Besides that snipe from Malhotra against the Kings, the lower lines have not done much. That being said, I thought the third line had a really good game Thursday, but just didn’t get rewarded on the scoresheet.

I’m REALLY hoping we have a more “set” 3rd and 4th line after the trade deadline.

A third of Malhotra, Nichol, Ortmeyer would suit me just fine. A fourth of McLaren Mitchell McGinn is also somewhat appealing, especially given how much we can use the pairings of Nichol Ortmeyer and Mitchell Malhotra on the PK.

I know Wilson is angling for cap space, but we have to give this lineup all the chance in the world to succeed.

We use the “excuse” that all the injuries late in the season made lines 3 and 4 very cold, and ultimately ineffective in the last post season. We’re doing the same thing to ourselves VOLUNTARILY this season. We’re putting an awful lot of pressure on those lines to gel in a very short amount of time. I’m not a fan of that.

As construed right now, I have serious doubts about our blue line taking us anywhere deep in the post season. If the Woostah Shuttle is what it’s going to take to fix that, I guess that has to be okay, but this gamble HAS to work.

Your proposal is, basically, to run a shuttle between Ferriero and McGinn, swapping who’s coming up to cut down on the same person flying back and forth across country all the time, unless that person is playing well, and then they should stay up? This seems like an error to me. I think the team would be better served by having a constant lineup (barring injury, which always jumbles things up).

McGinn has shows a lot of energy and a decent shot since being up. I think he would actually benefit more from NHL practice time with his linemates than decreased NHL time by rotating Ferriero in. Ultimately, I’d prefer the team took the opposite strategy and just kept McGinn up all the time. We’re under the cap, albeit barely. Just let this roster practice together, grow together, and work together. It’s talented enough as it is to have playoff success, we don’t need any trade deadline addition. Those have been mostly not helpful towards our goal in the past anyways. New players need time to adjust to the system and their new teammates. If we had a solid, unchanging 3rd and 4th line, I think they’d be much more productive as they got a chance to get comfortable with one another.

I agree that we haven’t been getting our lower line scoring lately. It’s a big reason why we’ve been losing. But I don’t think thats a roster problem, or something that can really be helped by the Shuttle. Setoguci’s been hurt and then ice cold since coming back. Pavelski has been hurt, and then is only just recently starting to pick it up again. Mitchell’s been hurt, but had 10 goals his rookie year, and can score goals. They just need more time to get their legs under them. We can’t really expect them to jump in and produce like we expect them to immediately after so much time off.

Also, McGinn can score goals. Malhotra can score goals. Clowe has been picking it up. Boyle’s still been an assist machine, even if his shot’s been off. Nichol and Ortmeyer have chipped in here and there. When Marleau was on the second line, and Seto was on the first line (and healthy), we were seeing at least two lines of scoring. The Sharks have the pieces in place to have a deep scoring team. Which makes the point that we have to address our scoring depth in house fine, since we have the pieces to do so!

As for the playoffs, yes, you need other lines than your top to step up and score goals, but many times, the teams that do well usually get some unsung hero scoring goals for them in the playoffs who wasn’t scoring in the regular season. Moen for Anaheim in 07 (7 goals after only 11 in the reg season…which even that was high for him), Talbot for Pitt in 09 (8 goals after only 12 in the reg season). The point being, teams need secondary scoring to come through in the playoffs to be successful. But you really can’t predict who’s going to come through. The Sharks have enough players that are at least capable of having that kind of breakout, that I’m not too worried. They just have to produce.

My biggest issue with the Worcester shuttle is the chemistry that is lost by not having rookies get proper practices with the big team.

I’ve seen two sides of McLaren, the side that whiffs on pucks and the side that cycles the puck well and keeps the puck deep in the offensive zone. I wonder how much his game would improve if he had better opportunities to practice with the big team? It would definitely make it easier to mix and match lower line combos.

McLaren has a huge upside. One, He’s massive! And whilst he isnt quite filling his frame out yet, in a couple of years he will be a beast.
Two, he handles the puck better than Shelley.

My suggestion is this: Cycle who stays up and who is sent down. By that I mean if we have three call ups and we need cap space, send two down between games and keep one up to practice with the team.

Very good article, assuming you’re not making this stuff up. ;-) I had wondered why the salary cap/shuttle topic was brought up together. I gathered it was something to that effect but it’s nice to see it ‘splained out in real peepullz-speak. I think if I had to make a call I’d try and develop what we have by letting them play and practice with one another rather than dick around with shuttling in order to save room for a possible trade.

Still, none of this will happen because the team is looking to bleed off as much salary as possible to the minors at any given moment.

I like the positive thinking though.

I was wondering why it seemed like McGinn especially kept going up and down between San Jose and Worcester like a yo-yo.

By the way I got to see McGinn and Couture play with their junior team, the Ottawa 67s, quite a bit in the 06-07 season. I liked both their games, more so in McGinn’s case. I think both could be good players, but to me McGinn seems to have a better mix of grit and checking ability along with goal scoring potential.