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Series Thread: Kings vs Sharks
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This is indeed a massively importantly series. If they win, they will exorcise many of those evil demons of the last 3 years. However, a 3rd loss to LA, especially if they go up early or get swept would re-raise all the big questions. Patty would be under a microscope, and it would be ugly as he has so severely stunk that his 6.5+M/yr becomes quite a money suck.
That said, no matter what happens, it makes little sense to go into some kind of rebuild. They have the roster to compete for several years. Couture, hertl, wingels, tierney, donskoi, karlsson, and nieto are all very young and just entering the prime years. pavs is not old. Burns isnt either as both are only 31, so they should have 3+ more high level years. Ward doesnt look or play old either since he hasnt played that many career games. braunand vlasic are also entering their primes. Demelo looks very promising. Meier, Goldobin, lebanc and some others may well be knicking on the door next year as well. And, they have cap space too, as they should have 6-8M even after signing hertl and nieto. And of course, Jones is young.
The only guys of major concern for decline to me are Jumbo, patty, and martin. However, Martin looked pretty smooth and plays a steady positional game, which should keep him effective for at least another couple years, and Jumbo was in the top 5 in NHL scoring, so its hard to argue virtually any decline there. Thus, only patty has declined severely and could be jettisoned. This means that the sharks have little reason to blow up the team this offseason no matter what happens in the POs In fact, if they lose, they actually have reason to ADD another good player in the 3-4M range, and possibly package one or two of the young guys for a higher end guy in his prime.
But goddamn, I would love a little cinderella run to the cup. At last. The warriors went 40 years. The giants went 50+years. The sharks have gone 25 years without even reaching the finals. Its about fucking time!
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Sure, patty would be a very serviceable 3rd line C, and I very much like that he is used that way, and ought to be playing line 1 PP minutes, and only maybe 12 min/gm at EV and none on the PK, where he is a disaster. That would put him in the right position to use his speed as he will be highly fresh every shift, continue to produce on the PP where he is definitely valuable, and avoid using him in ways that he is detrimental like on the PK or when he is overplayed and tired out. He is old, and still being used like he was 5+ years ago. Hopefully Deboer is beginning to notice this.
The question for patty is one of value. He is a good 3rd line C, but not many 3rd line C's are pushing 7M in salary. He plays to half that value, so if they exit early, jettisoning his $$ makes sense as the only major change, aside from adding maybe a depth Dman, another top line Dman, or another top 9 forward. I also dont worry about jettisoning him regarding locker room chemistry as he is no longer part of the leadership since jumbo, cooch and pavs are officially but then after that really is pickles, burns, etc. Patty would be pretty low on that list. Of course, maybe he will wow us all in the PO's.
Hopefully all of this is moot. This is the deepest sharks team, at least at forward, in a long time, as having tierney and wingels on the 4th line is pretty solid. they should be able to matchup well. I just worry about the D, as polak and dillon have been a total mess, and LA may expose that bottom pairing for the pylon losers that they are. jones has also been inconsistent, so I worry there. All that said, if the sharks win, and if they go far, all will be healed.
Game On!
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Except he is nothing like yzerman because he comes up small when it matters, doesnt lead well, and has a very mercurial effort. No need to pay extra for any of that crap...
Anyways, 1st period was pretty even. Polak is a train wreck. its a matter of time before he takes a big penalty or another killer turnover. Dillon not far behind him. That said, the sharks are hinging in there and of course the big pavelski is big again. captain for a reason.
Huge goal by burnsie there!!
Well, that took about 5 minutes to come true.
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Cbrower91
Donkey Bonker
Pollak is risk to reward I like how he's a one man wrecking crew out there however being slow and it's painfully obvious is hard to watch at times. Dillion has been steady hardly the problem
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Interestingly, PM and JT both kinda sucked, but the big pavelski and burns carried 'em. With pavelski having the C, the spotlight is on him, and he was nothing short of amazing this game. he is the fucking man.
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Cbrower91
Donkey Bonker
See how he holds up, he has a history of wilting after about 5 or 6 games
Cmon_WTF
Is that...cabbage?
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Man the speed of that Marleau, Nieto, Karlsson line gave LA fits. Sutter didn't know how to match up against them and it forced him to change his lines. It took two spectacular saves by quick to keep them off the board. Overall a solid game by all. It's going to be a tough match up for LA if they keep trying to have Kopitar shadow Thornton because the other two on that line are not good defensively and Pavelski and Hertl should eat them up. Long way to go still but a very good start for the Sharks.
Cmon_WTF
Is that...cabbage?
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Surprised to see Polak had the best head-to-head war on ice stats. I thought he had a decent game but with those numbers makes it look like he was in beast mode.
yeah, and he got knocked around alot tonight. that said, I really believe the C means alot to him to give it his all every shift, every game, every play. Also, this year, he wont have to do it all. In the past, with jumbo and patty's annual 15 year-long playoff disappearances, Pavs has been the key. However, in this game for example, Burns and hertl also got huge goals. They have alot more guys who can play, so I expect the matchups will be harder and pavs might get some more opportunities throughout.
Also, he is now better than a point per game the last 2 playoff years (plus this game). He has 82 PO games, andis just shy of 30g-30a. (.71 PPG). if you exclude his first playoff where he played next to nothing, he has 57 pts in 76 gms (.75 PPG) matches Jumbo's .75 and exceed patty's .7. and I feel like pavs is at his best right now, better than he was 2 years ago, and I expect he will be a factor every game no matter how long they go.
