Shark Bit

March 13th, 2007 by ironsoap

Speaking of coaching, another thing that has started driving me nuts is Wilson’s obsession with line juggling. Have the Sharks ever had consistent line combinations this year? It’s not like they’ve been wracked by IR-level injuries this year that have forced the changes, but I guess Wilson doesn’t believe in line chemistry because he never bothers to let it develop. Listen, Ron, it ain’t that tough: Guerin, Thornton, Cheechoo; Michalek, Marleau, Clowe; Bernier, Rissmiller, Grier. See how easy that was?

Going back to some of the changes this year, I think we can all safely say that Mark Bell has been a total bust. Even if you’re content to ignore the DUI hit and run (which I’m not), the previous two years had Bell scoring 20+ goals and 40+ points; this year he has eight goals and fifteen points so far and isn’t likely to go on a big run here to close out the season. He’s never been too hot on the plus/minus side of things (suggesting he’s something of a defensive liability which the Sharks don’t need considering the relative experience level of their defense) but his -11 is the worst on the entire team. Why he made it past the trade deadline I’m not sure but I think I’ll be unhappy if he’s still around next season.

When it comes to the goaltenders, the Sharks’ inconsistencies take a turn for the bizarre. On one hand you have Toskala who, before getting hurt was far and away the better netminder with a 24-9 record. At the same time you have Nabby barely putting a .500 season together and yet he hasn’t been that bad, really. For one thing he has had remarkably limp goal support, and if you ignore the last four games he’s had he was 14-16-1 with four shutouts. In fact, of his sixteen losses this year, nine of them have been by either one goal or one goal against (with another goal into an empty net) which means if the rest of the team had done their jobs even just a little bit, Nabby’s record could easily be 18-12-1 or 19-11-1. Heck, the Sharks lost two games 1-0 with Nabby in the net. There is absolutely no excuse for having your goalie keep the opponent to a single goal and not being able to pick up at least a tie.

Granted, Nabokov has also been responsible for a couple of real stinkers, including the 8-0 loss to Phoenix and the 7-4 loss to Calgary but I wonder if Wilson’s strict every-other-game policy had something to do with it. Look at the last week: Nabby is finally healthy and getting regular starts so what does he do? He goes 3-0-1 with three shutouts and gives up only one goal in twelve regulation periods for a .981 save percentage overall. It’s not a simple situation though because Toskala has been sharp all year. Maybe Vesa works better within the switch-off system than Nabokov does or something, but it also can’t hurt that the Sharks’ offense has given him a little more than four goals per game on average to work with while Nabby gets nearly half that. If the team just flat plays better in front of Toskala, it bears investigation as to why that might be.

In the end the Sharks will likely make the playoffs but their position in the post-season isn’t likely to change very much. Unless they get red hot in a big way and Anaheim falls apart as the season winds down, those ten points with only a single game in hand are going to be tough to make up. The only other team they might look to unseat to get a better playoff berth is Detroit, but the margin to overcome is identical there and the Sharks do not have a game in hand over the Red Wings. Plus, both Detroit and Anaheim are tied for the fewest regulation losses in the entire league so it is likely the Sharks will fall somewhere in the middle of the pack and could face a number of teams including Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas, Vancouver or even Anaheim in the first round.