Petshark: Talking Stick
The drawing board
by petshark on 04/19/12 at 01:59 PM ET
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As others have pointed out, Winchester and Handzus may play today instead of Galiardi and Moore. Seems like the Sharks roster is back where it started before moving McGinn…except for not having McGinn anymore. I hope they aren’t taking everything back to the drawing board. I know I wanted them to throw their keys in the river but I didn’t mean parachute into Antarctica to do it and hope to find your way back by puck drop.
Mark Purdy wrote a piece about Thornton returning to the penalty kill, saying that Moore has been a disappointment after being acquired for that. He didn’t mention that it’s hardly ideal to rely on someone who’s wearing a cage anyway. I know a player can play with a cage but I still wouldn’t call him exactly a “healthy scratch” if he has to wear one.
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Tags: Brad+Winchester, Daniel+Winnik, Dominic+Moore, Joe+Thornton, Michal+Handzus, TJ+Galiardi,
NHL justice howling at the moon
by petshark on 04/18/12 at 11:00 AM ET
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“We’ve unmasked madmen, Watson, wielding scepters. Reason run riot. Justice howling at the moon.” -Sherlock Holmes, Murder by Decree
Last night Raffi Torres nearly broke Marian Hossa’s neck. Maybe he did break it. It was an escalation of violence in a series that seems to have more injuries than the much talked about Philadelphia-Pittsburgh series. I say “seems” because I don’t believe Giroux, Schenn and Couturier have all avoided injury. They all had head injuries this season, I don’t believe they all got out of that unscathed. But we know that Hanzal and Hossa have both been seriously injured, while others missed games or parts of games with injuries, and probably some are playing injured as you find on all teams. But this situation is not normal like you find on all teams. It’s as if the Shaw incident was not definitive enough, people could not agree that he should have or could have avoided hitting Smith. Torres cleared that up.
Who is responsible for the escalating level of underhanded viciousness we are seeing in round one of the 2012 NHL playoffs? Who can stop it? Do we want to?
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Tags: Department+of+Player+Safety, disciplne, headshots, Marian+Hossa, Raffi+Torres,
St Louis @ San Jose, WCQF Game 3: Mirror mirror
by petshark on 04/17/12 at 03:59 AM ET
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I used to think I was a jinx. It’s a suspicion that still pops into my head now and again. Like tonight. Tonight I did something I have never done before: left a Sharks game before the final horn. I have never walked out on a game… except once, but that was football and I hate football, it was miserable weather, the seats were horribly uncomfortable… and I hate football. But I’ve never left a hockey game before.
It wasn’t because the players were standing around looking like they were going to start fighting, which I figured would be followed by nothing but five more disappointing minutes of failure. No, I had started thinking about leaving before that, and not because they were losing 4-1 or I thought I wanted to get a jump on the traffic. A few minutes either way makes no difference to my drive, and it isn’t like me to walk out when things look dire.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Brent+Burns, Colin+White, hockey+fan, jinx, keys, supersition,
Focus if you can, Game 3 tonight
by petshark on 04/16/12 at 06:39 PM ET
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It felt uncomfortably warm in San Jose, even before noon. After the dramatic storms seen here during Game 1 and in St. Louis for Game 2, a windless warm day seems ominous. It’s hard-to-breathe weather. Or maybe it’s just me.
Looking back to those last regular season games against the LA Kings, it sure looks like the Kings won by losing. We’ve only had the two games so far, but it feels like the Sharks are so far behind already.
Todd McLellan hasn’t said he will change the lineup for tonight’s game, but Kevin Kurz tweeted that Colin White left the ice early. I saw some fan tweets during and after Saturday’s game saying White could be an option if the Sharks anticipated any more fighting. I’m not sure I follow that. I remember a game where McGinn said he jumped in so White would not have to fight. I’m sure he can do it but I don’t think it’s his thing anymore. More likely, McLellan felt that the Demers-Braun pair was overwhelmed. I’m not sure I believe White will be an improvement there but who knows. Maybe Murray will come out. I don’t think that’s likely, I don’t like what it would imply, but it could happen.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Brad+Winchester, Colin+White, focus, Mike+Moore, playoffs,
About last night…
by petshark on 04/15/12 at 02:30 PM ET
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So I spent two days running to and from home to the hospital and back again, carrying dogs and dispensing pills to one of those dogs and doing other stuff people can’t do when they’re having a baby, and wondering and worrying and asking wrong questions to doctors and then deciding I should stop speaking before I freak my brother and his wife out in their time of happy panic. I even forgot to write about the Flyers on Sharks game day and then I spilled makeup on my Sharks jersey. Maybe the stained jersey can be the memento of the kid’s birthday in lieu of a nice win from the Sharks.
So that’s all over, at least the part that is the most dangerous thing a person can do that isn’t considered a medical disorder or suicidal. About the time Jack was being born, Pickles and Nemo were collaborating to score the game’s first goal. It’s okay to call him Pickles if you’re mad at him, right Clowe? Do we have a special name for Nemo? Come on guys, I’m trying to train a little fan here!
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: fighting, Joe+Pavelski, penalties, playoffs, St+Louis+Blues,
The storm front: pregame thoughts for San Jose @ St. Louis, Game 2
by petshark on 04/14/12 at 01:00 PM ET
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Northern California got some rain and fireworks for Game 1 in St. Louis. I think we even had tornadoes. Apparently it’s St. Louis’ turn today, so both teams get to hear and feel the thunder. To survive this one, the Sharks will need to do more than prove they are hard to drown. That surprised the Blues once, it won’t work again.
Nothing ever turns out quite the way you expect, even when it’s the predicted outcome. David Pollak wrote:
The boss gave me the green light before the series started to book flights for Game 5 because I found a fairly decent air fare. Now the only way that ticket goes to waste is if the Sharks sweep. -Working the Corners
There are two predictions that I find odd: predicted sweeps and predicted seven-game series. The one claims there will be total dominance and the other claims there will be next to none. So to me, predicting a seven-game series and still choosing a winner is like not choosing at all. (For reasons I may get into later, I’m in a babbling mood right now, so this may go all over the place. Apologies. )
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Antti+Niemi, Kent+Huskins, playoff, predictions, St+Louis+Blues,
Let’s get it going
by petshark on 04/12/12 at 11:30 AM ET
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In the last couple of hours before the game started, there were tweets about cooking, wanting to puke, trouble breathing, and countless calls to “drop the puck already!” After a busy day I was able to engage in some nervous house tidying and, after all those tweets about cooking, I had to make some food. I put Darla’s orange collar on but had to stop myself before changing Marleau’s to teal. No need, it was just Wednesday.
Sharks fans had to wait an extra day for the playoffs to start, or that’s how it feels anyway. Through all that waiting I still couldn’t make any sense of the noise, the predictions, the hype. It’s nerve-wracking, I can’t imagine how fans do it for more than one sport.
“Everybody looks good and looks healthy,” Joe Thornton said. “Let’s get it going.” -Working the Corners
I couldn’t agree more.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Joe+Thornton, playoffs, Ryane+Clowe, Saint+Joseph, Saint+Louis,
Experienced?
by petshark on 04/10/12 at 10:00 PM ET
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The Sharks used two sheets of ice today, skated for well over an hour. Mitchell practiced on the third line without sharing the spot with Handzus. Evidently he suffered no ill effects from yesterday’s practice. Clowe was still out, which is alarming despite the assurances that he will be fine for Game 1. When teams start using playoff-speak, I need to see with my own eyes to believe.
That Brian Elliott was injured in practice has most people thinking Halak will start for the Blues. Since they traded Bishop away, they don’t have an experienced NHL backup. I don’t think it matters a lot unless Elliott’s injury is a lot more severe than anyone thinks.
I keep hearing predictions that say the Sharks have more recent playoff experience than the Blues, but the Blues will win the series anyway. Pshaw. If the Sharks can beat the Blues even once, why not four times? I want to look at the other, more verifiable claim: that the Sharks have more playoff experience than the Blues have and this matters. I know it matters, I believe the Sharks have more experience, but sometimes I like to make lists anyway.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: experience, playoffs, Ryane+Clowe, St+Louis+Blues, Todd+McLellan, Torrey+Mitchell,
Sharks 2012 Postseason, Day 1
by petshark on 04/09/12 at 08:55 PM ET
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The Sharks skated for a fairly long time today, as could be expected after a day off and with no game until Thursday. There’s also those 15 things they have to work on, some of which are detailed at Working the Corners. Unlike that skate, this will be short.
It took a really long time for anything like lines to appear through a jumble of drills, but I waited them out. Maybe I just waited until I started seeing things. I have to allow for that since David Pollak said this:
But lines were jumbled without Clowe so it’s not worth my time or yours to point out the combinations on the ice unless you think Brad Winchester, Marty Havlat and Tommy Wingels will be sharing shifts. -Working the Corners
Nuthin’ but time here, so this is what I thought I saw.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Colin+White, Ryane+Clowe, Torrey+Mitchell,
The last game: April 7, 2012
by petshark on 04/08/12 at 12:44 PM ET
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The last goal in the last minute (2 seconds shy anyway) of the last game on the last day of the regular NHL season was scored by Dan Boyle for the Sharks. The Sharks’ pride prize was winning four in a row to end the season against their nearest divisional rivals. In their last 10 of the season, they were 7-3-0. The prize in standings was to play the St. Louis Blues instead of the Vancouver Canucks, to which I had to say “wait, wait… WAIT!”
From the regular season record, the Sharks would have been better off playing Vancouver in the first round. They only beat Vancouver once this season, but they didn’t beat St. Louis at all.
The Kings were 3-1 against the Blues but only 2-2 against the Canucks. To me, that suggests that the Kings had greater playoff incentive to win last night.
Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
Tags: Dan+Boyle, Douglas+Murray, LA+Kings, Patrick+Marleau, playoffs, Washington+Capitals,
About Petshark: Talking Stick
Native of Northern California. Hockey fan since 1998… sort of… there’s a hiatus in there that I still can’t explain.
I want to know about anything and everything related to the sport and the spectacle. I watch, I react, I write it down.
My interest in the Sharks was initially a matter of geographic convenience and regional loyalty because that seemed to be how it worked. I had no prior interest (at all—AT ALL) in professional sports of any kind. When I met hockey, it might have set off a chain reaction of general sports fandom. It hasn’t, I don’t think it will. At all.
Since then, that interest developed into full blown (mostly sort of usually almost completely) exclusive loyalty to the Sharks.
I started blogging a couple years ago on wordpress. I still occasionally put things there that I don’t think fit here because they are not about the Sharks. Wherever my words wander, here on Kuklas Korner, they will (usually) hang on to a teal thread.
I can be found in cyberspace on Twitter @petshark47, or emailed at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Most Recent Blog Posts
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How much should we put on Todd McLellan for the Sharks’ season?
The longest meetings: Doug Wilson to stay, nothing else confirmed
Patrick Marleau: the canary who won’t sing?
Ring Pavlov’s bell in San Jose, who drools first?
Sounding the fire alarms in Shark Territory