A shuffling of the lines
CHICAGO — Sharks forwards know what to expect by now after a game like Sunday’s 6-2 loss in Denver: new linemates.
And that’s exactly how things played out in practice today. Here are the four lines that were on the ice at the United Center for an hour and ten minutes:
Clowe-Thoronton-Cheechoo
Michalek-Marleau-Bernier
Mitchell-Pavelski-Grier
Roenick-Goc-Brown.
If that’s how things play out Wednesday night against the Blackhawks, it’ll be Curtis Brown’s first game of the young season with Patrick Rissmiller relegated to the sidelines.
Wilson said after the Colorado loss that he’d have his players watch video in hopes of correcting their mistakes, and before going out onto the ice, the team spent 50 minutes doing just that. “The film doesn’t lie,” Mike Grier said.
Other tidbits: Assistant general manager/goalie coach Wayne Thomas turned 60 today with players joining in for a chorus of “Happy Birthday” and genrous tapping of sticks on the ice in tribute. . . . The Blackhawks new regime has adopted a motto for the season that would give any Raiders fan pause: Commitment to Structure. No word yet if Al Davis is suing for illegal adaptation of slogan. . . . Defenseman Andre Zyuszin is expected to make his first start as a Blackhawk on Wednesday against the team that drafted him.
Finally for now, Wednesday is supposed to be the first day that the Sharks are able to sign tryout defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh to a contract, but GM Doug Wilson said he won’t be doing anything until he gets the signal from the league. The GM was non-committal on Ozolinsh’s possible future with the organization, saying only that Ozolinsh, now 35, has done everything the team has asked of him since coming to training camp. Because of visa issues, Ozolnish worked out in San Jose while the team was in Edmonton and Vancouver, then rejoined his potential teammates in Denver. Both Wilson and Ozolinsh have indicated they are open to the next step being a stint in Worcester, if needed.
One thing that needs to be done is for the media to stop the hype that the Sharks have ‘almost already’ won the Stanley Cup.
We don’t want the Sharks to start believing this yet at this early stage of the season, where they may think that all they have to do is show up and get 2 points.
The Sharks are a talented team and if they work hard they will achieve.
Our star player JT had a couple of cases where if he passed instead of shot it may have become a goal. That is not to say that he should not shoot but there should be some consideration if a couple of hot shots are waiting for the puck.
Any change in the defense pairings?
Why is Wilson’s solution always to juggle the lines? Does any thought go into line combinations or does he just draw names from a hat? Let guys play together for more than the first 3 games of the season.
Penny,
The defense pairings looked pretty familiar: McLaren and Ehrhoff, Rivet and Carle, Vlasic and Murray, plus Davison and Semenov (plus Ozolinsh).
Aaron,
I’ll take that as a rhetorical question to the world and not necessarily directed at me. That said, I’ve talked to him in the past and he believes players need to become comfortable in a variety of combinations and positions and not feel they need to be paired with one or two others to be successful.
Joseph,
I’m not pleading guilty, but I’ll take that under advisement. More important than what players may or may not read in the media is what they hear from their coaches and GM. And that’s been pretty upbeat, too — at least as presented by them through the media.
David
I still think the Sharks need a real #1 defensive scoring threat. Carle seems like he has the potential to be that guy, but isn’t ready. I watched the Edmonton game and was just in awe of Souray’s shot and ability. It made me really wonder why the Sharks didn’t go for him this offseason (or another #1 defenseman). I guess we can wait until some team struggles out of the gate and make a trade. Or, maybe the system doesn’t call for a high scoring defenseman. However, by looking at Stanley Cup champions they usually do have a scoring defenseman (Ducks, Wings, Avs, etc.).
Hi Dave,
What’s the status of Setoguchi?
Dave (from number 5.),
The Sharks made a big play for Souray, but the Oilers made him a HUGE offer the Sharks weren’t willing to match. I’d have thought he’d rather come to the Sharks, with a great opportunity to win a Cup, but I guess this shows where that is on his priorities. To some players, a chance to win the Cup is worth a lot of $. To others, the bottom line is how much they get paid. I apologize to Oilers fans, but the Oil is not going to win the Cup this year.
On another note: I second the request for Seto’s status. This has got to be frustrating for him after last year’s camp and now this. The injury has to be worse than reported because he’s been out for over a week.
David, definitely a rhetorical question. I get what Wilson is tyring to do but I don’t think it works when the changes come every 3-4 games. If things don’t go well for a number of weeks I support making changes but at various times in the first 3 games each line looked strong. Give them a little time to play their way through inconsistency. I think it’s possible there’s a correlation between all the line shuffling and our consistently inconsistent play from period to period and game to game. Two of the most effective lines in the NHL last seeason spent the majority of their time playing together (Heatley-Spezza-Alfreddson, Moehn-Paulsson-Niedermeyer). I understand that during injuries you need guys who can play with any one of their other teammates, but don’t you also need guys to understand their roles? I live in Boston and have sat through a number of Celtics games the past few years, and I think Ron Wilson may be the Doc Rivers of the NHL. One of the Celts biggest problems the past couple years has been the complete absence of any kind of assigned role for most of the players. Rivers would vary how he used his players so much, guys didn’t know when to expect to come in, or what they were expected to do once they did. I thiink there would be some benefit, especially with such young players, to giving them a specific role and let them focus on filling it. You can’t expect to develop a solid third checking line if you constantly move those guys in and out of the first line because it switches them between a scoring mentality and a defensive mentality. I’m also concerned about the pairing of Vlasic and Murray. It seems like the Sharks want Vlasic to be the #1 guy (top PP unit, top PK unit, minutes leader, etc) but is the team at all concerned about the continued developement of his offensive game while he has to worry about covering for Murray defensively? I think this kid has a ton of offensive potential but he’s so good defensively its hard not to ask him to focus on using those skills. I’m worried that if he spends too much time on his defensive game he’ll lose his offensive upside. I don’t think he is going necessarily put up huge numbers but he’s one of the best decision makers in the NHL when it comes to positioning and passing and those traits should eventually translate to the offensive end as well.
Totally agree with Aaron! Stop Juggling the Lines and give the Lines time to gel.
David,
What’s happened to the RSS feed off the Sharks page in the sports section?
I stopped getting updates and the page no longer has an RSS icon.
In response to the line juggling…I think that R. Wilson is correct that the players should not need to be playing with certain other players to be successful, but reading Michalek’s comments after playing with Marleau and Bernier again, the players definitely like to play with the same line consistently. I wonder what the motivation to put Marleau on the top line in the first place was? On that note, Cheechoo is simply not cutting it on the top line…I’d like to see Mitchell take his place, or Seto. Then again, when Seto is healthy, the Mitchell, Michalek, Setoguchi line is advertised to be one of the fastest in the league.
Overall, the Sharks should feel lucky to have 5 out of 8 points so far. I agree that they are guilty of thinking that they can win without trying, which is dead wrong. They could have lost to Edmonton and only took the lead with 3 minutes left last night. They need to step it up a notch if they seriously want to compete. I don’t see how many of the issues from last year with resiliency and consistency have been addressed.
I like the line of Joe, Cheechoo and Clowe and the line of Marleau, Michalek and Steve. I hope he keeps these lines. If this team can play a full 60 minutes they will be hard to beat.
It’s good to see Michalek with Marleau and Bernier. The line has instant chemistry and is dynamic on the ice.
Michalek and Marleau use their speed and creativity with one another, and Bernier drives the net a long with opening the ice for his line mates with his physical game.
I love that line!
Cheechoo should be on the first line, he is a slow started, so I say let him work through it.
With all the furor that was in the press about the Sharks being the next Stanley Cup Champions……..well, let me make a point clear to anyone and everyone who wants to listen (especially the Sharks players)
In order to win the Cup, the Sharks will have to beat, the Ducks, the Stars and the Red Wings and a few other up and coming teams with consistency. Without that achieved, it will be a cold day in hell before the Sharks win a Stanley Cup.
Also to be able to score on a powerplay and during a shoot out. Worst record in the league.
Everyone waits for Joe to do it. Hopefully nothing happens to JT and EN because if it does, good bye playoffs.