Philly came to town Monday night and brought their A game to the Tank, exploding for four goals in the final frame to quickly erase a Sharks 2-1 lead for 5-2 victory.  Rookie Matt Nieto scored two goals in the first period staking Los Tiburones to a lead they ultimately would not hold onto.  The second unfolded with the Flyers turning up the pressure and hemming the Sharks in their own zone consistently but couldn’t put one past Niemi.  The Anti crumbled under the Flyers onslaught to start the third with a Matt Read knuckle ball that ramped up off of D man Matt Irwin’s stick and floated by Niemi.  A minute and eighteen seconds later Michael Raffi scored on a huge rebound off a shot by D man Eric Gustaffson to take the lead.  The Sharks appeared to be stunned and continued their somnambulance (sleepwalking for the uninitiated) when Claude Giroux fired in a laser off of a Matt Irwin neutral ice turnover, deflecting off of Niemi’s glove.  His night was finished and so were the Sharks who could mount nothing against a fired up Flyers team.

The loss continued a disturbing trend by San Jose lately of little or no scoring without Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl in the lineup and has to be a concern going into the last quarter of the season.  Joe Pavelski has been the most consistent scorer for the Sharks but they can’t rely on one guy for offense.  Another concern has to be Niemi who has been pulled several times this season and more often lately because of giving up goals on what appear to be savable shots.  If I had to pick a goat of the game it would be a tie between Irwin and Niemi as they both played like shit in the third.  Even worse, the Sharks standout defenseman Dan Boyle was -3 and has never really returned to form after recovering from a devastating hit early in the season by Maxim (the Prick) Pierre of the St. Louis Blues.  Oh well, all streaks come to an end as Philadelphia ended a fourteen YEAR losing streak against San Jose with a great game on Monday at the Tank.  Next up, the Dallas Stars, a streaky team at best who just shutout Anaheim on Monday.

Detroit came to town Thursday night and were left hanging their heads in defeat at the Tank, losing 4-1.  A voracious San Jose forecheck overwhelmed the Wings , especially in the second period when the Sharks tallied three times.  Once the Sharks were up by three in the third period, the dirty Wings showed their ugly faces and tried to intimidate them with cheap shots, slashes, elbows to the head, just old fashioned goonery.  Los Tiburones acquitted themselves admirably by standing up for their teammates and winning scrums, in general sending the message that they weren’t gonna take that shit no more.  Pavelski had two goals, Desjardin had a beauty and Niemi played brilliantly when he had to.  The lone bright spot for Detroit was Thomas Tatar, who had the only goal.  Tatar, a rookie from Slovakia has quite the offensive flair and stick handling wizardry reminiscent of Datsyuk.  Overall, a nice effort against a hated rival.

The two powerhouse teams in the East battle for supremacy tonight as the Pens and the BBBB (Big Bad Bruins of Boston) vie for the top seed in the East.  Both teams have great records, lots of scoring, great goalies and defense, and play an entertaining in your face skill style that just bowls me over.  Sid the Kid leads the league in scoring with 45 points, Tuuka Rask has a goals against of 1.96, Chara is as foreboding to play against as he ever was and Kris Letang has more points (26) than Malkin!  While the Bruins are known for their physical style of play and the Pens have skillz in abundance, both teams can turn the tables on their style of play.  David Krecji, Tyler Seguin, and Milan Lucic are as talented with the puck as the Pens stars and the Pittsburgh can bring the hurt when they get down in order to turn the tide.  As of the this writing the Bruins lead 2-0.

Out West, Chicago has finally lost a couple of games and Anaheim continues to surge, climbing in the power rankings to number one on NHL.com!  Yes, the fucking Ducks who didn’t make the playoffs last year are getting balanced scoring across all four lines, Sheldon Souray and Francois Beauchemin are playing like they’re on HGH, and they have two goalies who can steal a game, Jonas Hiller and Victor Fahst (1.92 GAA).  The usual suspects Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan are hot but they are getting contributions from two ex Sharks, Nick Bonino and Daniel Winnick chipping in with 10 and 12 points each from the the third line.  I must interject some snark as a Sharks fan because my team can’t score to save their lives and these two weren’t good enough to stay?  Just sayin……………..

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..

Hello hockey fans, welcome to the latest chapter of San Jose Sharks futility!  San Jose began the season on fire the first four games winning all of them by a good margin, the power play was clicking and Patrick Marleau scored nine goals in his first five games.  Oh for a return to the days of yore, when they could actually score a goal.  Since starting 7-0 the Sharks have lost six straight games because of… well several reasons.

It isn’t the penalty kill, they killed thirty six straight (yes I said 36 straight) before laying a huge egg in Columbus  last night, losing 6-2 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.  Again, I digress…. the problem is a power outage with very few goals scored despite stellar play from Anti Niemi and his backup Thomas Greise.  Beginning February 1 the Sharks have scored 10 goals in eight games with three coming against Chicago in one game.  They actually won two games of the eight scoring only two goals and winning in the shootout against Anaheim and Edmonton.   What is the answer?  Todd McLellan sure as hell doesn’t seem to know, calling out his team yesterday after losing to the Blue Jackets.  I say he doesn’t know because they followed the blowout with exactly the same level of play we have seen for the last 8 games. It would be understandable if they weren’t getting good looks at the net, outshooting and outchancing the opponent most nights.  Their big line has been scoring, they upgraded the defense with the addition of Brad Stuart but they just keep finding ways to lose.  Like losing to the backup Steve Mason in Columbus

Fucking maddening to watch, so ….. I think we’ll talk about Anaheim and their resurrected play to begin the season.  Their rookie goalie, Victor Fahst, has stolen several games for them, has 1.72 GAA and they lead the Pacific Division.  Bruce Boudreau has these guys playing out of their minds!  We’ll see if it lasts.  In the East, New Jersey is leading the conference with 8 wins and 19 points to start the season.  Led by the ageless wonder Martin Brodeur they continue to play tough, in your face, opportunistic hockey.  Toronto is a bit of a surprise, as they are fourth in the conference and right behind the Big Bad Bruins of Boston.  Comeon, alliteration rules right??!!  I know, I know but hey its my first blog of the season and I need to get warmed up too!  More to come, please come back..