Sleeksays

I owe you an apology Doug Wilson. We traded a #1 pick and Bernier for "the missing piece". Brian Campbell became the best D-man we ever had. He was going to lead us to the promised land. Then the playoffs began, I defended Campbell thinking he was injured when he just sucked and could not stand up to the rough play of the Calgary Flames. You wanted to go back to the East to be closer to your family when in reality you took the highest offer and took your spin-o-rama to Chicago. Can't blame you for taking that contract but F-you anyway. I am thinking what do we do now. We sign an "over the hill" Rob Blake..ok fine. Then 2 days later we trade Matt Carle, Ty Wishart, a #1 pick and a #4 pick for Dan Boyle. Are you out of your mind? 5 months later the Boyle trade looks like a steal. Boyle is a better D-man than Campbell at 500k cheaper. Boyle is the "point guard" for the Sharks, always knowing where everyone else is and controlling the PP. Than...

The Sharks 5-4 overtime win on Saturday night was an entertaining affair, with new defenseman Dan Boyle contributing to the game tying and game winning goals respectively. It was Boyle who fired 2 of the Sharks 5 shots in an earlier 5-on-3 man advantage, Boyle who split 2 Flyers and pulled up in front of a third to create the game tying goal sequence, and it was Boyle who drove the net in overtime and hammered home a hard feed from Thornton to give the Sharks a win and a 5-1 start on the season. The Flyers are a bit of a conundrum at this point. They have some injuries on defense, and they brought in a hulking Andrew Alberts from Boston who took a number of shifts, but they had more than enough opportunities to lock down a difficult road win. Instead they opted to go eye-for-eye, check-for-check with San Jose and they got burned. The physical element to the game kicked off early in the first period when defenseman Rob Blake checked Scott Hartnell hard into the post. It was a clean pla...

Opening night is always a fun time. It was a little subdued, no laser light show or other pre-game theatrics. Can anyone tell me where the Sharks head was? The players skating out without it was kinda weird. It was nice to see an unveiling of another division banner but that is not the banner that we want. The "new" style of play was pretty evident. Centers were driving toward the net and players seemed to be moving all the time. Somebody must of put a picture of Ron Wilson's face outside the crease as Patrick Marleau was actually seen in front of the net screening Giguere. The power play was generating scoring chance after scoring chance. Noticably absent from the half wall, Joe Thornton played more like a power forward. Last year it seems the power play was "let's get Joe the puck and let him create." Sure it is only one game but there was a decided effort to get the puck to the point and let Rob Blake fire away. Opposing defenses will have to s...

Anaheim Ducks (t-1st in west) at San Jose Sharks (t-1st in west) Winner of tonight�s game is on top of the west! Ah, the beauty of a new NHL season afoot, and what better way to kick it off than with a good ol� Battle of California (competitive version) ? Yeah, I know there were some "counting" games already played in Europe, and Ducks/Sharks is the only game on tonight's schedule without some version of national coverage, but I can�t care. Because tonight is Ducks-Sharks, one of my favorite matchups since the lockout. It's a measuring-stick game, a pride game, and an awesome way to start the NHL season (assuming the Sharks have paid their electricity bill this year) . To open this set of Gamedays and this NHL season, Mike Chen and I devised a little cross-state exercise. You know Mike, of course, from Battle of California, though I heard he has some side gig too . Anyways, instead of rehashing our own previews again, we instead decided to write about the oppositio...

Opening night is just around the corner and I find myself much more cautiously optimistic this season than last. Perhaps it's the coaching change or perhaps it's because last season felt like a genuine "lesson learned" type of thing that you have to fight through in order to achieve greatness (at least to me); whatever it is, my gut tells me that the inconsistencies and brain-fart moments won't be as commonplace for the Sharks this year. That being said, here's my collection of random not-so-bold predictions about certain players. I like to think they're educated guesses, and if you're cautiously optimistic like me, you're probably predicting similar things. Joe Thornton will break the 30-goal barrier. Hell, his coach already called him out on driving the net more and we've seen that he can score goals when Joe puts his mind to it. Also, he'll eclipse 90 assists again simply because he'll get more offensive help from the blueline on the...