Jeremy Roenick had some thoughts about the San Jose Sharks in his weekly blog post on NHL.com.
And just like clockwork he decided to mention Patrick Marleau when talking about the Sharks struggles.
I talked about looking for the superstars to step up, so in San Jose I’m looking at Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski. You’re not going to get any consistency out of Patrick Marleau because he can’t find it in him to get angry, mad, ticked off enough to help lead this team out of the doldrums.
Right now I’d be scared. I’d be mad. I’d be huffing like a raging bull right now. I’m not sure that Patrick Marleau can do that. I don’t know if he has it in him to bring this team into the playoffs. I’d like to see him get angry, show some passion.
Marleau has been pointless in the last four games, but during that disastrous nine game road trip where the Sharks went 2-6-1 Marleau scored 6 goals and 4 assists.
He didn’t throw a chair through a window though, so he’s not a leader.
Again, the Sharks clearly deserve some form of criticism for their play as of late– any time you go 8-13-3 in a 24 game stretch the vultures are going to begin to circle, and deservedly so. This is a team that’s in free fall and desperately in need of two points tonight against a Dallas Stars that has rapidly improved as of late, and Marleau is a part of that disappointment.
But to single out Marleau during this streak is not only unfortunate, it’s flat out wrong. Marleau isn’t the player who has been the cause for the fall– he’s been just as good as anybody on the team outside of Joe Thornton– and his production has been acceptable during this period even if it’s not admirable.
We again have to go back to last year’s comments to provide some context as to why Roenick continues to go after Marleau. I think we made a pretty compelling case back on May 9, 2011— it clearly has to do with JR’s time with the Sharks and his view of Marleau as a Captain when JR was trying to win the Stanley Cup he never achieved– and while we’ve already dedicated about 380 words to the subject, that link is there for you to read through if you so wish because we’re done with it for today.
Big two points tonight.
Puck drops at 5:37 PM.
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