Today's local newspaper articles..

... talking about cuts and players remaining in camp..

SF Chronicle...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/23/SPG8F1S99J1.DTL

SJ Mercury News...
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/hockey/nhl/san_jose_sharks/6839014.htm

... including:
Bernier showed much promise and ``made a lot of progress, but he's only 18 and you don't want to stunt somebody's development,'' Ron Wilson said of the player taken 16th overall with a pick. ``He's kind of hit a wall right now where he's better off to get back to juniors, regain his confidence with his peers.''

... and:
Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson has called this training camp the team's most competitive with the possibility of several new faces in the opening-day lineup. His coach said Monday's cuts sharpen the focus, ``but we've still got eight lines of guys and nine defensemen. We obviously have a long way to go.''

Nabby will start tomorrow in Portland, and Ricci should be available for Saturday's game in SJ (gee, what a shock... pre-season home opener)... heh! :)

I have a strong feeling that we will see Ehrhoff on the opening day roster, most likely as a starter with Davison (probably Davison) or Preissing on the bench as the seven. Looks like the team is serious about giving Christian the shot at making the NHL club out of camp and from all indications his play is making it damn near impossible to give anybody the nod over him. Let's hope he keeps it up, though I have little doubt that he will.

So my question becomes: who gets paired with Ehrhoff? Not Fahey, I think, and probably not Stuart, as there is no real reason to put two puck-carrying D-men in the same pairing. Hannan is a possibility. McLaren is my guess, with Rathje on the big-minutes pairing with Stuey, which leaves Hannan and Fahey together. Second unit PP time for Ehrhoff? Yeah, probably.

Am I getting ahead of myself? Yeah, probably, but this one smells like a player to me and I think I've been watching prospects long enough to know.

Achtung!

So my question becomes: who gets paired with Ehrhoff? Not Fahey, I think, and probably not Stuart, as there is no real reason to put two puck-carrying D-men in the same pairing. Hannan is a possibility. McLaren is my guess, with Rathje on the big-minutes pairing with Stuey, which leaves Hannan and Fahey together. Second unit PP time for Ehrhoff? Yeah, probably.


Yeah... I think, should he make the team as it appears right now, that he'll be paired with Rat or McLaren. In the second pre-season game, he was paired with McLaren after being paired with Rathje at camp a lot...

Of course, a "stopper" pair of McLaren/Rathje with Stuart/Ehrhoff wouldn't be bad either, against the right matchups (say a one-line team where you can exploit their lower lines -- not that there are that many teams like that left)... :)

Ehrhoff better play ahead of Davison on opening nite... Stilll both guys deservinly could be a 6th defensman on almost all teams.

Good to hear Bernier had a good camp.

Whens his first game with Montocon?

For months I have said Rathje would pair with the 6th: whether it be Ehrhoff (now looking likely) or Preissing.

Ehrhoff better play ahead of Davison on opening nite... Stilll both guys deservinly could be a 6th defensman on almost all teams.

Good to hear Bernier had a good camp.

Whens his first game with Montocon?
Pretty sure its friday

How is Wilson with giving 1st/2nd year players ice time in SJ...when he was our head coach in DC it was like pulling teeth to get him to dress rookies or give them more then 5 minutes ice time

How is Wilson with giving 1st/2nd year players ice time in SJ...when he was our head coach in DC it was like pulling teeth to get him to dress rookies or give them more then 5 minutes ice time

He certainly gave rookies (especially Dimitrakos/Cheechoo) sufficient ice time late last year -- of course, the next alternative was basically asking the cotton candy guy if he wanted to play some RW, due to all the injuries and trades.

I think we'll definitely see Wilson go with some 2nd/3rd year guys for larger chunks of ice time than you saw with Wilson in DC... because he doesn't have many other choices (unless he were to stack the top of the lineup with Sturm/Damphousse/Ricci/Thornton/Marleau/McCauley) and rarely skate the 3rd/4th lines. I doubt it'd come to that... and especially after injuries start to kick in... we should see plenty of minutes from kids in their first few NHL years.

He certainly gave rookies (especially Dimitrakos/Cheechoo) sufficient ice time late last year -- of course, the next alternative was basically asking the cotton candy guy if he wanted to play some RW, due to all the injuries and trades.

I think we'll definitely see Wilson go with some 2nd/3rd year guys for larger chunks of ice time than you saw with Wilson in DC... because he doesn't have many other choices (unless he were to stack the top of the lineup with Sturm/Damphousse/Ricci/Thornton/Marleau/McCauley) and rarely skate the 3rd/4th lines. I doubt it'd come to that... and especially after injuries start to kick in... we should see plenty of minutes from kids in their first few NHL years.

ROFLMAOPMP....Holy God that's funny. Anyone every seen the cc-guy who work the upper level. Kinda fat, hairy...well, I caught a most hilarious visual.

Thanks Mage! :rolly:

ROFLMAOPMP....Holy God that's funny. Anyone every seen the cc-guy who work the upper level. Kinda fat, hairy...well, I caught a most hilarious visual.

Thanks Mage! :rolly:

There used to be a guy who, I kid you not, carried around a rubber chicken, and occasionally when kids asked for cotton candy, he used to give them the chicken instead just to see their reactions. I only saw him twice though -- don't think Aramark (who runs the concessions) thought it was as hilarious as I did.

Seriously.. imagine a kid, about 7... really wants cotton candy, and instead gets a rubber chicken. The combination of "what the heck do I do with this" and "daddy, make him give me my cotton candy now" was priceless.