to the chest which leads to goaltending stat inflation, making goalies seem like legends

2) Top men not getting it done (nothing new there)

3) Play for your fans.  The Sharks have done well playing current teammates former teams (if that makes sense, say it out loud a few times and you will see that is not a typo).  The Sharks played for Heatley when they played the Senators, for Niemi (3 times!) when they played the Blackhawks, and Nittymaki when they played the Lightning.  Their incentive needs to be to play well against every opponent for the fans.  For the people who drove 13 hours round trip.  For the people who show up at the tank early on FTF night.  For the people reading this blog right now who bleed teal each and every day of their lives.

This is not blind optimism I am about to spout.  The season is only half over and the race for the west is tighter than ever.  The Sharks right now could still finish First in the West!  The top is within sight, it's simply a matter of who is willing to fight for it.  I know I may have seemed like a downer when I started this piece, but I truly believe that this team can do it (with maybe a few moves at the trade deadline).  Don't lose faith, fellow finatics but also do not fool yourself into thinking that nothing is wrong.

Go Sharks

A few months ago, Plank started a thread for selling and purchasing tickets in an attempt to keep tickets within the community without clogging up the fanpost section.  I just checked it and I can no longer post on it and no one has posted  on it for 9 days so I thought it would be appropriate to start a new one (Plank, let me know if I am wrong with this assumption, I may have missed the reason we don't have one anymore.

The Sharks have a lot of home games in December and January so this would be a great place to keep tickets within the community.   I know that I personally sold 5 pairs of tickets in november through the thread to dedicated FTF bloggers.  And although I will probably go to most of the games myself in December and January, I know I will need to sell some and would like to keep my pair in the community.  So I know that it is very likely that this post will be pushed off of the sidebar in a few days or weeks but I hope that we can keep it alive.

Leave comments below if you are selling/looking to buy tickets.

Go Sharks

The player rankings that were posted earlier today inspired me to think of a few things to take away from the first 29 games of the season.  Tomorrow will mark game number 30 and I doubt anyone thought we would be where we are now.  When the actual 41 game mark comes I might feel inspired to do a complete midseason evaluation.  However, I have a few points that I would like to make and would hope that others in the community would chime in with their thoughts as well.

1)  Antero Nittymaki has been doing exactly what he is being paid to do.

Nittymaki is a tandem goalkeeper and nothing more.  At the beginning of the season, Nitty was posting very impressive numbers that had the fans calling for a permanent benching of Niemi and having Nitty have Nabokov-like starts.  However, his recent dip in production has the table turned towards Niemi.  This might seem disappointing; however, it is exactly why Nitty was brought on in the first place.  Nitty has a way of making true potential number 1 goalies better.  If you are a number one goalie, Nitty will always be breathing down your neck, forcing you to step up your game.  If you take a look at Niemi's numbers as the season has progressed, that is exactly what has happened.  Don't be disappointed in Nittymaki my brothers and sisters.  He is doing his job.

2) The youth movement is in full effect

Couture, Ferriero, and Braun have all made a splash this season with the team.  After seeing his effectiveness near the end of last year, many expected Couture to stay with the main group for this season; but I'm sure no one saw him taking center in our second and sometimes even first line.  Couture is a man on fire.  He is Pavelski with a higher ceiling in my opinion.  Ferriero and Braun have both made cases to stay with the squad even when Huskins and Seto get healthy.  I'm not sure if it will actually happen, but at this rate this will be Seto's last year as a Shark.  Many have noted that Braun is this years Jason Demers.  It's nice to see the points, but the need for a true stay-home defenseman still lingers.  Our veterans have vanished in the past few games.  I will hear Couture or Clowe's name called on TV every minute or so but can literally go a whole period without anyone mentioning Thornton or Marleau until someone goes "holy shit, why is Marleau on the ice EVERY TIME we get scored against?"

3) The Sharks are playing bi-polar hockey, and it will probably stay that way until a trade

A trade IS coming.  There is no use in denying it.  This team can be lights-out some nights and a revolving door on other nights.  Now i'm not saying that it is time to hit the panic button, because we have already established on this blog why that should not happen; but it is time to start evaluating our trade bait to see what we can lure.  Setoguchi's stock MIGHT get us a new gatorade bucket and a couple of jock straps, but Clowe's stock could not be higher as it is difficult to find a true power forward with those kind of numbers.  Trading Clowe would make me very sad but in order to get the caliber of defenseman we actually need we will actually be lucky if we only have to part with Clowe, lower pair defenseman, and a pick or two in the process.

Complete half-season evaluation coming soon.  This was mostly to start discussion. 

Also, on a sidenote: there is this thing that processes all of your facebook statuses over the past year and makes a collage of the words that appear the most frequently, the biggest words being the most common and small ones being the least.  Well I just did it with my facebook and I thought this community would appreciate it:

Go SHARKS!

There are many things that we could discuss now regarding the current state of the Sharks.  However, I thought I would distract myself by thinking of other areas within the organization and couldn't help but think of Jonathan Cheechoo.

Cheechoo was once one of the most feared snipers in the NHL, burying 56 goals the year after lockout.  However, Cheechoo failed to adjust to NHL 2.0 after the rest of the league adjusted and was also hindered by injuries.  Not fast enough to be in the top 6, but also not physical (or cheap) enough to play in the bottom six, Cheechoo was traded away along with the inconsistent Milan Michalek to Ottawa in what has turned out to be a brilliant trade for the Sharks.  Cheechoo posted poor numbers in the Senators and was cut loose after the season.

Hardly big news this past summer, but many hearts were warmed this summer when we learned that Jonathan Cheechoo was invited to join the Worcester Sharks this season.  Way past his prime and ravaged by constant nagging injuries, I don't think many of us really read much into it.  However, Cheechoo has been holding his own down in the AHL posting 5 goals and 11 assists in 17 games, which leads our team.  AHL numbers do not necessarily translate to NHL numbers.  But one cannot help to wonder if we will ever see Cheechoo called up again.  He would not longer have the massive cap hit that we were once worried about and would almost immediately regain his title as a fan favorite.

I don't know much about how something like that could happen.  I'm still fairly certain that he will never get back into the NHL, at least not for the Sharks.  But I wanted to know what the community thought of the Cheechoo dilemma (or lack thereof).

Word on the street is that one of summer's hottest free agents, Willie Mitchell, will be sidelined for 4-6 weeks due to a wrist injury.  Many will recall how we were hesitant about signing Mitchell due to the likelihood of him suffering setbacks in his concussion recovery.  In the end, old DW was not willing to roll the dice on pretty Willie and it looks like in the short term it was a good/lucky decision as Mitchell will miss significant time not including time to get reacquainted with game-time skating.

I wish him a speedy recovery although I must admit, shamefully, that it made me happy that we didn't sign him. Which makes zero sense I know, but somehow makes an ironic kind of sense considering it was injuries we were worried about, just not this kind of injury. And while we still need a new shutdown defenseman, looks like perhaps this one didn't turn out for us for the better.

Sharks 1- Rest of World 0

Go Sharks

I promised I would post at the beginning of each month which games I would not be able to make it to during the upcoming month.  Well this one is actually pretty easy because my plans to come home before thanksgiving have fallen through and it looks like the only game I will be able to make it to is the one against the Blackhawks on the 24th.  Therefore every other home game in November and this Saturday's game against the hated Ducks are all up for grabs  for FTF bloggers.

I have done some research and I have been offering $100 for the pair, which is season ticket holder face value but its honestly not that special (or at least does not capture the love I have for FTF). After all, I would not charge my family face value I would give them a discount.  So I will be offering an FTF discount to $90 for the pair, which is a little more special I suppose.  And again, these seats are in Section 214, Row 12, seats 17 and 18.

Also I can only do paypal.  If I could meet up in person that would imply that I was in the bay area, and if that were the case I would go to the game myself :)

Email me at mattsummer10@gmail.com if you have any questions about these games.  These games are:

10/30 v s. Ducks (SOLD)

11/6 vs. Lightning (SOLD)

11/9 vs. Ducks (SOLD)

11/11 vs. Islanders

11/13 vs. Flames

11/15 vs. Kings (SOLD)

11/20 vs. Blue Jackets (SOLD)

11/30 vs. Red Wings (SOLD)

GO SHARKS

McCarthy: Wow it certainly feels great to be back in America

Huskins: How come?

McCarthy: Well everything is all backwards in Sweden.  I mean I think they're on the metric system so their meter is like three of our feet.  Its astounding.  Luckily we only have to play 20 minutes tonight

Huskins: Are you sure? We didn't do that last year...

McCarthy: Think about it man: one of their meters is three of our feet, so one of their minutes must be three of ours.  So I think they made a mistake by letting us play 60 minutes in Stockholm because it should have only been 20!  We played 180 American minutes!  I assume they'll remedy that mistake by shortening our game tonight to 20 for the next few games.

Huskins: My god...that's brilliant

McCarthy: I'll go tell the others

Unfortunately I would not surprised if a conversation like that occurred at some point before the game; and even more unfortunately, I was at the game tonight.  It was evident that the team was only prepared to play 20 minutes.  After an energetic unfurling of the banners of our accolades and introduction of the players, the tank was buzzing and waiting to see their Sharks go off on the Thrashers.  After a sluggish first few minutes, the tank came alive when Heatley put in his first of the year and Clowe redirected a shot for a goal 21 seconds later.  Two goals in the span of 21 seconds had the tank on its feet.  The sharks returned to their locker rooms and were cheered loudly.  That's when things got bad.

It was very possible that Todd Mclellen walked into the locker room during first intermission and found half of his team already in the showers.  Startled that the game was indeed still 60 minutes long, the Sharks put their pads and jerseys back on and skated back out there.  Sharks looked like they had a little steam left from the first, drawing a penalty in the opening minutes.  However, Marleau mishandled the puck at the point allowing Bryan Little to take a fast break, put a puck on net and allow Andrew Ladd to slide the puck in an empty net.  It was at this point that the team went downhill and could never recover.

I don't think we'll see John McCarthy again anytime soon.  A weak dump allowed a turnover in the neutral zone, the Thrashers countered quickly and Anthony Steward blazed a slapshot by Niemi.  If McCarthy puts that puck deep like he's supposed to, that goal doesn't happen.  This is a game of inches, and you can't use the little ice time you get handling the puck like that when your team needs a change.

The fans of HP Pavillion proved tonight that the "noise meter" on the screen cannot actually read decibels because it was fluctuating around 100 dBs and I guarantee I have never heard the tank so quiet before.

I have no idea what Mclellen said to the boys during second intermission but it must have been something along the lines of "12 orphans just died in a bus accident...now go out and get em'", because the Sharks came out looking even less motivated and composed than before.  We spent the first 5 or 6 minutes of the period COMPLETELY in our zone and were getting badly out-shot.  Passes were going between the feet instead of to the stick, and communication in the defensive zone.  The crowd finally started getting back in the game midway through the period...then Dany Heatley takes an interference penalty and Atlanta capitalizes on the power-play.  The scariest play of the game for me by far though was the 3 on 1 in the third period.  It was scary for 2 reasons: 

1) How did we blow our positioning that badly?  Atlanta was on the defensive and still got a 3 on 1 break

2) Vlasic could not have played that break much worse than he did.  On an odd-man rush, defender always takes away the pass.  Vlasic took away NOTHING.  He didn't take away the shot and left the pass wide open as he valiantly skated backwards and spun in circles.  Peverley effortlessly passed the puck to Kane (the pass Vlasic should have taken away), who put the puck into the wide open net.  And just like that, HP pavillion was 10,000 people less crowded.

Dump and chase hockey is cool.  I think when you have as few puck moving players as we do its the only way.  However, as the name of the technique would imply, dump and chase only works when you actually CHASE the puck.  Oftentimes we would dump the puck and not make any effort to get it back.  And i'm not talking about during line changes, i mean like the whole third period.

4 unanswered goals.  Unlimited unanswered questions.

What will Mclellen do to the lines?  I can only assume he will shake something up.  When will we make a move for a defenseman?  it's become painfully obvious that our depth at defense is killing us.  How will the sharks respond when the Hurricanes come visit on tuesday?  Well that one will be answered in just a few days.

I hope to see the Sharks come out with some intensity on tuesday.  It was discouraging to see Joe regain his hesitance to shoot in the third period.  I don't know what kind of lines we will be looking at, but I think McGinn needs to get off the Thornton line.  I'm glad he was taken off in the third period, but he never really deserved to skate with Joe, I like the kid but he is currently a waste of Joe's passes.

There were still a lot of good things from tonight.  Torrey Mitchell looked great on the ice and Heatley and Couture seem to click fairly well.  Things just didn't click for our team overall and Mason made some great saves.

I'm going to give the Sharks the benefit of the doubt and say that the fact that they had to wait a whole week had a lot to do with how poorly they played.  But a team with Stanley cup aspirations must be mentally tougher than this.  And as I was waiting and waiting for someone to step up, before I knew it the game was over. Its a long season my friends.  Brighter days are ahead and we WILL bounce back from this.  Changes will and must be made, and we will be a better team because of them.

Go Sharks

For the past few years I have considered getting season tickets.  The problem is that I go to college in southern california and would probably only be able to make it to about 8 games.  I am very close to getting season tickets and just selling the games I can't go to (somewhere around 30 games).  A question for the season ticket holders: how difficult/easy is it to sell tickets? If it is too difficult to unload tickets it might not be worth it for me to encumber that enormous cost.  I don't plan on jacking up the price super high.  I will most likely sell around (probably a little above to cancel out stubhub fees) face value.  My goal is just to break even pretty much, i'll need to do the math.  Any advice anyone has about ticket resales and dynamics of season ticket ownership would be much appreciated.

This is not about profit.  Those who resell tickets to make money off of this team are scum

1) Tommy Greiss getting 30+ starts next year.

Barring a financial miracle, I'm assuming that Nabakov will not be rejoining us next season; and while that will be a sad day, I think that once he is officially gone we will regret making him a 70+ game workhorse season after season.  Not because he didn't perform well (because he did), but because Greiss has very little starting experience.  I'm not saying that he cannot be a starter next year, I'm saying that we simply just do not know.  He has shown signs that he can be a #1 goaltender in the NHL, but also several negative signs that can be attributed to lack of in game experience as he is often out of position and has judgement issues at times.  I think that even if we can grab a goalie who can be immediately thrown into the mix, this kid deserves major starts next year.  In a perfect world I would like to see Carey Price and Greiss splitting the starts about 65%/35%.  This year will either be a development year or a breakout year for Greiss, btu giving him the starts is the only way to find out

2) Marleau back in teal, but having the HTML line split up

As wet as the concept of the HTML line makes my pants, I have become less and less of a fan of the "put all your eggs in one basket" philosophy as last season went on.  Whenever we play a team with a shutdown line, our top three players are rendered useless in the HTML line.  I think moving Marleau to the second line would add more of a scoring balance to our team.  It leaves Thornton with a 40 goal scorer to set up, and gives Pavelski a 40 goal scorer to make plays with.

3) Seeing more development of young blood

Kind of going along with #1 on this list.  I think giving Couture, McGinn and co. a full season on the line and fewer round trips on the Worcester shuttle will really pay dividends.  Of the NHL powerhouses, our team is considered one of the oldest; therefore I feel like having our third, fourth, and even second lines filled with some of our younger talent will really pay dividends.  I think having a lineup like this could really benefit our team:

Heatley-Thornton-Clowe/Setoguchi(depends if clowe gets traded)

Marleau-Pavelski-Setoguchi/Couture

Mitchell-Malhotra-Couture/McGinn

Ortmeyer-Nichol-McGinn/McLaren

Boyle-Martin/Hamhuis

Murray-Vlasic

Who knows what the third defensive pairing could look like. I personally indifferent about Huskins and Wallin

Price

Greiss

4) Having most of our salary cap surplus being spent on revamping defense (implicit in #3)

As you can see, I really hope that our offense doesn't change very much.  I hope to see at least two new defenders in teal next season.  From other FTF articles, it seems that the frontrunners in the favorites are Paul Martin and Dan Hamhuis.  While we probably can't sign both, i think that if we got one and then a third pair defenseman we would be set.

It's going be an interesting offseason, but knowing DW it will probably be another month at least before any major move is made.

Go Sharks

Right now it would seem that lady luck is not on our side.  I'm sure you have all read 100 times today that every game winning goal in this series has gone off a shark, and yet we are down 2-1 in the series.  But let me explain exactly why I am not worried about us in this series:

1) We have pumped 129 shots on goal the past three games and have had little help from our big boys:

The latter part of this sentence may seem alarming; and it is, but lets not focus on that for now.  For the first time, our secondary scoring is getting it done.  Last year, our second line of Michalek, Pavelski, and Clowe combined for one point in the playoffs and could hardly get anything on goal.  This year, they are each cracking 6+ shots per game and were pretty much responsible for our victory in game two.  It amazing how much Pavelski and Clowe have matured since last year in the playoffs.  I actually consider Seto a lateral move from Michalek; both speedy snipers who battle inconsistency, but Seto has stepped it up big time in the playoffs.  But our second line has come alive while our top line has yet to contribute a goal, although they did combine for 4 points (all assists) in game 2.  Heatley and Marleau combined for 83 goals this season.  Once our top line comes alive, we'll be rolling.  And make no mistake, this line NEEDS to come alive.  It looks like we can still outplay the avs with marginal performance from Heatley and terrible performance from Marleau, but the play of our top line will not suffice down the road.

2) Of all the people who could have made that mistake last night, I'm glad it was Dan Boyle:

Boyle is a veteran.  A big boy.  He can handle this even though it would put a mortal man on suicide watch.  He is going to come back harder than ever tomorrow night.  Boyle is consistent and a dominant workhorse.  Think about it: if someone like Demers made that mistake, it could ruin the rest of his career.  Young players can't handle a blunder like that this early in a career.  It could have caused irreparable damage that could ruin a career.  Also think about someone who is already marred by mental weakness like Patrick Marleau.  An own goal like that could have taken Marleau out of the playoffs completely. And as an upcoming UFA, it could have sealed his fate to be shipped off.  Boyle is no Patrick Stefan (if you don't know who that is, here you go ). Stefan's blunder ended his career.  Boyle? Not even close.  

3) Unlike last year, we are actually outplaying our opponent:

Anaheim totally outclassed us last year.  We may have out shot them on many occasions but none of our shots were actually a threat to hiller.  Mostly unscreened shots from the point or outside the slot.  If we keep playing the way we do, I have confidence we will win this series.

Boyle is coming out mad tomorrow; I predict he has a 2 point night.  Sharks are far from sinking boys, keep the faith alive.

Go Sharks

I think Todd McLellan said it best after the game "I’m tired of hearing in our locker room and around the team that adversity is good for us and will pay off in the end."

Well said Coach.

Indeed, how can a team win when they think that losing is good for them? What happens after we lose 8-2, 3-2, 4-3? We are rewarded with a day off.  I've played a lot of sports in my life, and after you lose 5 straight you need to have you ass kicked in practice.  In fact you should be kicking your own ass after the embarrassment.  But I still hear the players not panicking and saying its good for them.  Its time for that mentality to stop.  If losing 8-2 to dallas and 5-1 against the worst team in the NHL won't do it, I don't know what will.

Look at the oilers.  Our third line could match up against their top line.  There is no doubt that we beat them in raw talent.  But sports is just as much about mental strength as it is about physical prowess.  And that mental strength needs to come from our leaders, which I am not seeing.  Captaincy should not go to someone quiet and withering like Blake.  I think Boyle and Pavelski have both proven to be more deserving.  Its time for the sharks to admit that they are playing like shit, and to step it up big time.  Put some heart into it boys.  It takes more than just showing up.

Here is another problem: we love to panic.  It seems like our lines get shuffled every time we get scored against.  I vote that we go back to what worked almost the entire season!  Here are the lineups i hope to see in the playoffs:

Heatley- Thornton - Marleau

Clowe- Pavelski- Setoguchi

McGinn - Malhotra - Couture

McLaren- Nicol - Mitchell

Boyle- Murray

Vlasic - Blake

Huskins - Wallin

Mitchell and McGinn are kind of interchangeable on the third and fourth lines to me.  But Couture belongs up there.  Time to step up your game sharks.  We have the same pieces we had at the beginning of the season (except Wallin) so I know that we can do it.

Go Sharks