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" - Frank Sinatra"
San Jose, CA • United States • 33 Years Old • Male
mark.freitas
*UPDATE
Rookie winger Devin Setoguchi sent back to Worcester of the AHL. The Sharks want him to keep playing but he has not been good lately and was a healthy scratch in the last game.

It has been hard getting back into the swing of things, but I have managed. Tonight the Sharks face off against the Blues in St. Louis. Things have been nothing but good for the Sharks on the road, leading some fans to believe they should have to stay in a hotel on nights before home games. Rumor talk has livened up again as the trade freeze has melted away. This mornings rumor is that the Pens are interested in Cheechoo's services. I believe Cheech will get to spend some time on the top line to see if they can get him going before anything comes of any Cheechoo rumors. I am going to post my end of 07' evaluation tomorrow. It will be a breakdown of everyone on the current roster and will look at their performances thus far. I am not a big stats guy but they do say something, so I am giving their best stat and worst stat and then a brief evaluation of their contributions so far. Be sure to check it out!

On to tonights game.

The Sharks and Blues meet tonight for the first time this season. Paul Kariya and former Shark Brad Boyes lead the Blues forwards in points and have been great this season. Boyes is looking to have a career best year notching 21 goals in his first 34 games, he has only been over 20 one other season and that was in his best NHL season with the Bruins in 05-06 when he scored 26 and had 69 points in his only complete NHL season. The Blues have been good at home (11-6-2 ) unlike the Sharks and will be looking to put aside last games 5-0 loss to Detroit.

The Sharks have just been another team on the road. All of their most complete efforts have come in games away from the Tank. The team almost looks to be on a mission playing a great brand of shutdown hockey in opponents buildings, too bad only half of the games are on the road. San Jose is coming off a win in Los Angeles after dropping three straight at home. The Sharks will look to do what they have done in nearly every road game and that is get the early lead. Michalek is coming off a 2 goal game and I had said a few blogs ago he was just one 2 goal game away from blowing up, in a good way, lets see if I was right.

Keys to the Game......

*Score early and first. The Sharks have been amazing on the road when they score first, lets see that trend continue. St. Louis has .900 win % when leading after the first period this season, do not get behind. Especially with the way San Jose has played in second periods this season!

*Do not get caught standing and watching. Boyes and Kariya are not the only threats on this team. The Blues have 5 players over 20 points.....Kariya (31), Boyes (30), Tkachuk (29), Stempniak and newly aquired Andy McDonald both at 21.

*Solid defense will win this game. If you think the Sharks do not shoot enough, St. Louis fans will hear non of it, the Blues are at the bottom of the league in shots per game (25.0).

Everyone enjoy tonights game and have a great day! Thanks for reading!

Mark
Filed Under:   Sharks   Blues   Keys to the Game  
December 28, 2007 2:18 PM ET | Delete
It's about time Gooch got benched, he has looked like he has his head in the clouds for a while now.Hopefully they bring in Curtis Brown to replace him, the Sharks need a real team guy out on the ice that will leave it all out there. Sounds like Curtis Brown to me.
December 28, 2007 5:59 PM ET | Delete
Great read once again. Gooch needs time to play still, simple enough. I would love to see Brown in there, but we all would.
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