A New Low
Posted 2:37 AM ET | Comments 1
We're finally seeing some consistency out of the Sharks this season, unfortunately it's not the kind of consistency we expected from this team going into the year. The Sharks faced the Los Angeles Kings for the third time at home this season, and the Kings came away with two points once again. Losing two in a row to the Kings at home at this point in the season is not a good sign.
The Sharks came out of the gate really slowly this season, but had managed to bounce back from bad losses to hover around the .500 mark for the season. I fully expected the Sharks to come out firing after a bad loss to the Kings on Saturday night and blow the Kings out 4-1 tonight. I thought tonight would be the night Marleau breaks out of his slump and Cheechoo picks up a garbage goal.
I get to the rink and see Rob Davison starting at wing. I'd like to know what Ron Wilson was thinking. Rob Davison, seriously?! 166 career games, 2 career goals. This is a team desperately in need of an offensive spark, and you start a guy with 2 career goals at forward? The Sharks have scored 60 goals in 23 games this year.
You have to start to wonder if this team really has what it takes to compete this year. Jonathan Cheechoo has obviously been figured out and can't be counted on to be even a 20 goal scorer anymore. They're a defensively sound team, giving up about 2 goals a game. If you told me the Sharks would have a GAA below 2.4 this year, I'd put my money on them running away with the conference.
Set your offensive lines, run with it for a few games, and tweak a little bit when necessary. Don't change the lines up every shift.
I was happy to see Thornton finally looking to shoot more tonight; after all, he is leading the team in goals this year.
If the Sharks were winning game in and game out, we'd be cautioning that the regular season means nothing if the Sharks can't grind out a seven game series in the playoffs. There's obviously still time to turn this around, and these games that they are losing now really won't matter if they get hot in May. They need to play well enough to get into the playoffs at around the 6 seed. It is time to start asking if this a slump, or a reality. The garbage goals aren't coming and this team just doesn't have the players who can finish and earn goals. Michalek and Roenick are really the only guys who are true goal scorers. Setoguchi will be, but can't be counted on to consistently put the puck in the net as a rookie.
Thornton and Marleau are pass first kind of players. Grier, Brown, Goc, and Rissmiller are all defensive forwards. Pavelski will can set up quality goal-scorers, but there's a shortage of those in the Shark Tank. Cheechoo's a non-factor if other teams keep him out of the slot. Bernier has yet to back to his rookie form.
You look at the stats through 23 games and the only guys with more than 5 goals are Thornton, Roenick, Michalek, and Setoguchi. It's time to wake up and realize this team will not compete come may as it is now.
The Sharks came out of the gate really slowly this season, but had managed to bounce back from bad losses to hover around the .500 mark for the season. I fully expected the Sharks to come out firing after a bad loss to the Kings on Saturday night and blow the Kings out 4-1 tonight. I thought tonight would be the night Marleau breaks out of his slump and Cheechoo picks up a garbage goal.
I get to the rink and see Rob Davison starting at wing. I'd like to know what Ron Wilson was thinking. Rob Davison, seriously?! 166 career games, 2 career goals. This is a team desperately in need of an offensive spark, and you start a guy with 2 career goals at forward? The Sharks have scored 60 goals in 23 games this year.
You have to start to wonder if this team really has what it takes to compete this year. Jonathan Cheechoo has obviously been figured out and can't be counted on to be even a 20 goal scorer anymore. They're a defensively sound team, giving up about 2 goals a game. If you told me the Sharks would have a GAA below 2.4 this year, I'd put my money on them running away with the conference.
Set your offensive lines, run with it for a few games, and tweak a little bit when necessary. Don't change the lines up every shift.
I was happy to see Thornton finally looking to shoot more tonight; after all, he is leading the team in goals this year.
If the Sharks were winning game in and game out, we'd be cautioning that the regular season means nothing if the Sharks can't grind out a seven game series in the playoffs. There's obviously still time to turn this around, and these games that they are losing now really won't matter if they get hot in May. They need to play well enough to get into the playoffs at around the 6 seed. It is time to start asking if this a slump, or a reality. The garbage goals aren't coming and this team just doesn't have the players who can finish and earn goals. Michalek and Roenick are really the only guys who are true goal scorers. Setoguchi will be, but can't be counted on to consistently put the puck in the net as a rookie.
Thornton and Marleau are pass first kind of players. Grier, Brown, Goc, and Rissmiller are all defensive forwards. Pavelski will can set up quality goal-scorers, but there's a shortage of those in the Shark Tank. Cheechoo's a non-factor if other teams keep him out of the slot. Bernier has yet to back to his rookie form.
You look at the stats through 23 games and the only guys with more than 5 goals are Thornton, Roenick, Michalek, and Setoguchi. It's time to wake up and realize this team will not compete come may as it is now.
Very nicely put. We hit hit on all those things in the talkcast last night and had the same feelings. Good job and a very well written piece. There will be moves, mark my words !