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Of experts and
know-it-alls
Somewhere Ron Wilson is
smiling
4/29/09 - By Steve Flores
The 2008-2009 San Jose Sharks successfully achieved yet another early
exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This year the team even decided to leave
earlier than the usual second round. Wilson annually guided them into that
second round before the team felt it was time to shave and pick up the golf
clubs.
It has only been a day since the team was eliminated in game
six of the Western Conference Quarter Finals and already the Bay Area's media
EXPERTS have begun to voice their opinions regarding that which the team must
do before they take the ice next season.
Listen up folks! The Bay Area
media has no real experts when it comes to hockey. There I said it!
David Pollock of the San Jose Mercury News is the only assigned beat writer
that covers the team on a daily basis. None of the Bay Area's other newspapers
or websites have anyone that covers the team on a full-time basis. So, I
exclude Mr. Pollock from all that I am going to levy in the rest of this
column. Pollock does a great job covering the team and is the only media member
with enough knowledge to truly be able to critique this team.
Mark
Purdy has been in the area for years and likes to call the team 'Los Tiburones'
in every column that he writes. He seems to get off on using this term in every
one of his written diatribes. Not sure if he just thinks it's cute or if he
knows that it actually gets under the skin of the readers. I think it's the
latter, but I couldn't testify to that. Purdy is a solid columnist and I have
nothing against his columns, but what makes him an expert?
Nothing!
I saw Tim (I only write about the NBA) Kawakami on the Comcast post
game show after game six. Are you kidding me? Kawakami was sitting their
espousing that the team must make a decision to get rid of Joe Thornton or
Patrick Marleau. What the heck does the watcher of Kobe Bryant, Don Nelson and
Bimbo Coles know about hockey? Nothing!
On the radio I have heard the
KNBR morning guys speaking - with opinion - about what the team did wrong. Are
you kidding me?
In Gary Radnich's slot was Damon (I don't talk about
hockey on my show) Bruce discussing the failure of the team. You must be
kidding me?
Last week Ralph Barbieri (now a Sharks fan) was
questioning why the Shark's were dumping & chasing into the zone so often.
Drove me crazy! Anyone that knows the game knows that that is one of only two
ways to combat a zone-trap. Barbieri is learning the game and I give him credit
for his new found zest but the ignorance in regard to the tactic would have
been laughed off of any Canadian sports talk show.
All of these examples of critique are meaningless yet
they frustrate me nonetheless. Bay Area media-type's critique of the team's
failures need to be thrown out the window. The team failed. They were outworked
and outperformed by the Anaheim Ducks. The reasons they were outperformed must
be drawn by GM Doug Wilson, Head Coach Todd McLellan and the brain trust for
the Sharks. Trust me guys and dolls they know more than you and me and the
local media combined.
The team was out played in every aspect of the
game. A few Sharks seemed to perform better than others and that will also need
to be evaluated by the brass. Some players will return and some will not; this
happens every year.
It is easy to point fingers and easier to simply
whine and talk out of the other end of the body. Luckily for Sharks fans Wilson
is a man of calm and reason. He built what he felt was a roster stocked with
the kinds of players necessary to win a title; he was wrong. The Sharks played
their game in terms of sheer volume of shots on goal. They were, however stoned
by the proverbial hot net minder Jonas Hiller - the clear MVP of this first
round series.
I am sure that in the next couple of day we will hear
all about the injuries that several players endured during the post-season.
Marleau will surely be one of those. If he wasn't injured then there is a
problem with the way he played. He lacked his usual explosiveness. His game was
a shell of his normal effort. The captain has a history of post-season
excellence so I am pretty sound in my thinking that he was hampered by some
sort of nagging injury.
Other players looked slow, haggard and or
heartless. The GM knows who they are and I won't spend time pointing fingers.
I will close by stating that Thornton has been maligned in the press
for his lack of effort and or results. People say that for him to be great he
must carry a team like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux or Mike Bossy. The problem
with that comparison is that Thornton is a plate setter. He is a passer folks -
all those other guys were goal scorers. Should Thornton shoot more? Yes. But,
let's get off of his back. Although he disappeared in a couple of the games I
think he finally figured out that he needed to get out of his comfort zone and
show some visible fire.
He played hard in games five and six. He also
kicked the crap out of Ryan Getzlaf and I must admit that I enjoyed the heck
out of that. Yes, again, Thornton wasn't great in all six games and that was a
contributing factor. But, despite the inconsistency I think he was solid
overall and perhaps he learned a hard and valuable lesson about what he needs
to do to lead a team in the post-season.
Sadly it will be roughly six
months before we are able to start another journey down this path.
The
Sharks, once again, floundered and didn't do what it took to achieve
post-season success. The choker label is very much well earned and deserved.
Many of the players will be on the links this week perhaps one of them will run
into Ron Wilson and hopefully he will not be grinning.
Contact Steve at stevybo@yahoo.com
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