The Biggest problem the Sharks have is that they are Soft, and play Soft.
A 3-11 record against the top teams in Western Confernece and having a losing record against every division opponent is not exactly a glowing endorsement of the current regeme.

Add in coach Todd McLellan who has no clue as to what it means to play defense, a guy who changes lines more often then Ron Wilson (is that possible) and I see a team with no direction.

You have a captain who is one solid hit away from yet another injury, a defense with no solid defensemen and a team that is unable to make any significant moves because of the salary cap. How bad is it, they had to claim a player waived 3 times this year and who has played 8 years in the AHL 2 years in ECHL and 26 total games in the NHL as a 30 year old and that should tell you everything you need to know. It might be to early to panic, but the button is very close by.

Posted by FireToddMcLellan on 12/13/09 at 10:41 AM ET

Cannot agree with FireToddMcLellan

It’s Doug Wilson who is at fault for shelling out bad contracts to players such as Kent Huskins, and Rob Blake. Amazingly overpaying for Torrey Mitchell and Marc Edward Vlasic. And then forcing Todd to name Blake as captain. I blame Wilson for this mess.

He had Rivet and traded him, he had Campbell and could not resign him. He gave away Erhroff and Lukowich for nothing. He traded Matt Carle and Ty Wishart. Heck if you look at all the defensive players Wilson has gotten rid of you might be able to start an all star team

1. Campbell
2. Rivet
3. Hannan
4. Preissing
5. Carle
6. Erhroff
7. Lukowich
8. Gorges
9. Fahey
10. Wishart
11. Stuart
12. Davison

And this is just a partial list of the guys Wilson has gotten rid of during his tenure as GM. This from a GM who played defense and should know how to evaluate defenseman.

Now the Sharks weakest area is defense, here’s who Wilson has added

1. Boyle
2. Blake
3. Huskins
4. Leach

to replace those who he got rid of.  Now tell me again firetoddMclellan whos to blame. And isn’t Wilsons good buddy Trent Yawney?

Posted by Todd on 12/13/09 at 11:35 AM ET

Wait, I’m pretty sure Todd didn’t start at the beginning of this season…nice reporting David.

Posted by moore00 from Columbus, OH/Grand Rapids, MI on 12/13/09 at 01:33 PM ET

man,, i really hope that boyle is ok . HEs my 3rd pick in my pool

Posted by Luongo-is-my-hero on 12/13/09 at 06:10 PM ET

Todd:
The defense does seem to be a bit thin, for sure.  Injury to Boyle and we’re screwed.  The collective +/- of this defense is 18.  I agree, it’s not our strongest attribute.  Luckily, Demers has been a big surprise and Nabby has been pretty sharp for a majority of the games thus far (certainly had a few bad ones). 
Carle for Boyle was a pretty good trade-off I think.  We couldn’t logistically keep all those defensemen (although I would have kept Ehrhoff and not resigned Blake).  I agree he definitely overpaid for Huskins and Mitchell.  Maybe we overpaid a bit for Vlasic but that guy is really good defensively.  He’s got a huge amount of potential as well.  I do wish he was able to keep Rivet and not Blake.  I really don’t like Blake. 

I really can’t blame Wilson either.  Building a hockey team isn’t exactly easy.  Look how long it took the Red Wings to win their first cup of the modern NHL. Conference Finals in ‘87.  First divisional title in ‘88 then missed the playoffs in ‘89.  Two Stanley Cup finals six years later then finally won the cup in ‘97.  Took them ten years to win it with several core players.  It hasn’t been that long yet (Although, I think this is Wilson’s last season if the Sharks don’t at the ABSOLUTE LEAST reach the Conference finals.  I personally think he’ll be gone if they don’t reach the Cup finals.  It’s too bad, he’s a really good drafter.  3/4 of those defensemen listed are draft picks (I think).

I think the Sharks have given up all this future because of the noose tightening around Wilson’s neck.  If he kept this team the same all these years, he’d be put out to pasture by now.  It’s doesn’t matter what happens during the regular season for them anyways.  Make the playoffs and then we’ll go from there.  Let’s get all this crap out of our systems during the season.  Sometimes you’ve got to fail to succeed and they’ve failed pretty well so far the last few years .

All I’ve got is hope right now.  I stand by my team (just like everyone else does for theirs). 

PS: Welcome back, FireDougWilson… I mean, FireToddMcClellan.

Posted by Matt Fry from Winnipeg on 12/13/09 at 06:10 PM ET