Kukla's Korner Hockey
Sharks Need Both Depth & Heart
by Paul on 09/30/09 at 10:01 AM ET
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from Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle,
The Sharks were exposed last season as a team with insufficient depth and insufficient heart. As much as savaging Marleau, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski might have sustained the angry fan base during the six-game drain-piping by Anaheim, the more profound structural problems had to do with the lack of roster options for head coach Todd McLellan.
Put simply, the second, third and fourth lines and the third defense pairing were persistent non-producers that had to play because the franchise’s minor-league team in Worcester had no storehouse of NHL-ready-to-wear players. Thus, non-producers and injured players played anyway, and as the season progressed, the erosion became a major obstacle to playoff success.
Sure, the underachievements of Nabokov, Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, et al., hurt to the point where you end up with an offseason of doubt, recrimination and blame delegations that only the Warriors could truly appreciate.
Filed in: NHL Teams, San Jose Sharks | KK Hockey | Permalink
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