Sleeksays

The big story today seems to be the whole Todd McLellan vs. Mike Babcock sub-plot (I was going to do an Obi-Wan/Darth Vader Photoshop of the two with the "When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master," line but I ran out of time) but that whole thing doesn't really mean that much to me. I mean, these guys are professionals and they knew that some day this was probably going to happen. My bigger focus is on seeing how the Sharks compare as a whole to the Wings. Like it or not, the god damn Red Wings have been the measuring stick for the league since the mid-90s (give or take a few seasons), and the emphasis is even higher now that they're defending champs. Holding Sidney Crosby and company to just a handful of shots showed that the Sharks were ready to put forth a strong defensive effort against an elite opponent, but I got the sense that the Penguins were off their game on Tuesday. I doubt I'm the only one who thought that the whole game was pretty ...

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.

(Said in my best Tim Gunn voice) Many goals. Not so many games. That's not good. While I still feel like there are a number of things to feel really good about with the Sharks, some of the more significant problems are coming to the forefront. Only one of them is a carryover from the Ron Wilson Sharks (which is kinda strange when you think about it considering the makeup of the team); fortunately, they're all kinks that can be worked on if both the coaches and the players are smart about it. 1) Penalty kill: Get the puck out of the zone. Please. Sweet jebus. Didn't we see this enough from Ron's Sharks, especially in the playoffs? Maybe Todd McLellan needs to have an entire practice session focused on effectively clearing the puck using the glass rather than dumping it right to the freakin' point man. 2) Odd-man breakdowns: Ok, I get that we're all trigger happy now with this active defense system. That's good stuff, but please, people, how about we take it o...

Oh, wait! This team is only "mostly dead". Wow. What a fucking game! Who would have guessed that I could attend a Ducks/Sharks game where Joe Thornton fought but Jody Shelley wouldn't? Great work by Steve Montador and Brad May in each instance. Add in a Giguere shutout and a Pahlsson out-of-the-box breakaway goal (plus I didn't lose my wallet) , and guess what I'm feeling? Some goddamn positivity! Go Ducks.

Only had a few minutes in the third period to take photos, but here are a couple shots from the game. A few more notes and photos from Tuesday night are here .

It's kind of weird being a Kings' fan these days because we don't really have a rival right now. I guess the Kings' biggest rival is either AEG or one another. Still, that doesn't mean I don't hate other teams in the Pacific: there's the Ducks and Corey Perry, the Stars and their triple axis of tools (Morrow, Ott, Avery) , and the Coyotes and Olli Jokinen's baby head. But I was watching the Sharks-Ducks game last night and I came away thinking 2 things: one, the Sharks looked pretty good, and two, I hate them more than I hate the Ducks. As someone who has hated the Ducks most since they came into the league, this shocked me. I... don't like you? I've always either ignored or privately admired the Sharks for their plucky can-do attitude, but this new incarnation sickens me. There are the obvious reasons: Rob Blake and Jeremy Roenick are dicks, Jonathan Cheechoo is a huge douche bag*, Milan Michalek is a little bitch, etc. but I think it go...

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...