My father responds to the dissection of this years’ Sharks with his usual wit and insight thusly:
First, regarding Patrick Marleau: I like a lot of what Marleau does on the ice, his work ethic, and, of course, his stats don’t lie. But I’ve come to the rather peculiar conclusion that, for all his overall hockey skills, he’s a below average puck handler/passer. Mind you, he can definitely shoot, no question about that, but (and I’m guessing no one keeps stats on this) I’d bet that easily 60% of his passing attempts are off the mark or directly onto the stick or skates of an opponent. He also gets his pocket picked far more often than, say, Cheechoo or even Michalek. This latter problem could be that he tries a bit too hard, attempting slick little dipsy-doodles slipping the puck around a defender to one side and trying to circle around him and retrieve it on the other or zipping it between the defenders skates. That works, like, one time out of every thirty or so attempts. Of course, when it works he’s on a breakaway but when it doesn’t he’s left coasting into the offensive zone without the puck which now belongs to the defender at the blue line. None of which changes my agreement with your bottom line which is that Marleau is a tremendous asset to the team. But it might help explain why such a prolific point-scorer is a -8.
Second, regarding Kyle McLaren: There was a time that I considered him one of the Sharks’ best defenders, albeit one whose shots are far more likely to find the netting at the top of the glass than the netting in the goal—even with no goalie. However, while I still think he’s more good than bad, I’m surprised at how often he makes bonehead plays in his own zone, especially unforced turnovers. It sometimes seems his brain is on about a half-second delay from his actions. Nonetheless, he wouldn’t be my first choice to replace on defense.
Speaking of defense, though, I think this is the key weakness for the team. Their defensive corps is very young which translates to mistake-prone. While the speed of the NHL can suppress the scoring skills of many a phenom forward, they can still cope and often be reasonably effective. However, it appears to be almost overwhelming for rookie defensemen. Minor missteps or slight errors in positioning that were easily recovered-from at lower levels become devastating scoring chances in the NHL. Scott Hannan is a prime example. As good as he is now, he struggled a lot his first year. After Hannan and McLaren experience is almost nonexistent. Preissing, Davison, and Ehrhoff are, essentially, in their second seasons. Jorges, Murray, and Carle are rookies. Fahey is in his third season but, as you noted, is the least skilled. Add to that the number of very young front-liners who also may not be as astute as they should in covering their defensive responsibilities and the Sharks aren’t likely to bag a lot of shutouts. The last game they played against Detroit illustrated all too clearly the sizable gap between a top-notch defense and their own.
One final thought: What on earth is up with the Sharks’ ineptitude during shoot-outs? It’s not as if the goalies are making spectacular saves against them either. They regularly get stoned on mundane shots—that is, if they get a shot off at all. It’s embarrassing!
I’d agree with the criticisms of Marleau; his speed is remarkable and he’s got a spectacular shot, but if you notice he rarely does what some of the really top scorers like Ovechekin and Jagr do which is make that little stick deke or half shot fake, and I think that’s because he’s not that great with his hands. And for a Center, his passing is definitely sub-par.
McLaren I agree makes mistakes sometimes, but I sort of overlook it for a couple of reasons: One, he hardly ever does what a lot of the younger rookies do which is cough up a turnover high in the neutral zone which almost always leads to breakaways or short, transitional odd man rushes that are simply murder. If he does turn it over it is typically on a mistimed or poorly executed pass to the point which certainly isn’t something to praise, but isn’t a deadly mistake. Secondly some of his defensive zone gaffes come from his physical play. I mean, if you whiff on a six-stride hip check, you’re going to be out of position for several pivotal seconds. Still, I’d rather see him try the check and miss occasionally than not even try at all and just stand there swinging his stick back and forth.
You know, like Rathje used to do every shift, every game.
And there’s nothing I can say except to express full agreement that the weak point on the Sharks is their D. I’d say that a lot of Nabokov’s woes this season are due to the Shark’s defense struggling in the early part of the year and the offense being inconsistent which left Nabokov feeling like he had to win games on his own. When he wasn’t able to do that I think it may have shaken his confidence and left him struggling to get his game back.
Before I say anything myself about the Sharks in the shootout, I’d like to direct your attention to a San Francisco Chronicle article describing how the shootout has actively hurt the Sharks—and only the Sharks—this year. I’m not sure what the problem is. Obviously the Sharks have some great goal-scorers. They haven’t faced a Shark-killer like CuJo or Turco every time they’ve gotten to the tie-breaker and I’ve even seen San Jose goalies put on some impressive performances trying to keep the Sharks in the contest. But somehow they just can’t seem to get the job done.
What gives?
My only theory is that Ron Wilson simply didn’t think at the the beginning of the season that it was really going to matter that much. At the point of the shootout there’s already one point on your side and maybe he just thought, “We’ve got enough snipers on the team to pull us through and that will be enough” and didn’t practice it at all. Whereas you look at the Dallas Stars who’ve only lost one shootout this year, they told everyone that they had practiced the shootout like mad. You think the Sharks wish they had the 11 points Dallas earned from shootouts?
Exactly.
