Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Hello Pacific Division

After playing their first 11 games versus non-division opponents, the Sharks will play their next 12 within the Pacific Division. The month of November could be very important to this team. Will another inconsistent month put coach Ron Wilson on the hot seat? Everyone knows there is a certain shelf-life for coaches. Have the Sharks started to tune out their coach? Their last 2 performances seemed to be lifeless with many of the players blaming themselves but could there be rumblings in the locker room?

With injuries to Rob Davison (finger) and Ryane Clowe (leg), the Sharks have decided to bring up highly touted former 1st round draft picks Devin Setoguchi and Lukas Kaspar. Setoguchi appeared to make the team out of training camp but a nagging ankle injury forced him to start the season in Worcester. Hopefully these 2 youngsters bring some energy and life to the lineup. Look for both of them to be in the lineup versus Dallas on Monday. This will be the Sharks 3rd game in 4 nights and the last game of a 4 game road trip so we shall see what kind of energy they bring to the game after 2 horrible performances. This game will end their month of October where they saw themselves playing only 3 home games compared to 10 road games (which is not necessarily a bad thing considering the Sharks strong road record and mediocre home record).

6 comments:

Megalodon said...

I definitely think Ron Wilson is in trouble. It may not be fair to him, but one of the jobs of a coach is to motivate, and for some reason this team just does NOT seem motivated.

Team-building exercises are not what this team needs. They need more guys like Setoguchi and Kaspar who will play hard every night to stay in the big leagues. It's unfortunate that Clowe and Davison iare out, since I definitely don't think either of them have been a major problem so far. But of course, I don't really want to blame Thornton either, and it's not Nabokov's fault, and there's certainly nothing wrong with Douglas Murray...we're running out of players to blame, and there's a LOT of blame to go around. It can't all be Marleau and Cheechoo, can it?

Megalodon said...

Also, the Sharks have played the fewest home games of any team except for New Jersey, who have been on the road waiting for their new arena to be ready. However, I hardly think they can use this as an excuse. With the players they have, they should be getting it done no matter the building.

Mike Chen said...

You know, if the Sharks win in Dallas tomorrow, they'll finish October 6-5-1. That's not THAT terrible. It could be worse.

RudyKelly said...

You need guys with heart? How about ridding yourselves of that loafer Steve Bernier for a gritty veteran like Brian Willsie? He had a career-high 19 goals two years ago.

Mike said...

Good try, RK.

I actually think that the roster changes due to injury could actually energize the team with new blood. It was good to see Rivet call out the team in the Mercury News yesterday, and we'll see if they respond.

Or, it could crash and burn and the Sharks could use the injuries as yet another excuse to lose.

Anonymous said...

The record isn't really the problem, it is the multiple games where they haven't even shown up to play. I hope this turns out more like Ottawa last year - now is not the time to change coaches, if they were going to do that it was May.

I am just sick and tired of hearing the same quotes from the players so yes, Rivet is a breathe of fresh air.

Cheechew - great to have a regular contributor from the Sharks - love this blog anyways but nice to finally hear about the other team in this battle!