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In Whine Country - time to
vent
Lots of blame to go around
5/7/08 - By Ken Smyth
Game Six, Round two. Once
again the Sharks find that familiar spot to give another team the handshake and
go back to the golf course for the serious work of the summer. Never mind that
they showed a pulse and almost pushed the series against the Stars to a game
seven, the zero-to-three hole they came out from was of their own making. That
4-overtime game six will be something you'll watch on ESPN-Classic for summers
to come; the Sharks being knocked out in the second round (almost in the first)
despite their talent is nothing new.
I missed the first four games of
the second round series; just saw the scores and they spoke for themselves. In
games five and six I saw the Sharks being outplayed most of the time. Coach Ron
Wilson is confident in his system of play, but that confidence and the
defense-first style were used against him by an opportunistic opponent. Steve
Lopez did an excellent critique a day ago , and while it limits an opponent's
chances, like we saw against Anaheim on March 21st, it also ties offensive
players to guarding their own blueline.
Time and time again the Stars
rushed the puck up the ice, and kept it in the zone with Sharks defensemen
unable to clear for two or three shifts. I'm sure replays will show Christian
Ehrhoff wearing two left skates. Forwards flopped around blocking shots and got
out of position to move the puck back up ice. By the time the puck was out of
the zone it was time for a dump and a line change. Also, as Drew Remenda
continually reminds us; the longer the puck is in the defensive zone, the more
likely somebody will draw a penalty. Just ask Brian Campbell.
The
Sharks dump and chase offense spent too much time chasing down the Stars
forward who took a quick pass from the defenseman who beat our guy to the puck
in the corner. The Stars were also masters of icing the puck at TV time-out
intervals so their players would get a breather during the commercials and
negating the effects of the no-change icing rule.
Critics of Wilson
point out that he took Washington to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost with
Jaromir Jagr in his line-up and now hasn't gotten past the second round three
years running with Joe Thornton. Who would replace him? There's no "name" coach
looking for a job around right now, though that could change between now and
July.
Die-hard fans are pretty evenly divided between those who want
Wilson out the door and those who want him out a fifth-floor window. It's not
necessarily his fault, he didn't play a shift as Thornton pointed out; but
canning him is a simple way for management to assuage the corporate ticket
base. His testy response to a reporter's (KNTV's Daryl Hawks, I think) question
about his job shows us a little of his personality.
He's considered one of the better technical coaches in
the game, but is known for being snarky, self-assured and sarcastic; three
qualities that Bay Area fans and journalists jealously reserve for themselves.
He may, as Steve suggested, done a fantastic job in winning the division with
this team but fan perception and the management assurance that This Is THE Year
work against him.
GM Doug Wilson isn't off the hook either. Two years
ago he was the genius who brought Joe Thornton to the Sharks, two months ago he
was the genius who picked up Brian Campbell. Now it's "What has he ever done?"
That's an unimportant question, the key one is what will he do now? Resigning
Campbell, Jeremy Roenick, Ryan Clowe and Jody Shelley would be a good start.
Whoever coaches next season, Doug Wilson needs to look at the role of
each player on the team and make changes accordingly. The defense (after
Campbell, Craig Rivet, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic) needs to be shaken up. Jonathan
Cheechoo may be a 20-25 goal scorer who just had a great season once, not a 40
goal man. The team finished the regular season at the top of the league in
penalty killing, tenth in power play goals but was very poor in both areas
(14th and 12th out of 16 teams respectively) during the playoffs.
The
real danger is that the Sharks will remain stuck as a third or fourth best in
the conference, either getting old with nothing to show for it and/or get blown
apart up with trades or non-signings because nobody can figure out what else to
do. For recent examples, look at the St. Louis Blues (2000-2004) and Chicago
Blackhawks (1990-1993). In both cases management got cheap and fans grew
frustrated. It's scary to hear Greg Jamison's comment that the team lost five
million dollars and he wants to break even, but it tells us the first step
should be to hire a new accountant. After that???
Contact Ken
at at Kenin210@eudoramail.com
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