San Jose drops sixth straight in blowout to Edmonton; Phoenix rockets into first
by Mr. Plank on Mar 21, 2010 8:16 PM PDT
in Sharks Game Recaps
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PrintAt this point, these losses have begun to lose their sting. I have become comfortably numb.
No more excuses.
The gooning up at the end of the game did little to alleviate any negative feeling towards the team's lack of performance throughout the first fifty nine minutes of play. It was akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum after pooping on the living room floor.
This team is in a complete freefall right now. Frankly, it's a fascinating sight to see. To go into Edmonton, who is in the midst of having one of the worst NHL seasons since the lockout, and be utterly outplayed from beginning to end arguably requires more effort than it takes to get a win.
It is an epic fall from grace. Poetry in motion. Beautiful, in some ways.
Phoenix now remains at the top of the Pacific Division and it's hard to really feel any animosity towards the club at this point. If any team is to win the division besides San Jose, the Coyotes are the most deserving. It's a great story considering all that they went through in the offseason, and if San Jose is unable to manufacture something vaguely resembling a decent performance considering all that has happened since the Olympic Break, then I'm just not sure you can make the case that this isn't where things are supposed to be.
More tomorrow on individual players, as if that means anything. The poison that is coursing through the veins of San Jose has found it's way into the collective bloodstream.
An entity that has begun to wither from head to toe.
Go Sharks.
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This is just getting depressing.
I don’t know what our beloved Sharks need to wake themselves up. They certainly don’t need more days off, that’s for sure.
Proud member of the "Don't Trade Marleau" club.
Fear the Fin: Where Sharks Fans Aren't Like Other Sharks Fans.
by SharksFanEst.1994 on Mar 21, 2010 8:19 PM PDT reply actions
Put me in the camp (I'm not sure if there is a camp for this or not) of this losing streak actually being beneficial for the team.
I hate seeing the Sharks lose, especially to the Oilers, but I really think they are going to pull together and make them a stronger team. I don’t think that they can go much longer losing like this because it might turn into a negative, but I think they will pull out of it soon. My thoughts on the state of the Sharks right now is very complicated.
I know we have a great team full of great professional hockey players. I think it is best this is happening now instead of the last week of the season. I just hope they figure out how to win by the time the season does end.
Go Sharks!
As an (attempted) optimist, I somewhat believe that. I felt like that after the Dallas loss and they kept playing bad, but if Dallas did not set them off, this should be the game to do it.
Proud member of the "Don't Trade Marleau" club.
Fear the Fin: Where Sharks Fans Aren't Like Other Sharks Fans.
by SharksFanEst.1994 on Mar 21, 2010 8:37 PM PDT up reply actions
Great article Plank.
One point of disagreement. I don’t think there is any way we win the pacific division. Phoenix is the hottest team in the NHL and we are the coldest… Say Phoenix wins 7 of their last eight. We would have to win at least 8 of our last ten. That’s not happening. We’d have to play BETTER than the hottest team in the NHL over our last ten games….when we can’t even win one game….
We just lost the Pacific crown…. Past-tense…
by skilletboy on Mar 21, 2010 8:44 PM PDT via mobile reply actions
Now that’s some statement to make.
I don’t think there is any way we win the pacific division.
First, Yotes played one more game than the Sharks. If that game is a victory, Yotes are in second place.
Second, Sharks still play the Yotes in the last game of the regular season.
How’s that no way?
Fear the Fin - all Evgeni, all the time.
Sure. I see your point. That statement is obviously exaggerated.
But I stand by my statement. I don’t think it is realistically possible to catch back up to Phoenix.
What makes you think we can out play them down the stretch or beat them in one game? Right now we can’t beat anyone.
by skilletboy on Mar 21, 2010 9:46 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Because tomorrow isn’t right now? Hot and cold streaks come and go with no clear start or end and they are completely unpredictable. The best idea is just to assume that the team will play at it’s natural level in any given game, even if they’re going good or bad.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
This cold streak didn’t come out of nowhere. It took them a while to get here. It’s not going to end overnight.
by skilletboy on Mar 21, 2010 10:54 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
That’s a nice talking point, but sadly it has nothing to do with fact.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
So you assume every game that the sharks are going to play at their “normal level”? When they are currently slumping like this???
That’s not based on fact. They aren’t playing well and have continued to not play well. Do you seriously think they will simply snap out of it in between games as if nothing happened? We will see gradual small improvement before they get back to playing at “their normal level”.
That is how most bad losing slumps end.
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 8:34 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Yes, I expect them to play their next game at their normal level because that makes the most sense. This has been studied extensively and hot and cold streaks have no predictive value. Hell, Ivano just talked about this yesterday. The team was in a slump, and then all of a sudden they were playing great hockey again. Sort of shoots to shit this claim:
We will see gradual small improvement before they get back to playing at "their normal level".
That is how most bad losing slumps end.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
well we can go round and round on this…. I simply don’t agree at all and I think your nasty ass comments aren’t helping either…
Just becuase Ivano said something doesn’t make it so either. There are plently of other people saying the same things I am too…
agree to disagree I guess……
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 10:46 AM PDT up reply actions
Nasty?
You should have seen the first draft of that that I chopped up to make it presentable. If you want to believe the earth is flat, go ahead, it doesn’t make you right. As I said, this has been studied extensively and their is no predictive value. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact. And it’s not like Ivano just said something, he actually presented facts that happened. All you’ve presented is worthless cliches passed off as equal weight to things that are contrary and actually happened.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
alll right dude im trying to be fukin nice and you are going out of your way to be an ass….
“As I said, this has been studied extensively and their is no predictive value. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact.”
show me where this is some sort of established fact then….
and if you would look about THREE POSTS below there is a simlar discussion happening and I am not the only one stating this opinion…. Drew Remenda said the same damn thing the other night DURING the game… So’ im not that far off base here…
im done discussing this and im done with you. unless you want to get real personal with this I suggest you back to F off me right now.
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions
WHOA!
whoa whoa alright time out for you and Marcello and a hug for each of ya…ya both go cool off.
We all love the Sharks there’s no need to turn on each other.
"The coaches should tell the goalies to do the splits and then windshield wipers. That's how you'll block shots every time." - Peeny 3.13.10
"Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records."—Anonymous
by mssjsclowie29 on Mar 22, 2010 11:10 AM PDT up reply actions
I know good buddy..I know just simmadownnowyahear? Not just you M too.
"The coaches should tell the goalies to do the splits and then windshield wipers. That's how you'll block shots every time." - Peeny 3.13.10
"Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records."—Anonymous
by mssjsclowie29 on Mar 22, 2010 11:13 AM PDT up reply actions
Sure
You weren’t the one that started in with “nasty ass comments”.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
Well if Drew said it, it must be true. Announcers are never wrong about these types of things.
And hilarious that you want this to get “real personal”. I can tell from your scowl and beanie you are hardcore. Please don’t hurt me.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
you feel like meeting up to talk about it….
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 11:19 AM PDT up reply actions
Good to see that you’re still 12. I disagree with the bad man, I must fight him. Try using the thing between your ears.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
who’s the one making jokes and calling names??
agree to disagree and walk away like a man…
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 11:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Boo
I was hoping for a cage fight.
Two men enter, one man leaves.
Please tell me we have moved past the dark ages of post hoc ergo propter hoc.
by Yeti Monster on Mar 22, 2010 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions
Egads
I know i was holding my breath for an MMA throwdown right here. I figured I jumped in once unsuccessfully and should stay out of it after they kept going.
"The coaches should tell the goalies to do the splits and then windshield wipers. That's how you'll block shots every time." - Peeny 3.13.10
"Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records."—Anonymous
by mssjsclowie29 on Mar 22, 2010 11:45 AM PDT up reply actions
Although unsuccessful,
it was a valiant effort.
Please tell me we have moved past the dark ages of post hoc ergo propter hoc.
by Yeti Monster on Mar 22, 2010 11:59 AM PDT up reply actions
:D
if this were real life it would be funny as hell though me a whole 4ft 11 trying to stop two guys from duking it out and huggin them. HAHAHA
"The coaches should tell the goalies to do the splits and then windshield wipers. That's how you'll block shots every time." - Peeny 3.13.10
"Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records."—Anonymous
by mssjsclowie29 on Mar 22, 2010 12:03 PM PDT up reply actions
That would be pretty funny to see. :)
It’s also sort of funny that your favorite player is Clowe, who’s always willing to scrap, and yet you’ve played peacemaker a few times.
Juan Carlos Perez, please start hitting.
Meh
I’m a lover not a fighter…I leave that to my hubby. Could you imagine if Clowe and I were both scrappers we’ll be beating the crap out of each other all the time. Actually thats kinda seks…CLOWIE where are ya? I kid…really I just hate seeing people get all nasty with each other.
"The coaches should tell the goalies to do the splits and then windshield wipers. That's how you'll block shots every time." - Peeny 3.13.10
"Hockey players wear numbers because you can’t always identify the body with dental records."—Anonymous
by mssjsclowie29 on Mar 22, 2010 12:38 PM PDT up reply actions
If you guys decide to throw down, let me know so I can sell tickets. I’ll give a nice payout to the winner, too! Might as well make some money off of things like this! :)
"I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." ~Michael Scott
by ZeroIndulgence on Mar 22, 2010 3:06 PM PDT up reply actions
Realistically, the Coyotes are playing a ways above their skill level, and the Sharks are playing wayyyy below their skill level. Should either team start playing at their normal level, the Sharks are likely to end up on top again. In all likelihood the Coyotes hot streak will cool off, and the Sharks will start playing like they have all season long, if not better; and the Sharks will end up back on top of the Pacific division, if not the Western conference.
In all likelihood the Coyotes hot streak will cool off, and the Sharks will start playing like they have all season long, if not better
I have no idea what you are basing this statement on. The Sharks have been a sloppy team all season, and nothing short of world class goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov has managed to mask those issues.
Nabby’s game has finally come down to Earth, and the backchecking efforts of the forwards have completely vanished.
I see no reason why the team would turn it around at this point.
Losing streaks don’t HAVE to end. They end when the team makes a conscious decision to play better, to play through the bumps, bruises and grind of a long season, go mind over matter and grit it out. Until the Sharks AS A TEAM show this, there’s no real reason to believe it’ll happen. You can’t have 3 or 4 guys do it and expect it to be the difference.
Do not assume things will get better. They don’t have to.
The team that plays out of its mind is usually the one that wins. Will beats Skill, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, etc. etc. etc.
They're not getting this kind of coverage at "Hockey Night In Canada" folks! - Randy Hahn
I’ll rephrase it then. In all likelihood Nabokov will start playing better (hopefully at the level he was playing at earlier in the season or better), our forwards will start backchecking again, the team as a whole will stop making so many stupid mistakes, and the Sharks will be back playing at the level they were playing at all season long, if not better (most likely thanks to Couture).
You seem to have made a lot of assumptions about me. I’m definitely not one of those people who likes to say things like “hey it’s ok, it’s better that we get the losing streak out of the way now!” or anything like that, and i of course agree with all the hard work cliches.
Phoenix is currently playing out of their minds, but i can’t help but wonder how long they can keep that going when there’s still 4 or 5 weeks before the playoffs even begin.
It’s never a good thing when you’re playing like crap and going on losing streaks, and It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get out of the rut that the Sharks are in. But when/IF they do get out of that rut, they’ll have likely learned what it’s like to work hard and they’ll be a better team for it.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, etc. etc. etc.
So I don’t want to get into personal attacks here when the Sharks are down. But… With all due respect. I think you are in total denial. Everyone’s opinion is valued here at FTF but Elvis is soooo spot on. There is NO reason logically to assume the Sharks are coming out of this anytime soon.
It’s really hard to catch up to another team in the standings when they are playing much better than you, gave more pts, and you can’t even win one game….
by skilletboy on Mar 22, 2010 8:11 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
My apologies if it sounded personal
That’s just my frustration at the current streak being unintentionally taken out on someone else.
In terms of Phoenix coming down to Earth, I doubt they’ll string many more 9 game winning streaks together, but I think you have to legitimately look at them as a team that will win 4 of 7 fairly consistently from here on out. If the Sharks can’t match that, then the division is lost.
Hot streaks most frequently seem to happen to a team when they’ve been on the cusp of breaking through, maybe had a tough loss or two, but you’ve seen positives from the team AS A WHOLE.
The Sharks, since probably about a few weeks before the break, when they were on their incredible winning streak, were actually a team on edge, with some world class goaltending and streaky scoring masking a lot of flaws (there was that stretch of something like 9 games that they won in which they were outshot).
There is remarkably little, in my opinion, that shows that this team is capable of stringing any more wins in succession like that.
To address a few points you make:
But when/IF they do get out of that rut, they’ll have likely learned what it’s like to work hard and they’ll be a better team for it.
In principle, that is absolutely correct.
However, in looking at the games the past 2 months, it’s very hard to see the hallmarks of hard work in this team. There is not a consistent commitment to play the body or to get to the front of the net, or consistent winning of races to 50/50 pucks.
What doesn’t kill you does make you stronger. But what does kill you does kill you.
There have been a few “comeback” attempts in this current slump. People will point to Vancouver and Calgary, where we had Nabby pulled in the waning minutes to try and reverse the score. But I’d challenge anyone to look at those two games and see any semblance of desperation in the Sharks play 6 on 5.
Losing, I can handle. Getting BEAT, that’s a different story.
They're not getting this kind of coverage at "Hockey Night In Canada" folks! - Randy Hahn
The bottom line is that it’s unpredictable what’s going to happen with the sharks in the coming weeks, but it’s certainly not a forgone conclusion that the Coyotes are going to be first in the Pacific. I would be more surprised than not if the sharks weren’t first at the end of the regular season.
We can talk about whether the Sharks will ever start playing hard for 60 mins at a time but that would just be pointlessly negative.
ALL WE CAN DO IS WATCH, lol.
Tonight I can only comfort myself with the thought that two years ago Detroit lost 9 out of 10 games in February. Considering this year it’s an Olympic year, we’re only about 6 games ahead of that bad streak in a season. It looked just as pathetic, with losses to a good number of non-playoffs teams.
McLellan was there and I hope he knows how to wake up this crowd.
Fear the Fin - all Evgeni, all the time.
This is embarassing.
I don’t even know how to they’re going to fix it, but I just hope they do…I can’t say anything else…Go Sharks :-/
Go Sharks!
Free Fall
Well at least the pressure to succeed in the playoffs is lessening. Nobody expects us to do anything but lose
in the first round now.
Well once again we will find out pretty quickly if this
addition of the Sharks has anymore heart that the last
few.
If getting punked and embarrassed by the worst team in hocky isn’t a wakeup call, then this team is dead in the water.
Whe’re still with you Sharks, get it together for these last
ten games.
Comfortably numb.
Good way of putting it, yep. If the Sharks go pointless on this road trip and drop their first at home, SJ Sharkie needs to go into the dressing room with a goalie stick and “remind” the players what needs to be done.
"Skillet, we just spent $64,000 in that bar. So we're gonna have to get jobs to cover up the fact that we rob banks" -Mouse Fitzgerald
The last two weeks will be an awesome battle for the division.
I for one think it would be a great boost into the playoffs having the Sharks competing for the division title on the last day of the regular season with the Coyotes. It would create a practice run for the Sharks heading into the playoffs that they never seem to be quite ready for. So from my optimistic view I do think sliding into a battle with phoenix for the division these last couple weeks could put that little bit of fight into the Sharks that they haven’t had the past couple seasons since they just coasted into the finish.
Dude, lemme getchur keys.
On the Bright Side...
At least things can’t get worse. And at least it’s not the playoffs yet. I’d rather they stink now than in a month.
Is it wrong...
To look at the current standings in the West and think… “Wow, we’re far better off right now than we were a week ago.”
I know the losing streak is a problem, but I kinda want to finish in 4th.
"Douglas Murray is a humongous human being." – Drew Remenda
i also weirdly feel like
we could take almost all of the other teams in the playoffs, if we get back to where we should be. Only Chicago and Detroit give me the shakes. But then we’re obviously all underestimating the kings and coyotes
by a10dency2ask on Mar 21, 2010 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions
Why does it matter where we finish?
We’ve not shown the consistent ability to beat anyone in the playoff picture. You think Phoenix is a good matchup? LA? Vancouver? Colorado? Nashville?
This team just lost 5-1 to the Edmonton Oilers. And based off their play in the past 2 months, is there any reason we believe the result would be any different in a best of 7?
They're not getting this kind of coverage at "Hockey Night In Canada" folks! - Randy Hahn
Nope
Like I said, the losing streak is a problem, but I’d like to finish 4th overall.
The playoffs are going to happen in a few weeks whether we’re ready for them or not. When that happens I think we have a better shot if we’re 4th than 1st/2nd.
"Douglas Murray is a humongous human being." – Drew Remenda
It's pretty obvious....
That guys have opted out right now mentally. They are treating these games like house league games and are trying not to get hurt, banking on others to do the work, looking past the end of the season to the playoffs. Like the early goal where Malhotra just pointed with his stick and didn’t put his head down to catch up and Joes turnover, these are examples of players just coasting through games. This will get better when the players reach that mental point where they are ready to play playoff hockey and completely sell out. When do they start dropping to block shots? When do they start making open ice hits? When do they start skating on goal, looking for the shot in the slot? Some players are starting to show up but none of them are the top six guys. Is there reason for optimism? Sure there is. We can hope when they do come out of it that they’ll start a winning cycle that will both propel them further and also allow them to prove that they know how to win games. I mean how to really win a game in the sense of knowledge of what it takes on their checklist that they must do eveynight to win. Or, they don’t really emerge, flop in the playoffs, and this team turnsover the core. This could be either the start of a perfectly timed upswing for a Goliath in the NHL or this could be the end of the past four years.
As for what I think, Jumbo, take a seat and go watch The Hills. It’s called back-checking you laissez faire pussy.
I miss the Jack Daniels shot of the night and the San Jose Sharks drinking game. But I do not miss Marty McSorely.
by Shenkbone on Mar 22, 2010 4:40 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
i just learned about regression to the mean in my stats class the other day
all i hope is that this is the worst the sharks can get, and they don’t feel the need to keep making up for owning the majority of this season.
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