70,000 fans went home disappointed last night as the San Jose Sharks stunk up Levi Stadium, losing to the World Champs in desultory fashion 2-1. The second California Stadium Series game went to the road team again, as LA has found its game and the Sharks well, they foundered again, playing inconsistently and were unable to beat Jonathan Quick. The ice was soft and so was San Jose as the Kings continue to bully their NorCal rivals by physically beating down the Sharks.
Shark fans have seen this script too often as this offensively challenged team played just well enough to lose by one goal. Brent Burns, of the gaudy offensive numbers and defensively challenged game had his pocket picked by Marion Gaborik in the neutral zone and slapped one past Anti Niemi for the game winner. Patrick Marleau was less effective than a screen door in a submarine and on the ice for the Kings winning goal. Patty isgoing in the wrong direction on his plus/minus, a -2 for the game and a team leading -13 for the season.
F Matt Nieto, Marleau, and D man Brenden Dillon are a combined -36, a staggering indication of defensive ineptitude, prompting the question, why not bench your all time leading scorer Marleau? Brenden Dillon, acquired for Jason Demers in November is obviously not a solution for the Sharks continuing defensive sucking.
The culture of sucking in this organization has hit a new low this season as Doug Wilson continues to slam his head against the wall by sending out the same shit game after game expecting different results. Definition of insanity. Look it up. Its almost as if the GM is afraid to bench Marleau, because of his exalted status as the all time leading scorer for San Jose. Past accomplishments don’t win games and his minus play continues to help the Sharks lose games. Sadly, the braintrust doesn’t have someone to replace him so they run him out there every night.
Not sure if they could even garner a bag of pucks for his lame ass if they tried to trade him. At least get his attention by sitting him up in the press box. Show him film of how often he fans on good passes or delivers the puck to a guy with the wrong color jersey.
The only cure I see for the malaise that has gripped me is,….. don’t watch the trainwreck that is the San Jose Sharks