[News] No more C for Jumbo Joe?

[FAN]

Originally Posted by Freeway

2003-04 Flames had Lowry and Conroy.

Granted Lowry was barely an NHL player and Conroy volunteered to give up the captaincy.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by kenk-la

The Sharks have been to the conference finals three times over that span, or does their series in 2010 against Chicago not count?

To your point I've never seen a team strip the captaincy off two different players and have those two players still both play on the same team. Having said that, I just don't think both of those guys will be gone by seasons end, nor do I think the team will "implode." The Sharks have the pieces, but they haven't had the necessary puck luck or had an easy path. Thornton and Marleau are still productive players who are fan favourites, they have massively underrated players in Vlasic and Pavelski who are in their prime, Couture is coming into his prime, some young prospects (Hertl, Nieto, Mueller), decent defense corps, and solid goaltending with Niemi and Statlock.

My bad, I was going from memory and I double checked after I posted that, you are correct.

My point still stands. "Puck luck"? "Easy path"? You've gotta be kidding me. When it's 11 seasons it ceases to be about the "bounces" and is more a systemic issue. They have finished in the top five for 7 of those 11 years, including a few top 3 finishes and a President's Trophy. They should be the "tough path" for teams to go through, and instead they tend to lay down and not fight harder when it comes playoff time. The fact that they have guys like Couture, Pavelski, Vlasic, Hertl, Nieto, Mueller, Niemi etc. means they CAN move Thornton and Marleau for either some future help, or some players right now. Those two have never really been clutch players in the playoffs, despite years of being incredibly successful players. That team has no heart and it's because the team looks to those two to lead them. Couture would be a much better captain than either of those two.

[puckedoff]

Jumbo Joe has a NMC, and was used as a pawn by the Sharks to get Marleau to resign there.
I don't think he has any desire to waive his NMC for a trade, and I don't think he is too concerned about giving up the captaincy. After all these years of 'disappointing' in the playoffs, he may well be looking forward to contributing from a passenger role and continuing to live in Cali.

[Voodooman]

I remember being up in Greaserville a few years ago (likely 6 or 7) and hearing Ryan Rishaug talking on the Team1200 after one of the first SJ flameouts in the playoffs. The basic gist of it was that Joe doesn't really care about winning that much. Rishaug said he talked to an unnamed teammate, and mentioned to him that it seemed like Joe got over the disappointment of the early playoff exit quickly, and that by garbage bag day, he was already in full cottage mode, the season long forgotten.

The teammate said (and I remember the quote quite vividly) "You're giving him far too much credit. Joe had forgotten about the loss by the end of the handshake line. In the dressing room, he was already talking about getting to the lake ASAP"

Puckedoff nailed it. Joe doesn't care about being the captain, and will likely continue to refuse any trade talk, as he's happy being totally invisible and unknown in Cali.

[cannon7]

This is a pretty big mistake. If you can't trade him, there's no point in demoting him until you have an obvious replacement for captain. Question his leadership all you want, but Marleau failed just as badly as captain.

Who knows, maybe this roster will find a way through. They've been earmarked as Cup favorites so many times now only to drop out in the first round that one can only assume there's problems in that locker room. Marleau and Thornton are really just the lightning rods as former captains. Can't imagine a guy like Pavelski can do any bettter...

[Vulcan]

To me this looks like, we'll make things uncomfortable for you until you agree to a trade. If this doesn't work, we'll start to cut your ice time.

[dustygoon]

To me it looks like....i'm pretty sure i have a good team, they have done a lot of good things, deep down it seems dumb to make major changes, but my new owner boss who has too much time on his hands who just peesed off half the STH fan base by bringing in ice girls, is breathing down my neck to do "something". So I will pull some letters off the jersey.