San Jose Sharks vs Pittsburgh Penguins photos

Underwhelmed to put it mildly with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the tank. Thornton and Marleau turned in a dominant performance defensively as well as offensively, and Marleau and Setoguchi were really exploding on the back check to chase down plays. More photos and notes from the game here. Detroit returns tonight.

Measuring Stick #1: Pittsburgh

During the Stanley Cup Final, my wife was watching a game with me and after several Sidney Crosby shifts, she turned to me and said, "Why don't ANY of the Sharks skate like that?"

Yes, dear, that's a very good question. One of the things that I've been very impressed with so far under new coach Todd McLellan is the fact that the Sharks are constantly moving their feet. It's no longer shuffle in the neutral zone, coast in the offensive zone; instead, it's go-go-go pretty much all the time. I don't know if it's a homer bias or what, but the other teams I see on Center Ice look slow compared to the Sharks, and I know it's not because they lack natural skating ability. It's all about the system.

Speed = good. Go-go-go = good (for the most part; gotta work on choosing when to pinch in so we don't get those crazy odd-man rushes). And that brings us to tonight's game against NHL Golden Child Sidney Crosby.

While the Red Wings are probably the measuring stick for team play (oh hey, they're in town on Thursday), I'm personally looking forward to seeing how the Sharks individually size up to Crosby's work ethic. The thing that makes it hard (at least for me) to dislike the guy is that he always looks like he's working hard, doing little things like taking that extra stride to get back on the backcheck or burst through a pair of defensemen. He doesn't give up on the play, and when you combine that with talent, it's quite a sight to see.

Ok, it sounds like I'm gushing about Crosby right now, but I'm really not. I'm just stating why I couldn't answer that question my wife asked me all those months ago. And I think I'm seeing more of that in San Jose's game so far this season. Let's see how guys like Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton compare in a face-to-face showdown.

By the way, I was totally wrong about my Steven Stamkos prediction. I must have given too much credit to Barry Mullet.

Kopitar Week: Where He Stands

Kopitar is a pretty awesome dude, but how awesome is he? To be honest, I don't have a well-formulated opinion on the matter. I'm inclined to believe Kopitar is the fifth best young player in the league, behind Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Evgeni Malkin. (There is no fourth because those three are way above everyone else.) Kopitar's great and I think he'd get a lot more dap if we wasn't the same age as those above three. I think most people think Jonathan Toews will be better than Kopitar because he's... Canadian, but I don't agree. I'm biased though, so let's hear what you guys think. Here's a list of 10 players:

Jonathan Toews
Steve Stamkos
Sidney Crosby
Alexander Ovechkin
Evgeni Malkin
Anze Kopitar
Nicklas Backstrom
Patrick Kane
Kyle Turris
Jordan Staal (teehee)

Put them in order. Help me get an idea where Kopitar stands.*

*Please try to refrain from pointing out that I obviously forgot about (x) and how I'm a complete idiot for doing so. And if we keep one NHL argument from devolving into a Crosby v. Ovechkin donnybrook that'd be great.

***

How Kopitar does next season will be interesting. The Kings should hopefully have a more defensive scheme so Kopitar could possibly see a reduction in points. But he'll be better, so he could see an increase in points. I think a successful season for Kopitar will be 80+ points with a ppg of over 1. If he plays with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan all season, I think 90+ isn't out of the question. The only thing I can guarantee is that Anze will be awesome and I will gush about him like Earl Sleek at a Jonas Brothers' concert.

Battle of the Stanley Cup box office blockbusters

Detroit Free Press art director Rick Nease sent this Stanley Cup box office poster parody to the Sports Designer blog. "Extinction is just a goal away", a truely inspired tagline.



Pittsburgh Post-Gazette designer Ben Howard was responsible for this Indiana Jones-Sidney Crosby takeoff. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one of the most bizarre sequels ever to come out of Hollywood. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted to make a sequel to the X-Files and National Treasure, but with Harrison Ford and the Indiana Jones franchise they made Crystal Skull instead. 124 minutes of my life I will never get back.

Movie equivalent for the Sharks failed Stanley Cup run this season: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The 1972 film written and directed by eccentric filmmaker Werner Herzog featured Spanish conquistadores in a brutal and grueling quest down the untamed Amazon river in search of the legendary city of gold. The quest does not turn out well, and many of the soliders end up on a raft floating aimlessly towards nowhere.

Nominate your films for the Ducks and Kings seasons in the comments.



[Update] We Bleed Teal noted earlier that Ryane Clowe was a "monster" in front of the net against Calgary. A Cloweverfield monster.

Sharks Forced to Play Home Games

Now we will see if the Sharks have finally turned the corner or will the season of inconsistency continue. After a 10 game road winning and compiling a ridiculous 16-3-2 road record overall, the Sharks come home for 14 home games in the next 18 games. Can they continue to play the patient style that has worked so well on the road? If you listen to Ron Wilson, his reasoning for the Sharks shaky home record is that they want to entertain us the fans and if something doesn't go right, they fall apart and put pressure on themselves to do more. I don't see a big difference in style of play between the road and home, but the players themselves seem to think they relax on the road and play a simple game. This is an important stretch of games as when this stretch is over, there will be 10 days left till the trade deadline. If the Sharks continue this inconsistency, moves will be expected. There are only so many "team meetings" that can be called and Doug Wilson can only talk to the players so many times. It is up to the players now.

Random Thoughts:

-The Winter Classic was a fun event to watch. Too bad the conditions didn't help out the players. Towards the end of the game players seemed to be pushing the puck as snow flurries made stick handling difficult unless you are Sidney Crosby. Is this kid really only 20 years old?

-The Sabres need to bring back their old "retro" jerseys (hint to the Sharks also). I kept expecting Pat LaFontaine to skate out there.

-The Red Wings are playing great (even without Zetterberg) I don't see anyone catching them for the President's Trophy. Watching their Power Play looks like they have a 2 man advantage all the time.

-Ducks traded Shane Hnidy for Brandon Bochenski. Does this clear room for the return of Teemu?

I am not a capologist so I will leave that last point to Earl Sleek to tell us if that does anything to clear cap space.

Ducks Gameday—I used to not care about Sidney Crosby

Now I hate the guy.

Tuesday night's Ducks game at St. Louis will begin at 5:30 p.m. (PST). However, because of the exclusive rights window owned by Versus on Tuesday evening, the game will be joined in progress on KDOC at 6 p.m.

No other regional broadcasts can be in progress opposite the Versus telecast of Pittsburgh vs. New York Rangers.

Listen, normally I don't give a fuck how much Crosby or Ovechkin the league wants to sell me. I don't care how much Versus tells me how much I gotta love Brodeur, Miller, and Lundqvist.

But I'm not going to bite. I'm a western conference fan, dammit—tell me exactly why it matters to me what goes on in the east? There's 15 teams out east-side that are being measured on their own separate standings-board that we rarely interact with; they are for the most part inconsequential to me (until, say, the Cup Finals or something).

Of course I'll watch eastern games when there's no games in the west, but mostly with disinterest; I'm rarely pulling for any particular outcome. Blame the schedule, or blame me the stupid shortsighted fan, but don't forcefeed me, dammit. If I want to watch Crosby and Jagr, I'll find the damn channel. Preventing me from watching the game I want to watch is flat-out stupid.

Sure there's probably contract language that's gotta be worked out, but for sure somebody dropped the ball here. Hell, the Ducks even threw their first watch party of the year for a game they couldn't air the first twelve minutes of. And for that, I say, "Sorry, Sid, but get the fuck out of my face."

p.s. Doubly irritating is the fact that I spent the entire 30-minute "Sid-out" watching the Leafs play the Thrashers. For sure they would not pull this shit off in Canada, but yeah, go ahead and piss off the Cali fans.

Ducks Game Day: Battle of the Birds

Pittsburgh Penguins (7-4-0, 8th in East) at Anaheim Ducks (10-0-4, 1st in West)

Ladies, make sure you leave a can of pepper spray in the shower, ‘cause Sidney Crosby’s comin’ to town, and he has lost all sense of personal space. He and the rest of Pittsburgh’s baby geniuses and their 4-1 road record are comin’ to Honda Center to try to take two points from stingy Anaheim.

Key stat: This will be Anaheim’s 11th game out of 15 playing against an opponent who missed last year’s playoffs. Thus far the Ducks are 8-0-2 in this scenario, outscoring opponents 32-20.

Crazily enough, this is Pittsburgh’s first [edit: second] game against Anaheim since December 15, 2002, in a game that featured four current Ducks and zero current Penguins. J.S. Giguere stopped 19 shots and Andy McDonald had two goals in a 5-0 win. Stan Chistov played for Anaheim and Ian Moran played for Pittsburgh (though neither of them has suited up for Anaheim yet this year).

As such, Anaheim and Pittsburgh don’t have too much history to draw on, except on the matter of the 2005 draft, where down to the wire Pittsburgh won the Crosby-lottery-ball pick ahead of Anaheim. At any rate, the team’s leading scorers and probably its featured matchup:

Sidney Crosby (18 pts. in 11 games) and Evgeni Malkin (11 pts. in 7 games).
Chris Pronger (13 pts. in 14 games) and Scott Niedermayer (12 pts. in 14 games).

Prediction: 4-2 Anaheim. Penner, Perry, Pronger, and Pahlsson put pucks past the Pittsburgh Penguins’ poor phenom.