*** San Jose Sharks 2014 Off-Season Thread ***

Stalock is still recovering from knee injury and Nitty is hurt as well. I think greiss will be the backup.

2 goals for Couture, 6-1 win. Good start.

Originally posted by Hopper:

2 goals for Couture, 6-1 win. Good start.

im starting my playoff beard right now!!!

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
im starting my playoff beard right now!!!

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:
im starting my playoff beard right now!!!

You should just start a regular season beard and shave it off when they make the playoffs.

How did the Sharks look last night?

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:
How did the Sharks look last night?

i'm not sure anyone actually saw it who wasn't at the game. they sounded good from the broadcast i was listening to. i'll have more thoughts on them once i see them live this weekend. season tickets ftw.

top two lines are locked, no question. third line is going to be mitchell, handzus and a tbd. entire 4th line is tbd. from what i saw on tuesday, i'm picking mcginn to get the remaining third line spot, desjardins for the 4th line, and i'm still not sure who the other two will be. i think we really need to sign another vet winger for the fourth line.

Another ass kicking on the Ducks. Shots were 49-14. lol

Originally posted by Hopper:

Another ass kicking on the Ducks. Shots were 49-14. lol

Wow. I usually don't pay any attention to the Sharks during the pre-season -- well, aside from the youngsters.

Really, really hope this is the year.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
THE D IS FINALLY HERE. NO EXCUSES!! STANLEY CUP OR BUST 2012!!

hate to be negative, but after 7 years of saying "this year is the year we finally win the cup!", being a top seed in the playoffs, and then choking the season away every time, its hard to believe the preseason hype.

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

THE D IS FINALLY HERE. NO EXCUSES!! STANLEY CUP OR BUST 2012!!

hate to be negative, but after 7 years of saying "this year is the year we finally win the cup!", being a top seed in the playoffs, and then choking the season away every time, its hard to believe the preseason hype.

Most of us will attribute many of those past years of playoff failure to due a poor defense and a choking goaltender that had a history of not being able to step up in big games. Nabokov held up until the WCF, where he allowed some horrifically soft goals (one horrible memory is the Sharp shot from I believe at the blue line -- with no traffic) which changed momentum and helped us blow leads in almost every game against the Hawks. Last year, many of us thought we wouldn't even win the division because of an unaddressed, and still very poor defense and a new goaltender settling in. Somehow, we made it to the Conference Finals.

This year, we still have offense, but we have built a big-time defense (or so we hope), and have a SC-winning goaltender that shows up in the playoffs.

There's reason to believe we can make it. Last year we overachieved really. We'll see if we can seal the deal this year.

Originally posted by Niners99:
hate to be negative, but after 7 years of saying "this year is the year we finally win the cup!", being a top seed in the playoffs, and then choking the season away every time, its hard to believe the preseason hype.

I'll take our D core today easily over any of our teams the past 7 years. That's going to be the biggest difference. It's cliche, but defense does win championships.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
THE D IS FINALLY HERE. NO EXCUSES!! STANLEY CUP OR BUST 2012!!

hate to be negative, but after 7 years of saying "this year is the year we finally win the cup!", being a top seed in the playoffs, and then choking the season away every time, its hard to believe the preseason hype.

Most of us will attribute many of those past years of playoff failure to due a poor defense and a choking goaltender that had a history of not being able to step up in big games. Nabokov held up until the WCF, where he allowed some horrifically soft goals (one horrible memory is the Sharp shot from I believe at the blue line -- with no traffic) which changed momentum and helped us blow leads in almost every game against the Hawks. Last year, many of us thought we wouldn't even win the division because of an unaddressed, and still very poor defense and a new goaltender settling in. Somehow, we made it to the Conference Finals.

This year, we still have offense, but we have built a big-time defense (or so we hope), and have a SC-winning goaltender that shows up in the playoffs.

There's reason to believe we can make it. Last year we overachieved really. We'll see if we can seal the deal this year.

on paper this is the best team the sharks have had in their history, they have everything a sc winning team has. they got top skill, depth, grit, a good sc winning goalie and now finally a legit deep defense. now lets see if they put all together on the ice with the help of mcclellan and his staff, if this team cant win the cup then i dont know if they ever will.

The game today will be on NHL Network. Just a heads up.