The Sharks and Blackhawks faced off in United Center last night and the results weren’t pretty for San Jose as they fell for their seventh consecutive loss after starting 7-0.  The offense was woeful and they consistently put themselves behind the eight ball with penalties as the Hawks made them pay, winning 4-1.  The Sharks were 0-4 on the power play and a decent 4-5 on the PK but Chicago’s offensive talent clearly outclassed a beleaguered San Jose squad with a relentless onslaught of quality chances.  Newcomer Tim Kennedy scored the only goal  for the Sharks on a nifty move to beat Ray Emery, hopefully he can inject some life into the moribund team.  The Sharks have scored twelve goals in eight games after scoring 23 in 5 to start the season.  Look for the death watch to begin for T Mac….

The Ducks continue to surge (gag me), beating the Dead Things 5-2.  They are getting balanced scoring from all lines and their rookie Swedish goalie Victor Fahst is a smoking 7-0..  The Western Conference is jam packed with several teams within a point of each other, with five points separating 7 teams, making it tough to declare a clear leader in the conference. Besides Chicago.. The Stanley Cup champs are mired in 12th place, having a similar problem as the Sharks, scoring goals.

In the East, the usual suspects are in the top eight with a few surprises including Toronto and the Habs doing well to start the season.  Three playoff teams from a year ago are on the outside looking in Philly, Florida and Washington.  For the Flyers, it is the inevitable goalie bugaboo and for the Panthers the same could be said also.  Washington got off to a horrible start under new coach Adam Oates and has played a little better of late but they still grace the bottom of the standings.  More to come..