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Petshark: Talking Stick

Entries with the tag: Alex+Stalock

The league with no name

In today’s Mercury News there’s a story by Mark Emmons about Alex Stalock’s return to pro hockey.  Stalock recently completed a stint with the Stockton Thunder:

When Sharks training camp opened in September, there was a growing optimism. Stalock skated for the first time. He slowly worked up to a rehab stint with Stockton, a minor league affiliate for the Sharks and Edmonton Oilers, making his return on Jan. 21. -Mercury News

It’s a very good story about a player and a recovery that is just this side of miraculous.  Yet Emmons doesn’t mention the name of the minor league.  Sigh.

The league’s name is sort of like Ulysses S Grant’s middle name: just initials.  Unlike Grant, the league does have a proper name where the initials are: East Coast Hockey League, but nobody out here calls it that.  It’s one of those names that tells you where someone came from but not what or where they are now.  “Taylor,” for example: once upon a time, someone in that family was a tailor, probably in England.  The odds are pretty slim that this person is actually a tailor in England now.

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Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
 Tags: Alex+Stalock, ECHL, minor+league, Pat+Curcio, San+Francisco+Bulls, Stockton+Thunder,

Point blank

Last night, Benn Ferriero took one shot, got one point, and Antti Niemi blanked the Flames.  No, Niemi didn’t do it by himself, but he gets the special credit for it.

Ferriero’s been kind of quiet lately, but last night he made an effort to point out the obvious: if you can’t hit the target, you need to get closer.

@SharksStats: Benn Ferriero’s 4th career game-winning goal, 3rd this season. All 3 GW goals this season in road games.

The lone goal of the game was Ferriero’s sixth of the season.  It was the only shot he took, if you believe the shot counters, and he took it at point blank range.  I think that might qualify as a teachable moment.  Sounds like McLellan thinks so too:

“We’ve got to get a little hungrier in and around the net, much like the winning goal tonight.” -Mercury News

It was just one goal. It was the Flames. The Flames have been better lately, but they’re still the Flames.

It was just the first win for the Sharks after three losses.

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Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
 Tags: 4+on+4, Alex+Stalock, Antti+Niemi, Benn+Ferriero, Calgary+Flames, Dan+Boyle, goalie+dances, Jim+Vandermeer, John+McCarthy,

Niemi, Stalock on the ice, Wingels on 3rd, who’s on 4th?

When you know someone has been hurt, you watch them differently than you would watch someone you assume to be healthy.  Any little misstep will be cause for doubt.  Considering the gravity of the injury sustained by Alex Stalock last season, I think it’s nothing short of a miracle that I only noticed one misstep this morning.  He wore lower pads only. I’m no expert and I don’t know how his leg feels but it looked like both legs were doing what he told them to. Between exercises, he tossed the puck around, hitting the wall, and shooting at both nets.  Part of me thought “Dude! Don’t even play around with putting the puck in your own net!” But having fun is good for healing, so he should do whatever amuses him for now.

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Filed in: , San Jose Sharks | Petshark: Talking Stick | Permalink
 Tags: Alex+Stalock, Antti+Niemi, Ben+Guite, Justin+Braun, Matt+Pelech, Sean+Sullivan, Tommy+Wingels,

     

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