San Jose, CA

Patrick Marleau honored for joining the 500 goals club at the Tank.

Hey good morning all, thank God its over.  The mandatory break for the Sharks, and the rain and carnage too!  A shoutout to all the men and women who worked their asses off in the Nor Cal storms to keep your roads, power, phones and homes safe during the 100 year flood.

Now to the hockey stuff and there’s a  lot to get to.  Say what you want about Patrick Marleau, all I know is he’s joined an exclusive club, The 500 Goal Club.  Add to that 65 goals and 131 total points in the playoffs and I would say he qualifies for the Hall of Fame.

The ceremony at the Tank was a bit cheesy and then the Sharks put up a stinker, losing to the Panthers 6-5.  To be fair, they did come back in the 3rd period on some Captain America (Joe Pavelski) goals, ultimately losing to Jaromir Jagr and his mates in OT.

Faceoff at the Tank on Patty Marleau’s 500 night.

Since that night, the Sharks have retained their first place standing, but have lost some heartbreakers including Sunday night against Boston in OT when Brad Marchand scored on a beautiful breakaway beating Martin Jones 5 hole.  Actually, in the month of February they lost in OT to Arizona, Buffalo (particularly ugly after leading 4-1), Philly and then got smacked around in Boston losing 6-3.  All four teams currently OUT of the playoffs.

I digress, in other news there’s some great teams out there right now including the Caps, the Hawks, Minnesota and of course the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.  When your team is on a break, watch other teams, get the whole smorgasbord, learn who to fear and who to call out as pretenders, Columbus, Anahymen, St Louis I’m talkin to youse.

Random observations from said perusal:  Connor McDavid is the real deal, leading the league in scoring with 69 points, Brent Burns in 3rd place at 64.  Washington Capitals are well balanced offensively, defensively and in goal, scary good.  Watching the Oilers vs Caps last night, thinkin that maybe the LA Queens are missing Justin William’s 19 goals and 35 points and are a worse team without him. In the West, Minnesota under C Bruce Boudreau are playing out of there minds, leading the Central with a +60 goal differential with the Hawks on their heels.

Patrick Kane’s hat trick against the Coyotes was nice to watch and as usual Chicago has an embarrassment of riches in the forward dept.  Sidney Crosby leading the league in goals, and G Matt Murray is repeating his domination from last year’s Cup win.  Toronto is in a playoff spot with all their amazingly skilled kids like Austin Matthews, Mitch Marner and a resurgent Nazim Kadri.  Is he Muslim?  I’ll sic the Hater in Chief on him.  Wait wait, he’s Canadian he’s safe.

Despicable.

Last quarter of the season left, 22 games to make their push, keep watching.  Its been another great season and we are trending towards an amazing playoff season.  Go Sharks!!

Sharkhead.