Thursday, September 17, 2009

Catching up

Ok, so its been about 7 months, a gap that won't be kept up following this post.

Quick hits:
- The Teal won the Obama Trophy and were McCained in the opening round of the playoffs by that Disney team in the outskirts of LA.
- Changes were promised by then GM Doug Wilson (still GM, but was thought he might go).
- Despite countless rumors, absolutely nothing happening at the draft and during the free agency period (sorry Scott Nichol and Jed Ortmeyer).
- A couple weeks ago, ole Dougie decided to awake from his summer hibernation (something Canadians do) and make a call up to Vancouver, shipping away Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich for a couple of minor league schlubs in Patrick White and Daniel Rahimi. A lot of folks weren't fans of Ehrhoff, at least they won't be able to hate his replacement, who will struggle to crack the AHL lineup. A total salary dump, it was a precursor to this...
- TRADING FOR F*CKING DANY HEATLEY!
- ESPN reported a three team trade involving the Sharks, Senators, and Kings, sending Patrick Marleau to LA, Alexander Frolov and Jarret Stoll to Ottawa, and Heatley to SJ. It was quickly destroyed by all three GMs. Suck it John Buccigross.
- The next day, Heatley and a 5th rounder to SJ for Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek with a 2nd rounder tacked on.

Basically, the Sharks drastically improved their top 2 lines, with Heatley, a pure shooter, playing with Joe Thornton, a pure passer, full time. Marleau can roll on the second line, not too shabby.

The bottom six is looking a little hairy, with some mix of Jamie McGinn, Torrey Mitchell (might be hurt), Brad Staubitz, Scott Nichol, Jed Ortmeyer, Manny Malhotra (just signed to try out), and Dan Hinote. Definitely not as much scoring around, but defense/physicality looks to be up.

The defense lost its fastest blueliner in Ehrhoff and a grinder in Lukowich, and will need to replace both with guys who will win their spots in training camp. Boyle, Blake, Vlasic, Murray are the solid 4, with young stud Nick Petrecki, Kent Huskins, Mike Moore, and Derek Joslin looking to take those last two spaces.

Evgeni Nabokov returns in net, probably with Thomas Greiss backing him up. How much longer Nabby has the starting position remains to be seen, as his contract is up after this season and the Sharks young possible replacements need to prove themselves.

Last night was the Teal and White game, hopefully with no glaring grammatical embarrassments (Who's side are you on?), the Sharks open the preseason schedule tonight against the Kings in Ontario (Ontario, CA doesn't fully explain things, so let's go with Ontario, California).

GO SHARKS (HOCKEY IS BACK and so is the blog)
-Jess