Shark Week: Week Eleven Power Rankings

“Shark Week” will be a piece that runs every week on Fear the Fin, where Plank and TCY will track the progress of the players over the course of each week. The players are listed alphabetically, the arrows will indicate the change on a weekly basis. We will also keep track of our top five Sharks players each week.

Big stick tap to Japer’s Rink, whose weekly feature called “Capitals Ups and Downs” helped inspire this series. In fact, we pretty much stole it entirely.

Goalies___________	Trending	Notes
Antti Niemi		He’s played his best hockey of the season in December, going 3-3-1 with a 2.22 GAA and a .922 SV%. He didn’t close out Nashville as he should have, but he played a magnificent game against Dallas on Monday.
Antero Niittymaki		Niittymaki has been given more starts over the course of the last week, but was inconsistent. He played a poor game against Dallas where the Sharks were lucky to come out with a win, but was instrumental in the game against St. Louis. Looking to grab more starts to close out 2010.
Defensemen_______
Dan Boyle		Minutes are still up as he played over 25 minutes every game last week, but finally started to score. He’s posted 3 assists in his last four games. Minutes will always be an issue for him.
Justin Braun		The kid is a machine, and he’s one factor in the team’s recent success. Still isn’t where we’d like him to be defensively, but the coach trusts him enough to put him out there. The young defenseman has nine points in just 13 games this year.
Jason Demers		Don’t take the flat line as a suggestion that he’s getting worse. He’s playing well on both sides of the red line, but we’d like to see more of the offensive brilliance we know he’s capable of displaying. No points in his last three games, and he needs to shoot more (We liked the 6 shots he had in Dallas).
Kent Huskins		He’s played two games since returning from injury, and looked a bit slow against Dallas playing only 16:07. His minutes should increase as we move forward.
Derek Joslin		He lost his starting job to a combination of Braun’s emergence and Huskins’ return. There just wasn’t any room for him. This isn’t to say he’s that bad, having skilled young defenseman is a blessing. Likely demotion coming once Murray returns.
Douglas Murray		What looked like a minor injury has kept Murray out since 12/11. The team misses his physicality.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic		Brine Time is must see TV. He’s playing well defensively after struggling in that regard early, and has been scoring in bunches. He has two goals and three assists in December.
Niclas Wallin		Remains one of the team’s most valuable blue liners, and he’s scoring all of a sudden. Another goal for Wallin would match his career high. Hamburgers.
Forwards__________
Ryane Clowe		What. A. Player. “Chippy Clowe” has been hot in December, and we’re not talking about his v-neck sweater ensemble. His board play is second to none, and he’s created space for Couture to flourish.
Logan Couture		We thought he’d be good. We didn’t know he’d be great. He isn’t just leading all rookies in goal scoring… he’s fifth in the NHL with 17. As a rookie.
Benn Ferriero		He’s still an important part of the FCC line, but he’s been pretty invisible as of late. Just three points in December, and has been bounced down to the fourth line at times.
Dany Heatley		Heatley has remained the best of the Sharks top three, but that’s not saying much considering that they’ve been extremely disheartening for much of the month. Need much more from them if San Jose is to establish Western Conference supremacy.
Patrick Marleau		Two straight weeks of the down arrow for Marleau. However, his game against St. Louis was his best of the recent stretch. One assist, and a plus two. Team still needs more than that, but recent play has offered that glimmer of hope.
Jamal Mayers		Scrapped against his former St. Louis brethren on Saturday. He’s been good at what he was brought here to do– forecheck, log fourth line minutes, and drop the gloves.
John McCarthy		Hadn’t been a factor as of late, and lost his job when Setoguchi returned. Barring an injury, don’t expect him back in the lineup any time soon.
Jamie McGinn		He’s not scoring, but he may be one of the hardest working guys out there. He’s leading the team in hits in December and has looked good with Setoguchi and Pavelski.
Torrey Mitchell		Scored an important goal in Dallas, but he needs to shoot the puck more. His ice time has fluctuated.
Scott Nichol		Leads the team in face-off percentage for the second straight year.
Joe Pavelski		Has returned to form recently centering “The Redemption Line” (McGinn – Pavelski – Setoguchi). Two assists in each of his last two games.
Joe Thornton		Two points in six games isn’t what we expect from Thornton. The fact thas his wingers are struggling doesn’t help. Has worked on his defensive game, which is a plus, but his check gets cashed for goals and assists.
Devin Setoguchi		Being in the coach’s dog house has lit a fire under Setoguchi. He’s back from injury and scoring like he did in his sophomore season: three goals in his last three games. Watch out for him.

Logan Couture (10)*
Ryane Clowe (8)
Dan Boyle (5)
Marc- Edouard Vlasic (2)
Devin Setoguchi (1)

*The number in parenthesis tracks the FTF Top Five over the course of the 2010-2011 season. Five points for a week in first place, four for a week in second, etc.