There's some off time for the Sharks here over the next few days, but that doesn't mean Fear The Fin takes a break. No siree.

Nope, we're working hard to bring you the Third Annual FTF Photoshop Expo! That's where we make a thread and sit back while you fill it with great ideas!

Hard, hard work for us.

Regulars will know the drill. Use Photoshop (or Gimp... it's free!) to put your favorite Sharks player, coach or whatever, anywhere you choose. Keep it PG, though... we don't want a glimpse into your inner psyche or anything.

To get you started, here are some All-Star Themed 'chops from Plank and Matt.

"Despite thoughts to the contrary, Logan Couture was pretty pumped to make it to the final two and win a car."

Seriously, can our McGinn fandom reach a higher level? We offer you this McGinnivational Poster to get over the obvious and egregious McGinn All-Star Game snub.

This past offseason Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson revamped his fourth line in an attempt to get younger, stronger, and more responsible on his lower lines. Scott Nichol and Jamal Mayers were let go after their contracts expired due to what was presumably an increase in age and lack of mobility, while midseason trade acquisition Ben Eager was also left unsigned following a playoff series against Vancouver that saw him take unnecessary penalties and manage to lose his cool.

Former Worcester Sharks centerman Andrew Desjardins was promoted to full time duties after a strong postseason with the big club, winger Andrew Murray was signed in the offseason, and Brad Winchester made good on his training camp tryout with the club to lock down the final spot on that previously vacant fourth line.

We've spent a lot of time talking about the Sharks fourth line this season and how much it's improved since last year, but it never hurts to see what's going on under the hood as we head into the All-Star Break.

And the fourth line's numbers from last year:

Some bullet points to consider:

• Ben Eager's numbers come from his time in Atlanta (34 GP) and San Jose (34 GP), so keep that in mind when you're browsing through.
  
• Color me surprised that the fourth line hasn't seen increased ice time at even strength in comparison to last year. Part of it is due to the fact that the third line has been more reliable than it was during the first half of 2010-2011 (before Pavelski fully transitioned into being the third line center), but McLellan has used his pluggers in a similar fashion.
• Points and goal scoring is fairly similar to where they were last season, although last year's group had a little more balance and overall pop.

More following the jump.

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Last week, the Worcester Sharks played a three-in-three, including a home-and-home against the Providence Bruins, and while all three games ended with a 3-2 final score, the Sharks were only victorious one time and earned three points out of a possible six.

Overall, the Sharks are now 20-12-3-5 with 48 points, and tied for second place with the Manchester Monarchs in the Atlantic Division of the AHL Eastern Conference, six points behind the division leading St. John's IceCaps {The Sharks have only played 40 games while the Monarchs have played 44 and the IceCaps have played 41}.

The Sharks' three-in-three started Friday night {Jan. 20} as the team traveled to the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, RI, to play the hosting Bruins in their sixth meeting of the season and were defeated 3-2. Sharks forwards Ryan Del Monte and Marek Viedensky scored for the Sharks while goalie Antero Niittymaki {2-3, 3.01 goals against average, .890 save percentage}, who was reassigned to Worcester on a second conditioning assignment on Jan. 19, stopped 23-of-26 shots in the loss. Sharks defenseman Matt Irwin chipped in with two assists and was the only Sharks player to have a multi-point game.

Bruins defenseman Andrew Bodnarchuk gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with his power play goal, fourth goal of the season, at 16:22 of the first period. With Sharks defenseman Nick Petrecki in the penalty box for boarding, Bruins defenseman Matt Bartkowski fired a shot on net from the top of the center point that missed the net. However, the puck came off the end-board right to Bodnarchuk, who from deep inside the left face-off circle, fired the puck past a sliding Niittymaki for the goal.

Yannick Riendeau extended the Bruins lead to 2-0 with a power play goal, his third goal of the season, at 2:53 of the second period. With Sharks forward Mike Connolly in the penalty box for slashing, Bruins forward Craig Cunningham rushed into the Sharks zone 3-on-1 along the right side. From on top of the face-off circles, Cunningham passed the puck over to Bodnarchuk, who tipped pass to Riendeau, who fired a quick shot from the left face-off circle dot that beat Niittymaki over the shoulder for the goal.

Fireworks appeared at 10:56 as Sharks defenseman Taylor Doherty dropped the gloves with Bruins forward Lane MacDermid after MacDermid boarded Sharks forward Nathan Moon in the left corner of the Sharks zone. Sticking up for Moon, Doherty, along with Sharks forward Brandon Mashinter, went right after MacDermid, which nearly resulted in a full line brawl. Doherty and MacDermid broke out of the pile and engaged in a brief scrap that MacDermid won.

Del Monte got the Sharks on the scoreboard and cut the Bruins lead in half with his third goal of the season at 14:15. With the puck behind the net of Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin, Sharks forward Alex Bourret sent a pass out to Irwin, who fired a one-timer on net from the top of the center point that Del Monte was able to get a piece of in front and deflected it past Khudobin for the goal.

On the ensuing face-off, Bruins forward Bobby Robbins lined-up next to Sharks defenseman Matt Pelech and as soon as referee Terry Koharski dropped the puck, their equipment went flying off. The fight only lasted five seconds as Pelech pounded Robbins into the ice with repeated overhand rights.

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The Sharks have rarely been outchanced this season by teams outside of the Western Conference's "Big Four" of Detroit, Vancouver, St. Louis and Chicago but they were edged out on the chance count tonight and the margin had the potential to be wider if it wasn't for a stellar second period in which San Jose allowed just one Flames scoring chance.

After a relative snoozefest through two periods, the game really opened up in the third with the Flames dominating early in the frame before the Sharks generated a glut of good looks at the net before and after the goal by Benn Ferriero. Calgary pressured with a few chances to tie the game late in the third, including two opportunities by Jarome Iginla with Miikka Kiprusoff pulled, but were unsuccessful as Antti Niemi picked up the shutout.

Best EV Forward: Joe Thornton (+2), John McCarthy (+2)

Worst EV Forward: Patrick Marleau (-3)

Best EV Defenseman: Dan Boyle (+2), Justin Braun (+2)

Worst EV Defenseman: Jason Demers (-5)

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Some excellent news on Brent Burns today, whose potentially disastrous injury last night has turned out to be "more charley horse than a knee" according to David Pollak via Twitter. McLellan mentioned that Burns may be able to play immediately following the All-Star Break-- whether or not that comes to fruition is nearly irrelevant in the big picture of course, as the main takeaway from today's presser should be that he does not appear to be looking at a long-term ailment that would take him into April.

Some other news and notes from today as the Sharks try and snap their scoring skid against the Calgary Flames:

• David Pollak with the full story on the outlook of Brent Burns going forward.
• Kevin Kurz of CSN's Sharks Talk blog has more news from today.
• Nice new feature on the Daily Chomp, where staff writer Alex Aragon answers fan questions from Twitter and email.
• The ever phenomenal Kent Wilson of Flames Nation takes a look at how Calgary can "stop running in place without falling off the treadmill" as the Flames look to transition into a new era.
• Matchsticks & Gasoline previews tonight's tilt from the other end of the aisle.

Puck drops at 6:07 PM.

	@ 6:00 PST
26-14-6, 58 points		23-20-6, 52 points
3rd in Western Conference		10th in Western Conference

The Sharks scoring woes continued last night in their 2-1 shootout loss against the Edmonton Oilers. It's been a rough stretch for the Sharks as of late, with numerous factors playing a role in the team's recent lack of production up and down the lineup. Injuries to Martin Havlat and Ryane Clowe have decimated the team's top six, what looked like an unsustainable 5v5 PDO has begun to regress, and the power play has continued to inconceivably struggle despite the talent that hits the ice every night.

To illustrate their recent woes here's a slightly more in-depth look at their play over the last seven games:

What's good to see is that the shot totals haven't taken too much of a hit-- as The Neutral mentioned last night, the Sharks outchanced the Oilers 22-8 overall which is about as good of a game you can ask from a team in a losing affair. Getting one point in a game against Edmonton isn't exactly anything to fawn over of course, but credit should rightly go to Devyn Dubnyk for his performance throughout the tilt.

Dubnyk has always reminded me of an embittered Russian novelist who pours himself a stiff drink of vodka every loneseom night in an attempt to dull the bitter harsh winds of a cold Edmonton winter. The imagery kind of unfolds once you realize he's a young Canadian hockey player, but the "goaltender as a lone wolf" stereotype, Dubnyk's Ukrainian heritage, and his certainly fitting full name all contribute to the cause.

I'm probably projecting memories of the Ilya Bryzgalov Knob Hockey video in there as well for whatever reason, but what are you going to do.

At any rate, the Sharks are certainly struggling right now and there's even greater cause for concern with Brent Burns taking a nasty knee on knee hit last night from Oilers winger Ales Hemsky in an innocuous collision along the boards that turned ugly as soon as it occurred. Burns, who limped off the ice and had to be helped to the dressing room with assistance from Colin White and the training staff, felt better following the game but still has managed to give Todd McLellan pause as to his status going forward.

There's no real telling with these types of injuries-- I remember Dan Boyle's fall last season along the boards looked like it could have ended his season but he didn't end up missing a game, and then Martin Havlat goes and gets himself injured for 6-8 weeks after coming off the bench for a line change. Whatever happens with Burns over the course of the next 48 hours will likely determine the Sharks game plan and outlook going forward; while reports that he left the arena without crutches are definitely positive, you're going to have to wait until more information comes out before exhaling that breathe you're currently holding snug in your lungs.

Whatever happens however, it's unlikely he suits up tonight against the Flames.

With the Sharks trying to get scoring from anyone outside of the magnificent Logan Couture right now, San Jose's upcoming tilt against Calgary presents a good opportunity for the team to give themselves a little push heading into the All-Star Break. We said coming into this Alberta swing that we'd be content with 3 points on the roadie, so locking down a win tonight keeps them on pace with our expectations. Games against the Flames are like eating dry turkey on rye for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon-- enough sustenance to get you through the day, but not enough to get you excited about life in general.

Expect another grinder tonight topped off with a religious conviction to chip the puck in, manage shifts, and win battles along the boards. With the Sharks banged up and likely without the deft puck moving abilities of Burns on the backend that type of matchup is about as good as one they could ask for-- a slow and methodical game that relies on Niemi to do what he has done for the majority of this season is the best opportunity for them to lick their wounds and come up with two points before the break. Calgary's relatively porous ability to keep shots away from Kiprusoff (18th in the League, 30.4 SA/G) and their equally lacking goal scoring ability (25th in the League, 2.41 G/GP) are all indicators that San Jose can still hang in this one even if the goal scoring dries up before our eyes.

They can feel free to cash in at some point of course.

Prediction: Sharks win 2-0. Goals by Couture and McGinn.

For perhaps the first time in his NHL career, Ales Hemsky was the windshield instead of the bug. While it didn't appear that the oft-injured Oilers forward's knee-on-knee collision with Sharks defenseman Brent Burns was intentional (although the officials deemed it as such), the end result was a painful one, both for Burns and potentially the Sharks' prospects for the rest of the season.

Six minutes and thirty-seven seconds into the third period, with the Oilers nursing a 1-0 lead, Burns attempted a deke around Hemsky on the left wing boards but ended up the recipient of a knee-on-knee hit that left the big blueliner crumpled on the ice from where he would then struggle to make his way to the Sharks' bench and finally the dressing room to end his night. Further information about the extent of Burns' injury has yet to be revealed but, despite the Sharks' depth on the back end, they can't afford to lose Burns for an extended period. His 0.589 even strength scoring chance ratio and +70 EV scoring chance +/- both lead the team, in addition to the considerable value he adds with the man advantage.

Despite more than a few zone entries that were less than cohesive to say the least, the Sharks capitalized on the ensuing 5-minute power play as a result of Hemsky's ejection from the game. Joe Thornton initiated one of the Sharks' few successful entries, carrying the puck over the blueline and executing a drop pass to Dan Boyle whose slapshot was deflected top shelf by the red-hot Logan Couture. Although the remainder of San Jose's major power play was largely a discombobulated mess, the Sharks dominated possession in the third period, allowing zero Oilers chances against (Full scoring chance summary after the jump). It was only the second time all season the Sharks have gone an entire period without allowing a scoring chance, the first being a low-event second period in Winnipeg a week and a half ago.

Even prior to the third period, the Sharks were in control for much of this game against an injury-riddled Oilers team missing quite possibly their MVP in Tom Gilbert and icing a banged-up Frankenstein version of their best forward in Taylor Hall, who was noticeably not close to 100%. San Jose outchanced Edmonton 19-6 at even strength and 22-8 overall. If it weren't for the heroics of Devan Dubnyk, the Oilers wouldn't have been able to take this game to overtime, let alone pull off a shootout victory.

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"I believe the Fear the Fin comments section has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the Commenters.

This is being done at the Editorial, Authorial, and Commentorial level. This is in direct opposition to the FTF FAQ and the Founding Fathers vision for this blog.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the comments section. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both Niemi lovers and Niemi haters are responsible for the situation we are in as a blog. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic." MT