The Sharks have a week down in the books for the 2019 season and honestly? I’m feeling pretty good.
Maybe it’s the residual high of eight Sharks goals last night, but it seems more likely a result of the Sharks only really having one bad performance in their four games so far. Sure, the Sharks have been a bit unlucky, but I can’t hate what they’ve been doing outside of that Islanders game.
So I’m here to touch base with fans and help ease the Sharks-related worries that still exist.
Seriously, when is Spott going to be fired? I’ve wanted to straight up decline power plays going back to the latter parts of the 16-17 season.
— Scott Stephens (@scstephens10) October 9, 2018
Seriously, it’s not going to happen.
It is the weirdest thing that Sharks fans fixate on, but here’s the thing: Spott wouldn’t have a job if he weren’t doing things the way Pete DeBoer wanted them done. They’ve had plenty of opportunity to fire him and they haven’t and that’s not for nothing.
Possibly because the Sharks are doing all of the things that are shown to lead to scoring on the power play. With the addition of Erik Karlsson, that’s only going to improve. The power play is going to be fine.
Just ask the two power play goals last night.
When Jumbo comes back, does he go on pp2? Or did DeBoer only do that because his knee was swelling up?
— Brown (@Brownagedon) October 9, 2018
So by all accounts, it seems like the swelling was happening after the Kings game where Thornton played on the second power play unit, but given that we now know it’s an infection, not aggravating an injury, it seems likely he’d felt something wrong before the game.
After last night’s fairly effective power play — two power plays goals, and another scored just as the penalty expired — I almost wouldn’t mind if they kept Thornton away from the power play all together. The second power play unit was the one that really came together last night, so do we want to mess with that yet? My initial reaction is no.
I think for the time being, it’ll give Thornton less responsibility to let the kids handle it.
When will you be doing your annual sharks bbq party episode?
— Josh Ⓥ (@KurtBevodka) October 9, 2018
Is it annual if we’ve only done one?
Kyle and I are working on figuring out guests for the season and such. We’ll find the perfect person to talk very little about actual Sharks hockey and a good amount about who destroys whom at beer pong when Jumbo throws a house party.
Now that we’ve put ourselves on a regular recording schedule, hopefully that will happen soon.
first thoughts on Suomela?
— Dymond (@_dym0nd) October 10, 2018
Wowee.
Look, we thought Antti Suomela was going to be good, but there’s no way we could’ve known he’d be this good. Did you know his Corsi-for percentage right now is 78.05? That’s first in the league among skaters with at least 20 minutes so far this season. And linemate Joonas Donskoi isn’t far behind with 71.11.
That line is going to outperform their third line duties and it’s fun as hell to watch.
Everyone who said we were expecting too much out of Suomela or that he’d be a fourth liner can officially and respectfully eat our shorts.
That all being said, he’ll probably slump at some point in the season, as first years are wont to do. But it’s never too early to start his Calder campaign and get out ahead of it. (Elias Pettersson who?)
in the unlikely event the rest of the road trip goes this well and then lines just keep clicking…. Where do you put jumbo?
— David Gotlieb (@DavidGotlieb) October 10, 2018
Press box.
I can tell you right now, Jumbo is going to come back too early. You know how I know this? Because last year, he played with his knee at 80 percent to start the season, Joe Pavelski played with a broken hand in October and Martin Jones still started 60 games with a back injury. This team is really bad about playing through injuries.
If this road trip continues to go well, I’m fine with the Sharks riding this out for as long as they can until Thornton is well and truly 100 percent.
And you know why I want this? Because I genuinely think we’re looking at Thornton’s last season. I don’t want anything keeping him out of this year’s playoff run and coming back too early risks that every time he’s on the ice.
Anything less than 100 percent good? He can watch from the press box.
Are the sharks good?
— Sean (@Seansy89) October 10, 2018
The Sharks are Actually Good.
Sorry, Jeffler.