San Jose,CA

Its Our Year!

Hey now sports fans, welcome to the inaugural blog post for the 2019-2020 season.  0-3.  yes that is the Sharks record after three games, two of them against the Vegas Golden Showers and one against the hated Anahymen Ducks.  BTW, is there a more hideous uniform than the Ducks new sweaters?

I digress, let’s get right to the meat of the situation.  Captain Crosscheck is going to borrow Captain Obvious’s hat and say, man do the Sharks miss their former Captain America, Joe Pavelski.  Pavs now toils for the Dallas Stars down in Big Duh.

They also miss Gustav Nyquist and the DonFather, Jonas Donskoi, both gone to ply their talents elsewhere, Columbus and Colorado respectively.  They took their 100 points with them, Nyquist 60 points and Jonas 37.  Pavelski?  His 38 goals, 64 total points and his ability to magically tip the puck into the net, gone.

Not so fast you say, we still have Couture, Kane, two Karlssons, Timo Time and Father Time Joe Thornton, and Brent Burns right?  All true, but if the first three games are any indication, goal scoring is a problem.  When you take 165 points out of the lineup, the other team can key on the remaining very good players and dare the Sharks to beat you with the AHL heavy lineup they’ve run out there in the early season.

How many times have we heard that “the younger guys will just have to step up”?  A million, it seems to me, one of the oldest cliches in sports. Goaltending is a problem still, with Martin Jones giving up a few softies to fourth line grinders, (Will Carrier of Vegas comes to mind), and then having to play out of his mind to hold it to 4-5 goals.

The defense is an issue, because San Jose got rid of a stalwart D man Justin Braun (for a fuckin draft pick!), Joakim Ryan, another starter and last years dark horse hitting machine, Radim Simek is still recovering from ACL surgery.  They have tried to backfill with a retread, Dalton Prout and a cast of not ready for prime time AHL players that are more suited to, well the AHL.

Pretty grim say you?  Maybe not, but it sure hasn’t felt like the Sharks were really in any of the first three games.  The new NHL has a very small margin for error on turnovers and a high speed transition game that is all the rage in the league. Quite frankly, it appears to be here to stay and the San Jose braintrust better figure out how to be more competitive.

Are you listening Doug Wilson?  Because the trend is loud and clear, ALL teams are going to be young and fast, pounce on rookie mistakes and make you pay.  There is a fine line between gambling in the offensive zone and being able to get back to help your goalie, and getting burned Brent Burns.

OK, now that I’ve bagged heavily on San Jose, its up to them to right the ship turn it around step up blah blah blah.  It doesn’t get any easier as the Sharks travel to Smashville to take on the Preds.

Since there aren’t any highlights yet this year, I’ll leave you with these two, greatest moments from last year.

Barclay Goodrow scores the biggest goal of his career to win Game 7 in OT!

EK’s biggest goal ever!