Sharks Vs Ducks Discussion

Sharks lost 2-1 tonight vs The Ducks...we play the Kings tomorow :)

ANywho.... I figured many of you went to the game...YOU SHOULD HAVE IF YOU DIDNDT!

So who played ? who did not? Was it a veteran lineup or were the young guns like Michalek, Ehrhoff, Zalesak,Loyns playing?

Who impressed? Did Michalek play? Ehrhoff play?

Sharks lost 2-1 tonight vs The Ducks...we play the Kings tomorow :)

ANywho.... I figured many of you went to the game...YOU SHOULD HAVE IF YOU DIDNDT!

So who played ? who did not? Was it a veteran lineup or were the young guns like Michalek, Ehrhoff, Zalesak,Loyns playing?

Who impressed? Did Michalek play? Ehrhoff play?

Here ya go... straight from the tank.

LINES (to begin the game):
Damphousse centering Michalek/Sturm
Marleau centering Korolyuk/Thornton
Ricci centering Ekman/Cheechoo
Goc centering Mocevsky/Parker

this got thrown to heck though in the 2nd period, as Mocevsky was tossed out for being a third man in, and Parker took his third fighting major of the night (all against Burnett who was being a world-class goon -- cheap shots everywhere -- more on that later.

Sturm was also injured (?) in the 2nd, so the lines became:
Goc Centering Damphousse/Michalek
Marleau centering Korolyuk/Thornton
Ricci centering Ekman/Cheechoo

Forwards on PK:
Damphousse/Sturm
Damphousse/Michalek (while Sturm was in the box)
Ricci/Cheechoo
Goc/Ekman
Marleau/Korolyuk (just once at the end of a PK for like 15 secs)

On D (even strength & PK):
Rathje/Stuart
McLaren/Ehrhoff
Hannan/Preissing

D(PP):
Stuart/Rathje
Ehrhoff/Hannan

In my opinion, two of the three goals tonight were pretty flukey. The first ANA goal was credited to Lupul, but it took a wacky hop off of a skate, or it bounced, or something. It happened like 10 feet in front of me, and I still don't know how that puck got airborne over Nabby's pad.

The second ANA goal (Getzlaf) was on a breakaway right after the sharks had an odd-man break going the other way. Unfortunately, Hannan lost track of his man and Getzlaf beat him wide and roofed it. Pretty pretty shot.

The Sharks goal was off of a loose puck that Marleau centered out from behind the Ducks net. It hit a duck defender and Thornton slipped the rebound under Gerber.

The sharks held a huge edge in SOG tonight, but I felt the actual scoring chances were pretty even. A lot of the sharks shots were from well out and easily handled by gerber.

For those wondering, the ducks lines were:

Rucchin centering Lupul and Prospal
Pahlsson centering Krog and Chistov
Getzlaf centering Smirnov and Sevenson
Burnett/Johnson/Holmqvist.

On d:
Popovic/Ward
Havelid/Carney
Vish/Salei

Ehrhoff made a couple mistakes tonight, but I believe he also led the sharks in SOG. I know he had at least 3-4 boomers from the point, and when the sharks pulled Nabby late for the 6th attacker, the D men were Stuart/Ehrhoff.

Parker got in three fights with Burnett. 2 minutes in, they agreed to go and Parker leveld Burnett, and the trainer had to come out to help him. Burnett didn't look like he knew where he was. As I saw it, it was a huge right hand from Parker that knocked him out cold. Burnett went back to the locker room to get attention for a few minutes, and after coming out of the box Parker/Burnett were matched up for a 2nd shift. Parker asked if he wanted to go to reclaim some of his manliness, but Burnett said no. Burnett proceeded to skate full force into the corner and drill Goc from behind (no call, thanks Watson. Open your damn eyes). Parker didn't have any of that, and came over and they fought again. After that fight they were screaming at each other from penalty box to penalty box, and at one stoppage the ref actually skated over to parker and told him to sit down and shut up. They kept on yapping (mainly parker about the cheap shot from Burnett on Goc). In the 2nd period, Burnett took a high sticking penalty (thought it was more of a cross check to the neck/head myself), and Parker told him, in not so many words, to knock it off and they fought again. While they were tusseling, Mocevsky also came in and got booted for it.

The Sharks had at least 3 odd-man breaks and I don't believe they got a single of those shots on net. Korolyuk fed Marleau on a beautiful break in the 2nd, and Marleau fired it about 5 feet wide. McLaren also had a late break down the backside off of a line change the Ducks didn't pick up and fired it right into Gerber's pads.

Michalek played a solid game, but wasn't in on the sharks goal. In the first shift he took a pass and went in on Gerber and did a nice half spin-o-rama into a shot that was saved, and later on he intercepted a pass and started what should have been a goal-scoring break. Overall though, for the amount of ice time he got, I thought he was solid, but didn't wind up creating anything that led to a goal.

I thought Ekman played well tonight. He threw a couple nice hits early, and was involved in one of the odd-man rushes.

Tony Preissing (yes, I know it's Tom, but the Sharks lineup card said Tony -- geez guys, it's your own team, get it right) played well and I noticed that he was making a lot more offensive rushes and nice passes. He's definitely getting his confidence and playing well. I think we have a real battle on our hands between Ehrhoff/Preissing for the last spot. A week ago I would have given it to Ehrhoff hands down, but Tom's making a nice case. I still like the speed and shot that Ehrhoff brings to the table though.

For the Korolyuk/Thornton/Marleau line, I thought Patty was a bit quiet in the first two periods (except for the 2-on-1 he put wide in the 2nd), but he was using his speed well in the third. Thornton was banging bodies and looked like his conditioning is back, and Koroyuk was dangerous as ever with the puck (to both teams). Not to Alex, every one in a while, it is OK to skate in a straight line... and it probably wouldn't make you as tired ;)

Ricci definitely needs to finish getting healthy and get a few more games in. He was noticible, but not his normal self (nor would you expect that in his first game back). I hope he'll be good and ready on opening night :)

It pains me to say it, but McLaren didn't look all that great tonight. He had a couple glorious scoring chances that he shot right into Gerber's pads (not that I'm complaining about that, I know he's not Iginla or Sakic, but he doesn't seem to be in regular season mode yet). He got in a couple scrums, and made 2-3 hits... but he was definitely being a lot more controlled in his hitting compared to last year. Not sure if that's because he doesn't want to hurt himself early, or because he's playing with a rookie, or because the coaching staff told him to play more like Rathje in his positioning... i dunno...

Anyway, have fun digesting all that. If you have questions, let me know.

thanks for the great recap mage.

there are a few vids from the game at sjsharks.com, including a couple of the parker/burnett fights. man, parker's a monster. awww yeah.

http://www.sjsharks.com/sharks2002/interactive/play_of_the_game/potg_20030927.htm

great job mage... thanks!

As an addendum to last night's game, I believe it was the smallest crowd to ever watch the Shark's in the San Jose Arena. The announced attendance was 13,722, but there were maybe 8,000 fans there at most. The announced figure is tickets sold which also indicates that the number of season ticket holders is way down and sell-out crowds are a thing of the past. Too bad, because this is going to be a fun team to watch this year.

Parker was out to make an impression last night. I will second that least amount of fans to watch a game number.

http://www.sharkspage.com/jpgs/fn2.jpg

http://www.sharkspage.com/jpgs/fn4.jpg

http://www.sharkspage.com/jpgs/fn9.jpg

http://www.sharkspage.com

So Burnett is with Anaheim. He was with the Hartford Wolf Pack last season. He isn't quite as good of a hockey player as Kevin Sawyer though. Burnett does have heavyweight size though. But Burnett is an answer to a fighter like Yuri Moscevsky, not somebody like Scott Parker, who's in the caliber of players/fighters like Kevin Sawyer, Jody Shelley, etc.

I wonder what Alek Stojanov is up to nowadays. I don't have him playing anywhere professionally last season.

Actually, Parker and Burnett have some history. Back when Parker was with the Bears and Burnett was with the Thoroughblades, there was a major bench clearing brawl -- everyone was involved. Even Nabokov and Aebischer squared off (although Nabokov was "John Nabokov" at the time ;) ). Parker was the man of the hour that night however. He beat Burnett down once ... was escorted out of the picture then by two linesman only to come back again and drop some more bombs on Burnett. Perhaps Burnett was still trying to regain some face after that incident some 3 years ago. :lol:

Kevin, let me know if you want a copy of the training camp booklet the Sharks gave out to season ticket holders.