Recalling the cool stuff since the last report:
1) Jason B., Ginny K., Cheryll & Dave K., Margaret,
and your humble correspondent got to see the
Sharks go on an offensive explosion - that's
SUPER cool.
2) I'm still an LCS correspondent - that's a relief
type of cool.
3) Gina and Kevin L. are proud parents of a new
baby boy - that's a special type of cool.
4) It rained for the 9th straight weekend in the
San Francisco Bay Area - That's NOT cool :(
5) The Sharks are 6-1-1 in their last 8 games -
Yeah baby yeah (An Austin Powers type of cool).
A Comment from A Friend
Fellow long-suffering Sharks fan Michele P. wrote in to say
she wanted me to change Alex Korolyuk's nickname from Korky to
K-yuk in my reports. To paraphrase, she believes Korky
"sounds wimpy" for a guy who works hard, takes the punishment,
and dishes out stuff. She's got a point. Therefore, Alex's
nickname from now on will be K-yuk. K-yuk is cool!
Hustle and You Will Get Rewarded
After the debacle against the Blackhawks, a different Sharks team
took the ice against the Coyotes. This team played hard from the
start, delivered hits, took shots, and shut down the explosive
Roenick-Drake-Tkachuk line. Goals by Patrick Marleau, Owen Nolan,
Bryan Marchment and an empty-netter by Mike Ricci made for a
very satisfying night for the home fans. K-yuk had a couple of
assists, and almost scored the Sharks goal of the season. He
skated past a bunch of hapless 'Yotes, had Nikolai Khabibulin on
the ice, but couldn't score when the goalie lifted his leg at the
last moment to deny K-yuk's excellent effort.
Hard work continued to pay off in the next game as Alex Korolyuk
and Owen Nolan's efforts behind the net were rewarded with a
Patrick Marleau goal. Steve Shields made some incredible saves,
and for the second straight night, the Sharks outplayed, outshot,
and outhustled the opposition for a 2-0 win. Joe Murphy
scored as well, but didn't score with the fans (see later on in
the article).
The following game against the Ottawa Senators showed the Sharks
at their best and worst. Three quick goals, one by Andrei Zyuzin,
two by Ronnie Stern, in the first eight minutes of the first period
put the Sharks in position to finish off the visitors early.
However, the Sharks gave up a power-play goal and suddenly
reverted to the Sharks of old -- tentative, unsure, and seemingly
on their heels. Ottawa scored a second, and the Sharks began to
look like a bunch of amateurs. The Sens were feisty, skating hard,
and firing on all cylinders, but the Sharks held on for the win.
The Sens are what the Sharks should be right now: young, talented,
and winning games in entertaining fashion -- and they're going to
make life miserable for the rest of the Eastern Conference. But
the Sharks had the big win, and with wins in back-to-back nights
against the mighty Red Wings and Senators, who could ask for
anything more?
A reunion of sorts occurred against Florida. Former Sharks Viktor
Kozlov, Johan Garpenlov, Alex Hicks and Ray Whitney paid a visit
to the Shark Tank, while former Panthers Jeff Norton and Dave
Lowry also renewed acquaintances. The Sharks continued their fast
start to games, moving out to a quick four-goal lead, and then held
on to win 4-2. Patrick Marleau picked up two more goals, and Steve
Guolla and Owen Nolan picked up the other two. Four out of five
wins on the home stand, although who would have thought that the
only loss would have been to the Blackhawks?!
The next game was the first of five games on the road. A Saturday
afternoon matinee against a hungry Boston Bruins squad started
out ugly, as the jet-lagged Sharks failed to find their legs.
Incredibly, after 15 shots, six of which hit the post, and constant
pressure by the Bruins, the Sharks were ONLY down by two goals.
Adjustments by the Sharks changed the momentum. San Jose took
control of the game following goals by Joe Murphy and Marco Sturm.
In OT, the Sharks had all the opportunities, but stellar play
by Bruin goalie Byron Dafoe saved the point for the Bruins.
At the end of the week, the Sharks were safely in 7th place,
just two points behind 6th place St.Louis, five points ahead of
8th place Calgary and also Edmonton.
So you want to make a trade...
Theo Fleury, Matthew Barnaby, Stu Barnes. All were supposedly
being pursued by the Sharks for a beat-the-deadline trade for
a scorer. They're all gone. Who's left? Names thrown around
include Trevor Linden, Doug Gilmour, Shayne Corson, Adam Oates,
and quite possibly, Tony Amonte. I'd like to see Amonte in
Teal, but there are three reasons why that wouldn't happen. First,
Chicago would have to get a lot in return, and the Sharks don't
have too much to give (and that includes Joe Murphy, but we'll
get to that later). Second, Chicago fans would be incensed
if their top scorer was traded. And third, since Tony wasn't
happy about former coach Dirk Graham's dump and chase
philosophy, he wouldn't want to come to the Sharks since that's
the Darryl Sutter philosophy as well.
Yeah, baby, it's Trivial..
Can you name the players who were Sharks, became ex-Sharks and
then came back to be Sharks again?
Offensive Mutterings...
Marco Sturm was getting mentioned in trade talks to get that
scorer the Sharks desired, but I wouldn't trade him. Kids like
Marco, Patrick Marleau, Andrei Zyuzin, Andy Sutton and Alex
Korolyuk are playing as well as they can under the glaring
spotlight, and the last thing the Sharks need to do is to give
up on the solid youth nucleus. Kudos for the staff in Kentucky
for providing the development for some of the key kids being
brought up. And since we mentioned Kentucky...
Steve Guolla was called up to provide some offense. He paid
immediate dividends with assists in the first couple of games.
He looks like he doesn't want to go back down to Kentucky,
and it would be difficult for the Sharks to send him down
since he'd have to go through waivers, which means he could
be claimed by another team. The way Steve is playing, it
would be difficult for some of the injured players to get
back into the lineup. And speaking of getting back in the
lineup...
Andy Sutton was called up on an emergency basis for Andrei
Zyuzin's absence in Boston. In the revolving spot on the
Sharks checking line, Shawn Burr played against Ottawa and
Detroit, Brantt Myhres played against Phoenix and Florida,
and Stephane Matteau played against Boston. Regular grinders
Ron Sutter and Dave Lowry continue to play well together.
Coach Sutter seems to know when to make the appropriate
changes in his lineup. Plus Coach seems to play his
ex-Blackhawks a whole lot more when they're all healthy.
And speaking of the ex-Blackhawks on the Sharks..
What does Joe Murphy have on Darryl Sutter? It's true that
Murphy is paid as a scorer, not to play defense. But since coach
Sutter expects solid two-way play from ALL his forwards on his
team, and those who don't are sent to Kentucky until they can
(see Steve Guolla), why is "floating Joe" playing so many
minutes? If he was a consistent goal scorer, then that's
okay, but he's not. Plus he leaves his teammates to play most
situations four-on-five, and on most nights, you wouldn't know he's on
the ice. Yet, coach plays him night after night. Yup, make an
example of Burr, Zyuzin, Guolla and others for their lapses
or lack of effort, but not Murphy. What gives coach? And while
I'm still being inquisitive...
If that wasn't enough to get your humble LCS correspondent
scratching his head, Joe also managed to get the rest of
the fans on his case. He went public in the local rags about
Recchi and other free-agents-to-be getting more press than
they deserved, compared his stats to Recchi's, and claimed he
was a better defensive player than Recchi. (Yeah, right,
insert laughter here). He also said if the Sharks didn't offer
him something decent before the July 1st free agent deadline,
he'd walk. An informal majority opinion in the Sharks chat
room indicated that the fans would let him go. I'm with
them. I can hear it now.. "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey
Hey Hey, Goodbye..."
Defensive Implications...
Andrei Zyuzin has paid immediate dividends with a couple of
assists and goals. Like I said in the last issue, if you play
Andrei, good things will happen. The power play has looked a
little more alive, especially since Andrei is amazingly one of
the few Sharks who can deliver a one-time slap shot on
target. Andrei on the point looked a lot better than the
indecisive Mike Rathje who has to stop the puck before
shooting. And speaking of shooting..
Bryan Marchment's first goal on home ice was a thing of beauty.
Steve Guolla held up the puck, Jeff Friesen took it from him
and laid a perfect pass to the cutting Marchment and scored
past Nikolai Khabibulin. Mush said he "closed his eyes" when
he took the shot and scored. Keep it up Mush!!!
Your Entertainment Dollars At Work
Prior to the Red Wings game, SJ Sharkie, mascot extraordinaire,
was supposed to rappel down from the top of the arena to the ice.
Usually, Sharkie has no problem. But this night, he got tangled
up in the rope, and was left hanging for about 20 minutes, which
delayed the start of the game. Luckily, Sharkie was eventually
rescued and all was good again in the Sharkie universe.
My friend Bonnie E mentioned that there's now a new meal at the
San Jose Arena -- it's called Shark on a rope (collective groan!)
The Sharks also sent a survey to the season ticket holders
asking for their feelings about everything related to the
Sharks, EXCEPT the team's performance on ice and the performance
of Sharks management. Huh?!! When fans have to endure the really
expensive food, really expensive parking, the tired cheap
entertainment between periods (except for pee-wee hockey, now
that's VERY cool), and throw in a team with the 20th best
overall record, but the sixth-highest payroll in the league,
and they send us a survey about the experience, but not the
product, you have to ask yourself about the commitment of
the team toward winning.
Late Kudos
Your humble correspondent forgot to mention in the last
issue about the well-deserved ceremony the Sharks gave
to LCS Hockey favorite Bernie Nicholls. The team presented
Bernie with a silver hockey stick with all his accomplishments,
plus he got a standing ovation. Bernie thanked the Sharks for
allowing him to play and becoming an assistant coach (although
for PC purposes he didn't mention how Sharks management forced
him to retire). And, he mentioned how the San Jose fans were
the best in the league (funny how every Shark player who the
Sharks have honored also said that very same thing!!!) Bernie,
you're one cool dude.
Things that make you go Hmmmmm...
When the Sharks went on their hot streak of the season, many
insiders pointed to the call up of Alex Korolyuk and the
return of Brantt Myhres as the key reasons for that streak.
What many people forget to mention is that Murray Craven was
sidelined during that streak. The current 6-1-1 streak has
coincided with the re-introduction of Andrei Zyuzin and
the call up of Steve Guolla. And who happens to be
sidelined? It's Murray Craven. Hmmmmm..
Remember when..
Our ex-Shark update spotlight falls on Craig Janney. Janney
started out in Boston, went to St.Louis, got into Mike
Keenan's doghouse, and traded to the Sharks for Jeff Norton.
During his brief tenure with San Jose, he was known for his
disruption and bad attitude in the locker room, and was
booed all around by the fans for performing the same move
over and over again as he got into the opposition's zone --
the infamous pass between his legs to the "phantom" player
behind him. Janney was thankfully traded to Winnipeg for
Darren Turcotte, moved to Phoenix when the Jets went south,
somehow played his way off the 1st line with Roenick & Tkachuk,
traded to Tampa to play on their first line, and then this
year was told by Tampa coach Jacques Demers to take a hike
while he worked on a trade. Finally, he was traded to the
Islanders, where he now sits on a regular basis in the press
box as a healthy scratch. We in San Jose can only look at the
Islanders and ask ourselves - maybe Mike Milbury is the only
GM worse than Dean Lombardi!!
The Morgan Stuart Award
Named after my really cool, really sweet, and really wonderful
God-daughter, the award goes to the best Sharks player during
the last two weeks. Candidates include Patty "Goal Machine"
Marleau, Alex Korolyuk, Andrei Zyuzin, and Ronnie Stern. But
this week's winner is Steve Shields, who in the absence of
Mike Vernon, delivered five wins, including a shutout of Detroit.
Plus he was named NHL Player of the week. Congrats to Steve,
and in his honor, could we ask Sharks management to come up
with a better chant other than "Shields, Shields, Shields!"
And those who came back for more punishment..
Bob Errey, Jeff Norton, Jamie Baker and Jarrod Skalde are Sharks
who were Sharks, then ex-Sharks, and came back. Errey captained
the Sharks during their 1st playoff season, was traded to Detroit,
and eventually returned to San Jose. Norton was traded during the
Sharks 2nd playoff season to St. Louis, and was traded back
this season from Florida. Baker was traded to Toronto for the
"speedy" Todd Gill, and played one game in Japan this season
before being put on waivers. Skalde was with the Sharks, claimed
off waivers by Dallas when the Sharks attempted to send him to
Kentucky, then claimed by Chicago when Dallas tried to send him
to their minor league affiliate, and then claimed back by San
Jose when Chicago tried to send him to their minor league team.
Got that?
If you would like to send comments, please send them to
hkshark.netscape.net
PS. Happy Birthday to Annabelle and Maella.
