Cue Music: Theme From Jaws

January 27th, 2006 by ironsoap

Despite my weariness last night, I toughed out most of the Sharks pitiful, painful loss to the Mighty Ducks. Everything they had done right Tuesday night versus the Kings they did the exact opposite versus Anaheim. They skated slow, they left things up to Nabokov, they made low percentage passes, they waited until the last period to make a run for some points. Most telling though, was the chink in the Sharks armor that started to show. It was exactly what I was afriad it was going to be—but up until last night it had failed to manifest itself in any exploitable way—I think the Ducks were the first to catch on and they certainly used it to their advantage.

Here’s how it goes: Joe Thornton shows up and the team starts to play up to their potential. They win some good games and more importantly they start to look good. Or at least look better. Then they run across a team that just has more jump than they do; they’re feeling like they’re scrambling too much, their offense isn’t clicking and they’re overworking their goaltender. So what do they do? Give it to Joe.

When the Sharks are looking good, I don’t have a problem with them deferring to their best player: That’s just good play. But when they struggle I think they start to feel like Joe Thornton is their only hope; that if they just let him take over for a while something magical will happen and they can come out on top. So they start making desperate looking passes in Thornton’s general direction hoping for a miracle. Guess what? It doesn’t. Instead smart opponents (like the Ducks last night) catch on and start circling JT and looking for that inevitable pass and jump all over it. Give Thornton credit for staying with it despite the whole team looking for him to deliver a one-man show, but I think we could have a big problem if the rest of the Sharks don’t realize soon that Thornton’s biggest contribution often comes from the fact that he’s dangerous in so many ways that opposing teams will give him too much attention and leave opportunities open for the rest of the team to shine.

The key is, they have to step up in order to do so.

Meanwhile I’ve heard two Sharks-related rumors this week which bear mention: One is that Evgeni Nabokov may be quietly on the trading block and the other is that Owen Nolan is coming back from knee surgery and when the dust settles between him and the Leafs he’ll probably be a free agent and the upper management in San Jose has expressed some interest in bringing him back to the Sharks.

First let’s talk about Nabokov. Should they trade him? No. Look, Toskala is a decent backup goalie but the guy is simply too much of a flopper to be a day-in-day-out guy. He gets some great saves but a guy with that much freestyle is going to get worked more regularly than a technically sound guy like Nabby. Every goalie has their off days, but Toskala has them as often as Nabokov and he plays about a third or fewer games. Nolan Shaeffer was brilliant in his short stint earlier this season and I certainly would love to see more of him but if you put the burden on Toskala I have a feeling you’d be seeing Shaeffer pretty quick and I’m not certain he’s ready for a full-time starting gig just yet. Now put him behind Nabokov and we’re suddenly talking my language. Which would of course mean that something would have to be done with Toskala. I have an idea: Let’s put a trade together for an offensive blueliner in exchange for Vesa, someone who can actually make a few of those distance shots from the point on power plays. I’m just sayin’.

As for Nolan: Look, I was pretty sorry to see him go three years ago. Nolan was an important part of the San Jose Sharks That Don’t Suck revival and it took awhile to get past his absence… for the whole team. But we’re talking about a time when Patrick Marleau was a wet-behind-the-ears n00b and these days… well, these days he’s the new Owen Nolan. I’m not saying I don’t want him back but remeber why they ditched him in the first place to the Maple Leafs: He cost too much money. Now he didn’t do a whole lot in Toronto and he’s coming off a surgery. I’m sure his asking price has cooled quite a bit but if it came down to keeping Joe Thornton into next season or getting Nolan back to stick to the salary cap? I’ll take big Joe, thanks.