Those are Rob Blake’s words, not mine.  I was actually somewhat satisfied with their first period play.  The kill looked ok, Nabby looked great, and the cascade of penalties seemed to be more a function of scrambling against a potent man advantage than laziness.  Or maybe I was just relieved they escaped 10 minutes of kill time and ended up tied.

No doubt the second and third periods were a special new kind of brutal.  After AO was left completely unmarked in a two-on-two (reminiscent of Rick Nash just a few games ago), he scored again about 30 seconds later, and the game was essentially over.  Now I’m just a lowly amateur beer-league player, but if there’s a player on the other team that’s a whole hell of a lot better than everyone else, generally I know where he is if I’m on the ice.  Especially on a 2-on-2.  Leaving the best player in the world by himself is more than careless, it’s stupid.  Even though Vlasic was on the ice for that goal, after looking at the reply, it was clearly Huskins that left #8 all by his lonesome.  Please, Kent, you were coming back to my good side!

After that, I wondered if the flu-ridden Douglas Murray could have come in and done a better job.  The third period was a phone-in save Nabby and my favorite new Shark, Scott Nichol.  I swear, if he keeps going the way he’s going, they should put him on the second line instead of Clowe.

On a side note, we’ve noticed in the past some similarities in material between our blog here and a certain blog over at Hockeybuzz that also covers the Sharks. Most times we’ve been able to chalk it up to coincidence, like this time below where we wrote about a certain interesting Semenov stat, then it appeared someplace else a couple of days later.

But this week smells of something akin to the Sharks’ effort last night. Check out our podcast this week where we kick off the show with a one minute ramble about the film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Several hours after our podcast was posted, lo and behold we see this.

So readers, we throw it you – coincidence or something else?

First of all, the podcast is out.  Sorry it’s late.  It might be late again next week too; I hope it doesn’t cramp anyone’s style.

Second of all, it appears that we have some competition on the Sharks blogging front.  I’m going to have to raise my game, especially if there’s an upcoming blog about chess.  Somehow I doubt it, but people can surprise you.

Sorry, the podcast won’t be posted until tonight.  Don’t have much to say about the Phoenix game other than- did the Wild and the Coyotes put on each other’s jerseys?  Here’s my proposal for the new Phoenix logo:

Seriously, they clogged the neutral zone like nobody’s business.  That team is playing with house money- nobody cares if they are terrible or not.  They can just go out there and play with no pressure, and a little Dave Tippet responsibility has turned them into a big pain in the ass.

The Sharks had a bummer of a first period against the Wild last night, going down 0-2, and I figured enough of the Jacques Lemaire administration was still in force to have the Wild shut it down and hold on for the rest of the night.  It’s nice to see that Minnesota is playing a much more palatable brand of hockey now, and between that and the first line waking up again, the Sharks roared back and ended up winning 4-2.  Nabby was particularly sharp last night, but would anyone else start Greiss against Phoenix?  I think I would.

Other news- there’s a group being organized on HF boards to go down to Anaheim on 11/21, buses are being hired, and a group rate secured for tickets.  Neither Doug nor I are able to go this time, but I encourage you all to go, it sounds like a blast.  You can find details at this web site or this thread on HF.  Thanks to Jeremy for giving us the heads up on that.

In other news, Benn Ferriero will be a guest tonight on ChompTalk, which airs from 9-10 PDT on KDOW 1220AM.  Call in (1-800-516-1220) with all your Sharks comments.

So Heatley had a monster night last night- a hat trick and a assist, and on the ice for all six Sharks goals, but none of the goals against.  That means a +6 for those keeping score at home.  After the first goal, where Heatley wheeled into the crease with the puck and just tried to slam it in, Doug turns to me and says “Joe would never have taken that shot.”  And he’s right.  Heatley is not bashful about trying to score from anywhere on the ice.  While that might draw derision in some circles and amongst some players, Dany has the shot to score from almost anywhere, and coupled with a premier set up man like Joe makes it a very dangerous line indeed.

I don’t put a lot of stock in this kind of thing, but Puck Daddy recently had a post about top lines, and let’s just check in on how they’re doing:

Semin-Backstrom-AO: 28 points

Joe-Heater-Seto: 23 points

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows: 13 points

Getzlaf-Perry-Ryan: 7 points

Alfredsson-Michalek-Spezza: 4 points

Those top two lines are on a serious tear.  Hard to imagine they can keep up the pace, but it’s been pretty fun to watch so far.  Just to update you on Heatley Trade Watch 2009, Heatley has 9 points, and Michalek and Cheech have one point.  Combined.

While the top line has certainly begun to click, other things are still lagging.  The defense still looks like the Two Stooges out there sometimes, and leaving Rick Nash unmarked in the slot is a brilliant recipe for a goal against.  I’d have to look at the tape again, but watching the arena reply on the Jumbotron, I couldn’t decide if Vlasic should have released his man at the near post, or Marleau should have come back to take the third guy (Blake was entangled with someone behind the net).  Either way, there were some nails-on-a-chalkboard moments defensively, and it’s definitely a good thing that the Sharks aren’t playing an offensive powerhouse for a few games.  They have a week- they’re in Washington on the 15th.

We got too cold in game 1, too hot (if there is such a thing) in game 2, and now game 3 was almost in the middle.  And by middle, I mean pour in some liquid nitrogen, then some melted tungsten to even out at a nice 60 degrees.  All that and more in the latest podcast.

Without flogging a dead horse, that goal Greiss gave up was a killer.  It absolutely sapped whatever momentum the Sharks had, and no doubt shook their confidence playing in front of him.  If your goalie can give up a goal on a shot that’s not even on net, what the hell else is he going to let through?

And for those bandwagon jumpers out there (watch out for those ankles!), try to keep in mind, at least for a week or two, that there’s been a ton of changes on this team since we saw them last play real hockey. Just to get it out there: last night, 9 of the 19 skaters were different in comparison to the last playoff game against the Ducks.  Show me a team that swaps out 50% of the team and plays in full synchronization on game 3, and I’ll ask you what color the sky is in your world.

Putting memories of the less than memorable opening night effort behind them, the San Jose Sharks laid it all on the line tonight, killing the Ducks 4-1 and spoiling their home welcome by limiting the Ducks to two shots in the 2nd period in one of the most dominant periods of hockey I can remember the Sharks playing in a long time. Everything was clicking on all four lines and we caught a glimpse of what’s in store for the top line when they finally figure everything out. Perhaps we the fans make more out of sticking it to the Ducks to avenge the playoff loss, but it sure felt damn good to see the boys shove it up the Ducks rears tonight. I hope the players had that one their minds and it provided a little extra bite towards this solid performance – they should never forget the disappointed of last April.

It was over by the middle of the second period, but the Ducks were intent on making their physical and pesky style known, even without Chris Pronger – but the Sharks are better equipped to handle the Ducks now with Ortmeyer, Nichol and Malhotra and they all proved their worth tonight. Ortmeyer got Ryan Whitney to take a penalty after he finished a rough check on Whitney in the corner, Nichol got into two fights with Mike Brown and was in the middle of any tense moment possible – it’s like this guy lives for that stuff. Manny Malhotra punched Getzlaf in the face in another “roughing” penalty that sure looked like two guys with gloves off ready to dance. It’s amusing to see how each ref has a different gauge of what’s a fight and what’s a roughing without gloves involving punches to the face.

I don’t have much critical to say – it was entertaining and the Sharks never really took their foot off the gas. We’ll probably see some performances like Colorado and then some performances like tonight in the coming weeks, but let’s hope it’s more of the later and by the time the wins really matter in the playoffs – they will be operating like tonights team on a regular basis.

As for the ex-Shark update: I wouldn’t say Michalek and Cheechoo had a great debut for Ottawa in their 5-2 loss tonight based on the numbers. Now I didn’t see it for myself, but Cheechoo played 10:45 and got four meaningless seconds of PP time – sounds like Ottawa has him primed for that third line role we already know he can’t do. Michalek struggled in 18 minutes, gathering a -2 with two shots and four hits. Now he’s skating with Alfredsson and Spezza, so you know the points will come but I’m sure Ottawa fans are feeling the same way I was on Thursday night after Heater’s Shark debut – disappointed. I hope Cheech and Milan can bounce back like Heater did tonight, I really won’t get any pleasure seeing them fail.

The latest Sharks news– McGinn sent down, replaced by Frazer McLaren.  It’s not clear at all why this move happened.  Well, I’ll say this- it’s not at all clear why this move happened now.  McGinn’s cap hit is almost double McLaren’s, so there’s that.  And McGinn is waiver exempt due to his age and NHL experience- he would be required to clear waivers once he has played 80 NHL games (he’s at 36 currently).  But why now?  I wouldn’t say McGinn had a bad night last night, that third line might have been the best line, though the second line had the goals.  McGinn did play the fewest number of shifts save Shelley- only 15, with Ferriero and Ortmeyer 19, and Shelley 7.  Maybe the coaching staff was really pissed about that hooking call in the 1st and the the game was 2-1 Avs?

Maybe it’s more about McLaren than it is about McGinn- Ferreiro played very well, so you can’t send him down, and anybody else would have to clear waivers.  Maybe the Sharks wanted McLaren against the Ducks, so they could scratch Shelley and still have a dance partner for Parros.  Staubitz would be well out of his weight class if those two were to tangle (and he were in the lineup).  Even if that were the case, I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t just start the season with McLaren last night.

Looking at the cap angle, it’s negligible.  If McLaren is up and McGinn down for a month, that still only saves the Sharks about $70k in cap room, not enough to make a difference.  Over the course of a season, it’s not even enough for one extra player making the minimum salary.

Instead of posting the second unhinged rant in a week last night, I decided to sleep on it.  And after reading Doug’s note-perfect writeup (make sure to read it below) I figured the only thing I could lend to this discussion (instead of a proposal to bring up Petrecki, keep Ferriero, and trade the rest of the Sharks to Boston College) was a bit of levity.  I was actually so mad last night I was taking pictures of my TV to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.  But it did turn into a couple of decent LOLSHARX.

The first from our new favorite German import, now that Marcel Goc is gone:

The second, from a real bang-up coverage job on the kill by Huskins:

In a gross display, the Sharks were beaten badly on Opening Night. I thought there would be struggles with this team with all the new faces in key places, but this goes beyond what I expected. Somebody call Kirk Cameron! We’ve got Growing Pains.

The good – Benn Ferriero. He was the best Sharks on the ice and even saw top line duty after Seto struggled to do much of anything tonight. He’s going to be a gamer. Jason Demers was serviceable tonight and had some bright moments on the power play. The second line was the most dangerous and the third line looked solid at times in the first period. Marleau, Clowe and Pavs were the only plus players on the night.

The other really odd stat of the night was we murdered the Avs in the faceoff circle, winning 71% of the faceoffs – even more bizarre than outshooting them – we saw that many times last year where the Sharks outshot a team but still lost cause their goalie played out of his mind.

The bad – So much, where do we start.

Nabby made a few big saves, but not nearly enough – and not nearly as many as Avs goalie Craig Anderson who robbed the Sharks many times, especially during our power plays. Nabby gave huge rebounds and while he didn’t get much help, especially from Boyle and Murray who looked disorganized at times, he HAS to come up bigger if the Sharks are going anywhere. If the coaching staff is going to be true to their word and say that Nabby needs to earn his starts, then expect Greiss in the pipes on Saturday night – cause Nabby wasn’t good tonight – unless you dig a .761 SV%.

The Versus announcers couldn’t tell the difference between McGinn and Ferriero for much of the game, and that drove me crazy. Someone correct that moron! Versus sucks.

Heatley had a lousy Sharks debut with a minus three and he was the guy who didn’t backcheck, allowing the fourth goal. He was just standing there, gliding back toward the net – hell, Cheechoo would have atleast fallen down trying to get there. Heater also did a Selanne impression by missing a wide open net in the third period.

I was also turned off by how the Sharks appeared to have the same turtle-up nature that they did in the Marleau as Captain era. No big hits. No grit. One lame fight. When the team fell down 2-1, there should have been some response by Nichol, Shelley, Clowe, Murray, Captain Blake…well, I guess he did respond by giving away a four minute PP. My bad. Seriously though, I thought tonight was a great chance for the team to prove their identity crisis is over…they looked like the same group with different names on their backs.

Yes, yes – it’s early – but I wanted to see something and instead I got nothing but heartburn and a noise complaint. Prilosec…take me away…