Sharks Look Towards Next Half
The New Year brings with it a revitalized hope in San Jose as the Sharks prepare themselves for the last half of the season as they are going into it with some much needed help in two very important positions. Going into the Christmas break, the Sharks were 7-3-2 in their last 12 games and with the additions of a legitimate #1 goalie and #1 defenseman in Belfour and Ohlund, the team has high hopes that the playoffs are a real possibility.
So far the scoring has been fairly spread out over the top 2 lines with the 3rd line adding their fair share. No one player has really taken the lead in the scoring department but when one line doesn’t get it done the other two are usually there to bail them out. Newcomer Marian Hossa leads the way with 44 points, but has only notched 12 of those points during his first 14 games as a Shark. Trailing Hossa is Yashin with 37 pts, Whitney with 36, Horcoff has 33, while Afinogenov at 29 and Koivu with 24 points round out the top six. On the bottom six, the 3rd liners are fairing quite well so far while the 4th line has done pretty much squat. Jamal Mayers leads the way for the best of the worst with 24 pts while McAmmond isn’t far behind with 17. After that it falls off big time as the next forward is Afanasenkov with 8.
Looking deeper at the Sharks forwards, it’s somewhat startling to see that while the bottom half has pretty much remained the same over the first half of the season, give or take a player or two, every single one of the top six players started this season with a different club! The good news is they seem to have found some much needed chemistry lately despite their last dismal performance vs. the Jets.
On Defense, things are only slightly more stable where three of the top seven were here to start the season. Klesla, Greene and Mezei are all that remain of the original D corps and the competition for ice time is starting to get heavy back there. New faces this season include still unseen and hopeful leader Mattias Ohlund, the man who has been a rock since joining the team Mr. Bryan Allen sporting 18 points and a +11 rating, young stud Chris Campoli, veteran Adrian Aucoin, and flight risk Anton Babchuk. Things could get even tighter when and if rookie Matt Niskanen is rated well enough to threaten for a spot. His play in the NHL so far this season has GM Ryan very excited for the young defender as he’s even been playing the most or 2nd most minutes on his team over the last number of games and is being looked upon as a top guy in key situations.
In net, again, mostly new faces. The only one to remain a Shark for the season has been 3rd stringer Brian Boucher and he hasn’t even seen a minute of action. The newest face is the aforementioned Ed Belfour who will be looked upon to take this team to the next level after being let down by Budaj’s poor performances for the last 20 games or so. Budaj started out the season on fire, putting up great numbers and staying at 100% condition no matter how many games he played straight but once he was got a taste of being somewhat fatigued, he got greedy and was wanting more and more time off while only playing mediocre even when he did decide he was well enough to start. With Belfour, the Sharks hope they have a guy who they can depend on when things get tough, not to mention he is the more skilled of the two at this stage in his career, be it his last stage or not. Behind Belfour, young net minder Hannu Toivonen has proved a very capable backup and although he played poorly as the starter for the Jets (who wouldn’t?), his numbers have improved dramatically since joining the Sharks and taking on a more suitable role while still seeing his fair share of ice time too. It has been said that GM Ryan feels much more confident in his goaltending going into the 2nd half of the season.
It is probably of little coincidence that the team really started to turn it around as soon as Hossa took to the ice in a Sharks uniform, so it is within reason to think that adding upgrades to the teams other two glaring weak spots should really make this team a serious contender. Whether the sim agrees with this philosophy remains to be seen but it is to be expected that whatever the outcome, changes will continue to be made in San Jose until the whistle blows at the trade deadline.
The Rest of the Story
While the main roster has gotten considerably older over the course of the season, there is still a lot to be excited about in the lower ranks. Not only are there a number of great, unrated prospects now playing in the NHL like Dave Bolland, Kari Ramo, Randy Jones, Sergei Kostitsyn, and Bill Thomas playing for the farm team, there are a number of other top prospects that have star potential written all over them. The top three guys that come to mind are Jakub Voracek who was drafted 7th overall in the NHL last year and is having an incredible season in Juniors, Logan Couture was the 9th overall pick in the same year, and Maxim Mayorov who was the next best Russian prospect to Cherepanov in last years draft but saw his stock fall considerably due to the lack of player agreement between Russia and the NHL.
On top of a solid prospect base, the Sharks hold the Tampa Bay 1st round pick for the upcoming draft which is pretty much a guarantee to be top two and has a very strong chance of landing at 1st overall! That’s not all however as they also are the proud owners of another pair of 1st rounders and the three sure to be top five 2nd rounders as well! Even if the prospects they have fail to turn into great players, they should be able to stock the pantry nicely with this supposedly deep draft class.
Bad Blood
With the recent addition of Mattias Ohlund, center Mikko Koivu is said to be not too thrilled. “He broke my leg. I have no respect for the guy.” is all Koivu would say upon hearing his team had just acquired the talented defenseman. It is believed however from talking to other players since then that Ohlund has apologized in full to the young forward and doesn’t want previous bad blood to get in the way of the teams ultimate goal. Hopefully Koivu sees it the same way or one of them could be the next to be moved.
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