With all of the playoff action going on, the news about Evgeni Nabokov's nomination for the Vezina was sort of lost. A lot has been said about Nabby's strong play throughout the year and if you're a Sharks fan, I don't need to convince you that Number 20 should take the post-season award. However, with that said, let's take a look at all three of the finalists.
After the frustrating loss in Calgary, where the Sharks were thrown off of their game due to the "rough stuff", I began to wonder why Team Teal's current pack of tough guys (Shelley, Murray, and Clowe) didn't try to get Sarich to drop the gloves. Granted, it's the playoffs and fighting is usually a rare occurrence, but when your captain gets dropped and receives a bloody nose, I think something has to happen. This lack of response led me to think about former San Jose tough guys who might have done something about the hit. The obvious ones came to mind: McSorley, Gaetz, Odgers, Nazarov, Marchment, and Parker. However, one player in particular stood out in my head and had me wondering "what ever happened to him?".
When the San Jose Sharks take the ice tonight to take on the Dallas Stars, they will be without Jonathan Cheechoo for a second consecutive game. Number 14 has been the hottest player on Team Teal during the recent winning streak and his absence is forcing coach Ron Wilson to juggle lines. As we saw against Phoenix the other night, juggling may not be in out best interest.
I was looking at the NHL stats this morning and saw that Joe Thornton was again in second place in the 'Assists Race'. I know that he's been battling the Boston Bruins' Marc Savard, but who is this guy? I never really heard much about him, but he seems to be keeping pace with arguably the best assist-man in the world. So here's a brief look at the Boston center.
To be honest, I didn't know that Brian Boucher was still playing hockey. At any rate, he does give us some depth in net. Moreover, he might be able to take a couple of games from Nabokov down the stretch to give Number 20 some rest before the playoffs. Overall, not too exciting, but a smart move.
With the addition of Brian Campbell to the lineup, the San Jose Sharks simply had too many defenseman. Consequently, one had to be moved...looking up and down the roster, Davison made the most sense.
It hasn't been a secret that the San Jose Sharks were looking for a puck moving defenseman, and it looks like they got him. Brian Campbell, an All-Star starting defenseman this year, is headed to San Jose for Steve Bernier and a 1st round pick. Now, Team Teal may be able to compete with all of the other Western Conference teams that have All-Star defensemen patrolling their bluelines.
On October 27th, Ryane Clowe injured his knee in a loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The extent of the injury was unknown for a while; in fact, even recent reports state that his ACL is "damaged" which doesn't really clear things up. However, one thing is for sure, Number 29 will be out for a while.
Great. The last thing I need is another blog about the San Jose Sharks to serve as competition. In the blogosphere, there are only so many eyeballs out there that are willing to read your stuff, and now I have to compete with a blog written by an actual player?! Just not fair.
As many San Jose Sharks fans know, former team coach Darryl Sutter loves signing players that he's coached in the past. All you have to do is to take a look at the Calgary Flames linuep to see what I'm talking about. On their bench, there are a lot of faces that San Jose fans should recognize, and you can now add Mark Smith's mug to that list.