@ 7:30 PST
24-22-7, 55 points		29-15-6, 64 points
12th in Western Conference		3rd in Western Conference

This is where the lede goes in a news story. It tells you the most important information from the story like who is involved and what they've done or are going to do. For example, the lede for today would center around the fact that San Jose Sharks will be playing a game of ice hockey against a mediocre Calgary Flames team tonight at 7:30 PM, and will be looking to rebound from a 5-3 loss to Phoenix on Saturday.

That's kind of a long lede, which isn't ideal. However, a short sentence here can ease the transition.

The second part of a news story is the nutgraf, although the nutgraf can also be the lede. I know, it can get a little confusing. This is the part of the story that tells you why this is important and expands upon what this story is about. The nutgraf for this story would be the fact that this game is important because it is one of only two home games remaining before the Sharks hit the road for a long nine game road trip west of the Mississippi. Earning points against a less than imposing opponent is a great thing to take advantage of before these long road trips, especially when your team has games in hand.

Now you have a couple of options. The first is to provide a quote from a source. This introduces an expert's opinion into your story and gives your readers a sense of learning about specific details they can't get anywhere else.

Since I consider myself an expert I will quote myself. Please note this will get you canned quicker than the last yield of tomatoes before winter if you're working anywhere else other than Fear The Fin.

"These next two weeks are going to tell us, and most importantly Doug Wilson, a lot about this team. It really sets the stage for what we can expect at the trade deadline," I said in a sit-down interview with myself. "Games against teams like the Flames are one of those matchups that you expect to win because it sets the tone for the upcoming road trip. A poor effort tonight is far from the end of the world, but with points at a premium, these are the kinds of games where your Coach and General Manager are expecting you to get into the win column."

The next part of the formula is to continue to structure your information in the pyramid style. This means the most important information comes at the beginning of the article (who is playing, why it is important) and each subsequent paragraph contains anecdotes and other bits of information that aren't essential but still provide value.

An example of this would be the fact that boy wonder Logan Couture is hotter than Hansel right now, with a six game point streak where he has amassed 4 goals and 5 assists. This would generally be tied in with the return of Ryane Clowe, who hasn't skipped a beat since returning from injury-- Clowe has posted three assists and one goal in two games since returning last Thursday against Dallas.

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To watch the press conference, visit sjsharks.com

Today at 2:30 PM (PST), Owen Nolan will be given a one day contract by the San Jose Sharks so he can officially retire as a member of the team. Nolan, who has been out of the game for two years, played parts of eight seasons with San Jose, his most with any franchise.

In Nolan's tenure with San Jose, he scored 206 goals and 451 points, leaving him amongst the organization's higest scoring players of all time. Aside from his statistics, Nolan is remembered for a moments; his called shot in the All-Star Game, his goal from the center ice against Roman Turek, and his railroading of Ed Belfor, among other things, stand out as great moments in a great career.

As captain of the Sharks, Nolan came to embody the franchise and cement them in the hearts of the city. We welcome you to reflect on your memories of his time in San Jose throughout today.

Last week, the Worcester Sharks traveled to the Mile One Centre in St. John’s, NL, to play the hosting St. John’s IceCaps in back-to-back games and skated away with a split. Overall, the Sharks are now 21-14-4-5 with 51 points, and are in third place of the Atlantic Division of the AHL Eastern Conference, 11 points behind the division leading IceCaps.

On Friday night {Feb. 3}, the Sharks were defeated 3-2, marking the first time in six games the home team won a game in the season series. Mike Connolly and Jack Combs scored for the Sharks while goalie Harri Sateri {10-7-0, 2.59 goals against average, .907 save percentage} stopped 28-of-31 shots in the loss.

IceCaps defenseman Arturs Kulda gave the IceCaps a 1-0 lead with his fourth goal of the season at 17:44 of the first period. With the puck inside the Sharks zone, IceCaps forward Riley Holzapfel sent a pass out to the top of the right point to Kulda, who fired a quick slap shot on net through traffic that beat Sateri over the shoulder for the goal.

Connolly tied the game at 3:50 of the second period with his ninth goal of the season after Sharks forward Tim Kennedy stole the puck behind the IceCaps net, and centered the puck in front for Connolly, who fired a quick snap shot on net from inside the right slot that beat IceCaps goalie Edward Pasquale on the blocker side for the goal.

IceCaps defenseman Paul Postma regained the IceCaps lead with a power play goal, his eighth goal of the season, at 5:25. With Sharks defenseman Nick Petrecki in the penalty box for delay of game, the Sharks won the ensuing face-off and cleared the puck. However, the IceCaps rushed right back into the Sharks zone and Postma fired a rocket of a slap shot on net from on top of the face-off circles that beat Sateri for the goal.

IceCaps forward Kevin Clark extended the lead to 3-1 with his eighth goal of the season at 15:35. Dumping the puck into the Sharks zone, Clark won a battle for the puck in the left corner against Sharks forward Marek Viedensky and skated towards the right corner. The puck was corralled by IceCaps forward Jason Gregoire, who fired a quick shot on net from on top of the right face-off circle that Sateri stopped. However, no Sharks player put a body on Clark, who was all alone on top of the goalie crease, and Clark corralled the rebound and stuffed the puck past Sateri for the goal.

Combs cut the IceCaps lead to 3-2 with his eighth goal of the season at 18:51. Entering the IceCaps zone on the left side, Combs fired a rocket of shot from on top of the left face-off circle that Pasquale stopped. The puck went to the right corner, where Sharks forward James Livingston leveled IceCaps forward John Albert with a solid check. Albert stayed down on the ice in an effort to draw a penalty on Livingston, and several other IceCaps players stopped playing while Livingston and Combs continued to battle for the puck. Combs won the battle for the puck, and centered the puck in front to linemate Chad Costello, who passed the puck back to Combs, who slammed the puck into an open net at the right side for the goal.

In the third period, the Sharks outshot the IceCaps 7-6 but couldn’t get the puck past Pasquale for the tying goal.

For the game, the Sharks were outshot 31-25, were 0-for-2 with the man advantage and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill... Cam MacIntyre {inj}, Ben Guite {inj}, Tony Lucia {inj}, Ryan Del Monte {scr} and Curt Gogol {scr} did not dress for the Sharks... Tyson Sexsmith was called up to San Jose on Feb. 2 while Antero Niittymaki was reassigned to Worcester... Combs extended his point streak to five games {2-5-7}.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Parsons of www.stjohnsicecaps.com

On Saturday night {Feb. 4}, the Sharks won the rematch, 4-2, in a rock ‘em, sock ‘em game that referee Marcus Vinnerborg lost control of early by swallowing his whistle. Both teams combined for 112 penalty minutes and an AHL season high six sets of fighting majors.

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Happy Pigskin day everybody! I should mention that as you read this post, Soloact has a great complimentary post with running magic and tragic numbers that's worth reading as well.

We're looking at the playoff picture based on score adjusted Fenwick% again this week (with a minor correction). I also wanted to pick up on something I had posted earlier in the year when we looked at how SJ has compared to the elite teams in the west. This time I added a team by team comparison, as well as plotting expected fenwick% to see which teams SJ has performed well against. Tables and charts after the jump.

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You wouldn't necessarily expect a tilt with the Phoenix Coyotes to be a high-event affair but with 38 scoring chances between the teams over the course of the evening, it was exactly that. Although the Sharks had a greater share of possession early in the first period, the Coyotes really carried the play by the chances, outchancing the Sharks 8-2 in the game's opening twenty minutes in addition to a couple of shots from the outside that rang iron courtesy Gilbert Brule and Adrian Aucoin.

San Jose turned the tables in the second, registering 12 chances to Phoenix's 7 including a 4-0 chance run to open the period that ended with a Logan Couture goal as the All-Star center deflected a shot from Ryane Clowe at point-blank range then converted the rebound. Phoenix would tie the game just 32 seconds later as, despite Michal Handzus winning a neutral zone faceoff, the Sharks ceded the blue line and Dan Boyle failed to pick up Raffi Torres who roofed the puck over Antti Niemi to end a lengthy shutout streak for the Sharks netminder.

The Coyotes took a 2-1 lead 9:21 into the period as a tenacious forecheck by Boyd Gordon stripped the puck from Colin White behind the net and allowed Shane Doan to set up a wide open Lauri Korpikoski for a one-timer that found twine. Adrian Aucoin would punch Torrey Mitchell in the head a little over a minute later putting the Sharks on the man advantage and a power play that's been dominant at generating shots and chances all season long but is finally starting to see the fruits of their labor manifest as of late connected once again as Jamie McGinn deflected a slap-pass from Brent Burns past Mike Smith. The game would stay tied until a disastrous line change for the Sharks gifted Phoenix a 2-on-1 with Ray Whitney setting up Martin Hanzal for a goal that deflected off Burns' stick and into the net.

Despite score effects suggesting that the Coyotes would likely sit back and play conservatively in the third, they ended up outchancing the Sharks 5-3 while both goalies were in net, doing an excellent job of limiting the Sharks' opportunities while picking up an insurance tally from Korpikoski that would prove to be the game winner. Though San Jose did end up outshooting Phoenix 35-24 and got a late goal from Patrick Marleau to close the gap on the scoreboard, it's tough to win in the NHL when you give up 20 scoring chances (Full chance summary after the jump). The offense was there for the Sharks but poor defensive coverage and a few ill-advised errors ended up burning them.

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Here are some of today's news stories in what is likely going to be a game which sets national TV viewing records. Sharks v. Coyotes at 5:00 on a Saturday... do you have all your snacks ready for the big game?!

> Antti Niemi is back in goal tonight, according to David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury.

> Don't let that worry you too much, though, as Greiss is being recognized by his coaching staff and will get more starts down the stretch, via Kevin Kurz of CSN.

> Owen Nolan is holding a press conference Monday at HP, likely to announce his retirement.

	@ 5:00 PST
29-14-6, 64 points		22-21-8, 52 points
3rd in Western Conference		12th in Western Conference

It's amazing how much one offseason can change a team.

Not player wise, as those things happen. But in the product iced. The Sharks haven't fallen into this category lately; they've remained a consistent top three seed in the Western Conference over the last five or so years. While they've never reached hockey's golden stage, they're stunningly consistent. I take that as a positive, others, not so much. Not an debate I want to get into now, though.

Phoenix has not been blessed with this kind of consistency. After a long stretch of seasons in which they didn't sniff the playoffs, Phoenix snuck in and looked to be turning the corner when they took the Detroit Red Wings to seven games. The next season, they were swept by the same Wings in four but still looked like a quality hockey club.

Not anymore.

The Coyotes are 3-4-3 in their last ten, second to last in power play percentage this season, and in the last third of the league in goal scoring overall. Dave Tippett is still a guy who gets his team to play hard, and the goal prevention numbers shine through. But with practically the same group of forwards and defensemen, the Coyotes are slowly burning into ash.

You could argue that Ilya Bryzgalov's absence has had something to do with it, but you would be wrong. Goaltending hasn't been the issue at all, as Mike Smith has been excellent, especially sparkling in a 3-0 shutout of San Jose earlier this season. Phoenix, again, looks like it lacks the necessary talent to put the puck in the net; Radim Vrbata and Shane Doan just can't carry this load for them.

How does this happen? A few ways. First, Phoenix isn't exactly destination numero uno for marquee free agents in the offseason, attracting even less big names than San Jose. It doesn't help when you miss on draft picks either, and although Kyle Turris looks like he'll be a decent player now that he's in Ottawa, the former third-overall pick was a bust in Phoenix and is a step backwards for an organization where developing your own talent is essential.

Lastly, the murky ownership situation isn't an easy road to haul for anyone. Ups and downs eventually take their toll on a team, and this year, all of the above circumstances likely mean that the downs this year will spell another year without playoffs (or playoff income) for the Coyotes.

As I write this, though, it's easy to forget that Phoenix is a team who consistently plays San Jose well, evidenced in the 3-0 shutout earlier in the year.

Luckily for San Jose, they're getting healthy (finally) and can almost ice their entire roster. Ryane Clowe is back and Antti Niemi will likely be ok tonight or by Wednesday after taking a shot to his Niemis. Look for the Sharks to keep rolling.

Prediction: Sharks win 3-1. McGinn hat trick. WHAT.