Surely This Year...

Recap: Niemi is Good

2011-12-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

The Sharks played their best game of possession hockey I've seen this year. Granted I haven't been able to watch a whole lot of games, but they looked very strong on the puck and in the corners. It just didn't translate into shots on net in the first. They had several great chances, but the puck seemed to skip over every Shark stick in those situations. The Sharks looked quick on the Power Play, and I am guessing they will get one later on tonight they way it is looking right now. The period was also incredibly physical. Vlasic nailed a King behind the Sharks net, and the Kings made Couture's like very difficult, nailing him in the boards several times. The second Couture hit gave way to a Sharks PP, but once again they could not score.

The second was characterized by both teams really opening up the offense. After twelve combined shots in the first, the two teams nearly doubled it with twenty-three in the second. The checking was still up and both teams finally got on the board. Couture's goal was an absolute beauty. His one-timer from the high slot area was a snipe with an incredible release. Benn Ferriero is playing the best hockey I have seen from him. He is showing speed I have not seen from him yet, and he is getting into the right positions on the ice to make plays. It is exactly what we need to see from him since Havlat will be out at least 6 weeks. The Kings tied it up with a minute left in the period, following a cross-ice pass to Mike Richards on the PP.

Finally, the third was more of the same. Hard-hitting, fast, playoff style hockey. Both teams had their chances, and both Niemi and Quick rose to the challenge. Vlasic continued one of the strongest games of his season, and he rightfully finished with the first star of the game. The intensity continued into overtime and then into the shoot-out. Clowe scored the only goal, using Quick's own knowledge of his Clowe against him.

That was the most entertaining game of the year in my opinion. Yes, even better than the game against the Lightning on Wednesday. Both teams brought it, there were plenty of chances on net, and both goalies brought their A+ game. The Sharks still have a handful of games in hand on most teams in the league, so hopefully they will finish this home stretch with 45 points.

Quick Hits

-Colin White does a spectacular job of playing within himself. And in my opinion it is infuriating. Of course, it makes sense. When a player is expected to have absolutely no offensive output, said player won't take risks with the puck. Such is the expected output from Colin White, and hence we see a lot of safe passes to his defensive partner. His refusal to make a stretch pass seems to border on stubbornness and I believe it hurts the Sharks. How many times has it seemed like the Sharks make one to many passes between defense-men, leading to a turnover in their own zone?

-Since when did Curtis Brown get on the Sharks intermission report!?! I still want Mark Smith back. He can play me sweet guitar tunes while I figure out whether the Stars or not.

Back? It might be happening.

2011-12-18T02:11:00.000-08:00

Life is a bitch. It has been twenty-three months since the last time I blogged here, and it is a little odd coming back. No longer do I live 30 minutes away from the Tank and no longer do I get to watch my games on TV (Thank you FirstRowSports), but my blood still bleeds Teal, and my desire to blog still burns. If you are actually reading this, I would like to welcome you to the return of the Surely This Year. The last incarnation, supposedly a three man team, died in January of 2010. Well, like the Arena Football League, I am back and ready to blog.

Hopefully I won't be alone this time, as I currently help run the We Like Sharkz Facebook Page. Link here. I will be attempting to get a couple more writers on the site while I, along side writing, would be the editor of the blog as well.

Tonight marked my first regular-season visit to the Tank this year. College in the middle of butt-fuck no-where (Merced) tends to inhibit your ability to attend a game. I was impressed with the play of the team for the most part, as they did a fairly good job on the penalty kill. That was one of the key things I looked for, and I think my lack of things to say about it is good. The power play looked better (after the crowd gave them the boos they deserved) and Patty slipped in an easy game-winning goal thanks to two great individual efforts. Jamie McGinn has kept growing as a player ever since it seemed he came out of his cocoon in the playoffs last year. He has been skating hard into the corners and winning the puck battles, which led to the power play goal tonight.

Marty Havlat had a roller coaster of a game, scoring a beautiful goal in the first, then taking two back-to-back penalties in the second. He was not able to finish his ride sadly, as he injured himself getting onto the ice. Yes, Havlat looked to injure his knee attempting to get over the boards, and was unable to put any pressure on his leg. Any long-term injury turns the Havlat-Heatley trade into our worst possible scenario because as everyone has seen, Heatley has helped lead the Wild into the lead of the Western Conference. Let's just hope he gets better soon.

Off topic, I was finally able to try out Amici's pizza in the HP. I didn't mind it, but my dad hated it. D+ from him.

Thanks for reading, share this with anyone you think might enjoy it, and follow us if you enjoyed the read.

Winter Break Is Over

2010-01-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Not that the Sharks missed a beat. 9 wins in the last 10 games is pretty damn good. At a sweet clip of 3.4 goals per game compared to 2.1 given up per game(minus this and it's a sweet 1.5) the Sharks are rolling. Tonight they ran into a goalie possessed, and Marleau and Heatley stepped up to win the game. To make this run a little sweeter, the Sharks are 5-1 against Pacific Division opponents, which has given them a bit of separation, now up 7 points.

The comeback of the man who's lost his fighting touch and the man who was suppose to replace him(until this guy came along) coming back, both Demers and McLaren were sent back down. I get mixed feelings with that, because I want to see Jay Leach play because we are paying him for virtually nothing. However, I REALLY REALLY like Frazer. He doesn't make the stupid mistakes that Staubitz makes, and he is just a better player overall while still being a bruiser out there.

Other than that, it is late.

I've decided that the french fries are the only thing I'm getting at the HP from now on. And if I ever find that booth with the sundays.

Dark Times

2009-12-12T23:17:00.001-08:00

The Sharks are in a midst of a 5 game losing streak. They are playing some of the worse hockey I've seen them play in 2 years(except maybe at the end of last year+playoffs). Why am I not sad, or angry? Because now is the perfect time for the weaknesses to show for a team. The Sharks are a little more than 2/5ths of the way through the season. Now is the time for a team to go through a rough patch, work their problems and get through it. However the problem that seems to be rearing it's ugly head right now needs to be fixed, and fixed soon. Blake puts it best here; the Sharks are playing really uninspired hockey...remind anyone of the playoffs last year. However, what I hope is the difference and actually matters is that this problem is showing up now, and not 3 games before the playoffs.

Some bad news is that I read that Boyle was hurt with 5 seconds left. Boyle has quietly turned into my favorite player on the Sharks, behind Nabokov and McGinn. The guy really does everything, putting up big minutes and making big plays. The ultimate D-man. Hopefully he isn't out that long.

Other than that, nothing really on my mind right now.

Oh yea, went to the game versus the Kings...didn't get chicken strips.

Last Two Games

2009-12-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

Have been pretty disappointing. To give up a short-handed goal with 6 seconds left is inexcusable. The fact that Nabby put the blame on someone else pissed me off a little bit, because it's just unneeded and it's going to cause problems. The Sharks just seemed to stop playing after they were up 2-1, as the Blues picked it up after. Also, I <3>

Other than that I don't have much to say, other than the fact that the HP Pavilion's Chicken Strips are not good.

My ratings go like this right now.

1. Denny's

2. Elephant Bar

3. HP Pavilion

Gotta step up your game HP.

In other news, I hurt my back, which is one of the reasons this blog is coming late.

I didn't watch the Calgary-San Jose game, I was busy last night, but I heard that Kipper played on his head to keep San Jose from scoring. Sometimes a goaltender just beats you.

Sharks Come Home

2009-12-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit tired, but here goes. Milan Michalek is an absolute beast. I think he finally matured into a great player, and he will contribute in Ottawa. Patrick Marleau played his 900th, and I wish Todd would have put him out on that last shift to get the hat-trick. Oh well, a great game played by him and he is now the Sharks leading scorer. Thornton keeps putting up crazy numbers and I think he's at 32 assist wise at this point. Heatley had 6 shots in the 1st period. I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I want him to keep doing it. Also I loved the scoring from the 2nd and 3rd line. Now we just need to get that 4th line scoring(I mean they do have Seto and Mitchell). It'll come though.

On the topic of that 4th line, I'm liking the slow improvement in ice time for the two returnees. Hopefully they keep progressing and get to a point where McLellan can put them on the ice and not have to worry.

Greiss looked pretty good for a guy who I never trust at all. He flops WAY to much, and although it worked tonight, I don't see that working in the future. Unless he is a reincarnation of this guy.

Last bit of news. I'm going to the game Thursday, maybe I'll bring a camera and take some pictures.

40 Points...

2009-11-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Sharks first team to 40 points. Regular season dominance...yay. Really though, tonights game was textbook. Sharks just wore the Canucks out who played back-to-back games. Uhmmm, I need to start some sort of way to sort my thoughts. I didn't get to watch the whole game, was at my friend's 18th birthday dinner. Same friend who loves Man vs. Food. And what's up with CSN not showing Bret Hedican's Hockey Credentials. Did they finally learn that they were insulting my intelligence by showing it EVERY SINGLE GAME? Oh well.

Frazer McLaren scored. I like him, he has the look of a hockey player and he fights well. Good 4th line player. His line included Torrey Mitchell and Devin Setoguchi, so I'm sure that helped. Smart move by McLellan by the way. Ease these two back into the game and don't risk injury. Makes sense after what happened last year.

1 for 5 on the PP, which is ok. Both Randy and Drew raped the fact that the 1st PP was getting to showy. I get it. I read the blog already, you've said it all game, just shut up and let them do their thing. It works. Oh but wait...they simplified and scored their only PP goal. Well fuck me. Whatever, just keep scoring goals.

Lastly, Evgeni Nabokov is awesome. He made some great saves, and kept the lead for the Sharks in the early 3rd, when I thought VanCity would tie it up. Just another reason he should be rated a 120 in NHL 10.

Did I mention the chicken strips at Elephant Bar aren't very good. They are very low on my list of Chicken Strips.

Woah...quite a game.

2009-11-28T01:29:00.000-08:00

Really not the best of performances by the Sharks. They seem to have these games where they are as turnover prone as the worst teams in the league. It was pretty bad the whole game. Patty Marleau who had his best game of the season in my opinion, started off the scoring...except I didn't see it. In fact, anyone who was watching on Comcast California didn't see it. The feed went out for a good minute and thirty seconds, and during that time, Marleau took a nice pass from Thornton to put it in. Gahhhh. From then on it was Edmonton's game. The turnover problem came up, and it seemed that other than a few shifts, the game was played in San Jose's zone.

On the bright side, Marleau played a hell of a game when it seemed no one else would. The former captain(how many times have you heard that) got a hat trick, which is the Sharks 3rd of the season. Ryan Clowe got the Sharks other goal, and he has 15 points in the last 14 games. I like that. You know what else I like? The return of Torrey Mitchell. 108 games since his last regular season game, and I didn't really notice him on the ice. Don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. He only was on the ice for 6:30 minutes; expect more playing time as Todd learns to trust him.

Not much else to say about this game. The Sharks got lucky. After playing a horrible game in their own zone, they were saved by Marleau and were able to pull it out in the shoot-out. Next up on the Canadian trip is Vancouver on Sunday.

Where did the Sharks go?

2009-11-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'm starting this blog in the 2nd intermission. That doesn't really matter though, because unless the Sharks completely change the way they are playing, this game is done. Chicago already has the hat-trick of shorties. Nabokov is still trying to find his jock after Patrick Sharp completely deked him out.

I haven't completely watched the game, because my friend loves Man vs. Food; but all I've seen is Sharks turnovers. They can't keep the puck out of their own zone, even if they are on the PP. Absolutely embarrassing.

Now the Sharks put Greiss in, even though it hasn't all been Nabby's fault. It's pretty much been 3 breakaway goals IIRC.

Let's see how this 3rd goes.

Joe Sakic Night...

2009-10-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

That was pathetic. I'd say more, but I'm tired, have 6 shows to do tomorrow, then a football game. I'll edit this at a later time.

A Couple Of Notes To Make

2009-08-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

For one thing, this blog is not dead, we may not have posted anything in 3 weeks, but school is coming up, and that means I'll be on my computer a lot more able to blog and make some meaningful insights on the Sharks season.

Also, the Sharks have updated their website to go along with the whole NHL-Site Do-Over.

Personally I think that it looks great but I'll let you decide on that. Check it out at sharks.nhl.com

Sharks' 2009-10 Schedule Quick Analysis: October

2009-08-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hello again, long absence from me. Life has a way of taking over sometimes, but I'm partially back now and here to dissect the nearly month-old schedule in a brief, month by month format. For those who haven't seen it yet:

2009-10 Sharks Schedule

October:

What stands out first for me is our ratio of games in a row on the road as opposed to at home to start the season in October. The ratio of away to home is 9-5, with the away games coming in stretches of 3 (opening the season @ COL, @ ANA, @ LA) and 6 (early season east coast swing @ WSH, @ NYI, @ NYR, @ TB, @ ATL, @ PHI). The three to start the season don't quite concern me as much as the six games squeezed into a 13 day timespan with one back to back (@ ATL, @ PHI on Oct 24/25). Playing the Flyers to wrap it up troubles me as well because the team will be somewhat fatigued and will be facing arguably the most physical team in the NHL. Silver lining is that we get this trip out of the way early on and don't have to worry about it coming later on in the season when fatigue is a bigger issue. Our home games in October come in stretches of 3 (vs. CBJ, vs. MIN, vs. PHX) and 2 (vs. LA, vs. COL). Five teams that we should beat but five that have given us unexplainable fits in the past, especially CBJ (though our troubles have always come in Columbus, not at home where we usually roll them). Being President's Trophy winners last season though, we couldn't have expected them to take it too easy on us, could we? I'm sure the boys are anxiously awaiting the challenge. It should be a hell of a first month.

Check back in the next few days for a look at the Sharks' November.

Sharp to the Sharks?

2009-07-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Patrick Sharp is a lot of things to the Blackhawks - one of their most popular players, a dependable goal scorer and a leader in the dressing room.

Is expendable about to be added to that list?
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=307961&src=149

The most exciting Sharks rumor I've read all offseason, Patrick Sharp was key in the Hawks WCF run this postseason. Since both teams are hovering near the Cap, I would see the Sharks taking on salary here, and then dealing off one of their other top 6 forwards to make room for Sharp. Without further ado, here is my list of potential trades for Patrick Sharp.

Cheechoo for Sharp, straight up- Just kidding.
Cheechoo + Lukowich for Sharp- Adding Luko makes a world of difference here. He would give the Hawks the veteran presence their blue line is lacking, and Cheechoo may just need a change of scenery.
Douglas Murray + prospect for Sharp- The Hawks want size at the blue line, and who is better suited for that than Doug Murray. The prospect is thrown in there to sweeten the deal since Sharp is more valuable player than Murray. The Sharks would likely make a trade after this one to replace Murray on D.
Michalek for Sharp- The only one of my trades where the Sharks save money. Michalek is alot faster than Sharp, but Sharp is the more complete player. Hopefully Bowman would be blinded by Milan's speed and agree to this.

Well those are my awful hypothetical trades, Doug will definitely have something better up his sleeve, hopefully its better than what that dastardly villian Brian Burke can offer.

The 4 Other New Sharks

2009-07-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

We already know about Scott Nichols and Ryan Vesce, as the mainstream Sharks media has told mostly everything you need to know about Nichols and most Sharks fan were able to watch Vesce last year. I thought I'd look at the other 4 players who havent' garnered the same amount of attention from the media and fans. First off, let's look at Joe Callahan:

He won't produce many points, although I was slightly surprised with his 08 playoff points in Portland(1+12=13 in 18). He's fought 12 times since 04-05, so he'll protect his teammates when he has too, but it's not a common thing. With only 18 games of NHL experience, I think San Jose will see very little of this guy, and he was brought in for depth in Worcester.

Danny Groulx:

This 28 year old looks to be more depth for Worcester defensively. He hasn't played a game in the NHL, and that will probably look to continue. I don't see him playing in San Jose. He did put up 40 points last season for Rockford, but he hasn't done anything special since his days in the QMJHL.

Dwight Helminen:

With Dwight here we have a player who will probably spend half of the year in Worcester and half of the year in SJ. He has numbers in the AHL that say he should be semi-productive in the NHL, but in 23 games in Carolina he only had 2 points. I'd like to see Todd McLellan give him some top-6 forward time when he does play in SJ to just see if he can find some chemistry with some top line players. He seems to consistently put up what seems to be a little less that a PPG in each league that he has played for, and maybe he can find that in SJ. Extremely wishful thinking, but hey...

Jed Ortmeyer:

Jed will probably see the most playing time with SJ, after playing in the AHL most of last year after a knee injury. Not much of a scorer. At all. He'll be a pure energy player in the bottom-6. He came back from a blood clot in the brain several years ago, so he's tough. Other than that he seems to be a vanilla 3rd to 4th line player. He'll be 31 by the time the season starts, so he is one of the older players on the Sharks. We will see what he can do once the season roles around.

One New Shark By Friday?

2009-07-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

If you read David Pollak's blog, you'd see that he has reported the Sharks will acquire a 4th-line center as early as today. I'm going to make the assumtion that this player will be signed off of free agency, because I don't think we are going to make the supposed "big trade" that fans want. DP also went on to state that this player would be much grittier than a Marcel Goc type player.

So here is my guess as to who the Sharks will sign this weekend: Scott Nichols.

So this morning, I decided to make my first blog post, but do to a misunderstanding on my part, I decided to do it later tonight. Well above is what I had before just now. Then I went back onto my computer and loaded up DP's blog, and I see that I was right. But oh well. I guess I'll just post this now. Because the site looks messed up anyways.

Just how big will Wilson's "shakeup" really be?

2009-07-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

GM Doug Wilson (Photo Courtesy of TSN)

Since our latest playoff debacle, we've heard a more aggressive-than-usual tone from both GM Doug Wilson and owner Greg Jamison. Both have sternly stood by a notion that we will see a lot of roster changes over the course of the offseason, but when one looks at the salaries of the current roster in relation to the salary cap, one must wonder how we're going to bring anyone new in. According to HockeyBuzz, we only have $1.3 mil to play with right now, fifth lowest in the league (and the bottom three teams are in the red). Don't get excited about that either. Sure, maybe we can sign some old guy who's nothing more than a run of the mill second line forward, but we currently have a hole at the goaltending position now that Brian Boucher has signed with Philadelphia.

So this brings up the question of what we're going to do with the #2 goalie spot. Common sense and Sharks' "build-from-within" mantra says we'll have a not NHL-ready yet Thomas Greiss (who still needs to be re-signed, which would likely kill a good chunk of that $1.3 mil) backing up Nabby this season. Throw the kid to the wolves and hope it goes better than last time I suppose. I know some of you are thinking "Wow, you're awfully hard on Thomas Greiss, what would you rather see instead?" Call me stuck in the past if you want, but our old buddy Nolan Schaefer is currently an unrestricted free agent. Last season he made only $600K with Minnesota. That would leave ~$650K or so which may or may not be enough to sign Greiss as well. Other goalies above $50k and below $1 mil who are available are: Jean-Sebastian Aubin, Craig Anderson, Curtis Sanford, Kevin Weekes, Curtis Joseph (Sega Genesis anyone?), Stephen Valliquette, Mikael Tellqvist and Marek Schwarz.

So that kills our remaining cap money and all we got is a backup goalie. A necessity for sure but not something that people are likely to get excited about. This is where trades come in. Personally, I feel that our most expendable players are Jon Cheechoo, Milan Michalek and fan favorite Christian Ehrorr-I mean Ehrhoff. Cheech has been less than stellar but has the 56 goal season of 2005-06 on his resume. Michalek, I don't know what else to say about this guy. Sometimes he's great, but a lot of the time, he's soft and inconsitent (though I do have to admit that he has toughened up a bit, I think he's run his course here). Lastly, the Ehrhoff experiment. Can anyone tell me when, outside of seasons with Olympic breaks, this experiment has been successful in any fashion whatsoever? What exactly is Ehrhoff's job? He doesn't check and his shot, though very hard, is very inaccurate. Still, I'm sure someone would take him. If there's a place for Matt Carle, there's definitely a place for Christian Ehrhoff.

I want to see a huge roster shakeup as much as anyone, but I just don't see how it's possible, unfortunately.

Welcome to Surely This Year

2009-07-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

With the recent commencing of the free agent signing period, as far as I'm concerned, the new NHL season has unofficially begun. With that being said, we present to you Surely This Year, a blog dedicated to everyone's favorite playoff underachievers... of course, Surely This (is the) Year that all changes, right? We hope you join us throughout the season for our insight on all things Teal.