All Entries Tagged With: "Patrick Marleau"

Stevie Y Makes His Mark: Drafts Connolly With Sixth Pick

The Tampa Bay Lightning went against convention and drafted forward Brett Connolly with the sixth pick of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. GM Steve Yzerman chose the talented scorer despite highly rated defensemen Cam Fowler and Brandon Gormley still being available. Many of the “experts” assumed the Bolts would pick a defenseman if one of [...]

DAILY RUMORS: Lyle looks at the Trade Rumors Swirling about Thomas and Savard of the Bruins

We at HockeyIndependent.com want to be your resource and filter for what is going on in the NHL. We try to disseminate the noise in the blogosphere. We don’t look to to attack those sources, but to question the veracity of the rumor with cold logic, hockey smarts and knowledge. To do that… we have [...]

San Jose Sharks sign Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski to long term contracts

A few days after he officially told soon-to-be unrestricted free agent goaltender Evgeny Nabokov that he would not be re-signed by the Sharks, San Jose general manager Doug Wilson signed former captain Patrick Marleau to a four-year, $27.6 million deal ($6.9 million/year) and Joe Pavelski to a four-year, $16 million deal ($4 million/year). The former was [...]

Is Ilya Kovalchuk Los Angeles-bound?

With the 2010 free agent period set to begin in two weeks from today on July 1st, rumors are rampant that Ilya Kovalchuk will most surely test free agency as he will become an unrestricted free agent. Kovalchuk, who was acquired by the New Jersey Devils a week before the 2010 NHL trade deadline in [...]

Bittersweet Symphony: The 2009-10 San Jose Sharks

All of the Bay Area has gone into rain-filled slumber as the beloved San Jose Sharks 2009-2010 season is over.There is a bittersweet taste in the mouths of Sharks fans world-wide.Though the team exorcised it’s playoff demons by advancing to the Western Conference Finals, they ultimately fell short of their goal of winning the first [...]

Sharks Last Stand

Are the San Jose Sharks ready to play do-or-die hockey for the first time this postseason? Though the coaching staff and players have never acknowledged must-win games to this point, there’s no doubt that Game 4 in Chicago is just that being down 3-0 in the series. Game 3 was a great effort. Virtually everything [...]

Sharks/Hawks: Ready For Game 1

The San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks will finally meet for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. After sitting and watching the Eastern Conference unfold as the polar opposite of their conference, these two teams must be aching for some game-action. Things to look for in Game 1: Which team flicks off the rust [...]

BATTLE STATIONS: BLACKHAWKS-SHARKS WCF ’10

When Troy Brouwer scored the first goal of the Blackhawks’ 5-1 series clincher, he put the game of hockey in perspective. With his father recovering from surgery to alleviate a blood clot in his brain, Brouwer showed courage, coming back from his absence while he stayed with his father, and getting his game in focus. “It feels great,” he said. “Sitting out those couple games gave me a little bit of perspective and thankfully the coaches stuck with me. I didn’t want to disappoint them or the team or my dad.” Now the perspective switches to the Hawks’ second consecutive WCF and a first playoff meeting ever with San Jose.

This Conference Final brings together the number one and number two Western powers, whose final standings were separated by a single point. Tough to imagine two clubs more evenly matched.

The history between the Hawks and Sharks, then, is limited to their regular season contests, though there are some interesting relationships.

Joe’s lead Sharks to 2-0 Series Lead

If Joe Pavelski and his linemates continue to play the way they are, there won’t be much need for the superstars to start leading this team. Pavelski contributed his third straight multi-goal game to give him an NHL-leading 9 in the playoffs thus far. He’s the first player to do so since Mario Lemieux back [...]

Sharks move on to 2nd Round

The San Jose Sharks got virtually everything they needed to experience to go deep in the playoffs during their first round match-up with the Colorado Avalanche. Which makes moving onto the second round after a 5-2 victory in game 6 even better. A surprise invitee to the playoffs based on season-predictions, the Avalanche provided multiple [...]

Sharks Best Line Shines In Game 2

For the first three quarters of the season, the Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau line was one of the best. However, since the Olympic break the Sharks’ best line has easily been Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe, and Devin Setoguchi and that showed in the first two games of their series with the Colorado [...]

Sharks getting boost from Torrey Mitchell?

Arguably the Sharks weakest link for the majority of the season, Torrey Mitchell seems to have found his game and it’s coinciding with the team’s turnaround.After roughly two years of set-backs in still a young career, Mitchell is beginning to show flashes of the player that made him a fan favorite in his rookie season. [...]

Sharks erupt in third period for 8-5 win

The starts to games for the San Jose Sharks haven’t been all that great recently. However, with their latest comeback win, the Sharks became the first team in NHL history to win three consecutive games in regulation after trailing going into the third period. Today’s version was especially sweet; after a horrid first two periods, [...]

Sharks rally around missed call

Scott Nichol is usually the driving force behind the San Jose Sharks’ energy and physical play. In another game where the Sharks came out a little sluggish, it was an injury to Nichol in the third period that sparked a comeback. After falling behind by a goal twice, the Sharks were able to tie the [...]

Nabokov sets NHL record in style

San Jose Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov became the first goalie to win 11 straight road games in NHL history. Nabokov made a career-high 50 saves and shut down all three shootout attempts in a game where the Sharks were completely outplayed by the Detroit Red Wings. Thanks to his play, the Sharks pulled out a [...]

Sharks short-handed defense stands strong in 5-2 win

The San Jose Sharks will most likely be looking for a defense-man at the trade deadline if anything at all. Perhaps they made a case that they do indeed go eight deep on the back-end after a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Defensive stalwarts Dan Boyle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic did not play in this [...]

Titan Clash didn’t disappoint, but still just game 54

You wouldn’t know it from the build-up, but the San Jose Sharks clash with the Chicago Blackhawks was just game 54 of the regular season. These teams might very well meet in the playoffs and at this point it looks like the route to the Stanley Cup for a Western Conference team is through one [...]

My 2010 All-Star rosters… if there were actually a game

Below you will find my potential all-star selections if there were actually a game this season instead of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Each is comprised of 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goalies. Every NHL team has at least one representative at the game; therefore some players had to be left out of the [...]

Haircut Opens Schnide Buster; Sharks win 9-1

Devin Setoguchi was in a notable funk the last two weeks. So to shake things up he had Torrey Mitchell’s girlfriend shave his head completely. It was a tactic Setoguchi used in the minors to get out of a similar scoring slump. The San Jose Sharks last game against the Edmonton Oilers, Setoguchi scored twice [...]

Shorthanded Bruins Shock Thornton & Sharks

As if losing four straight wasn’t painful enough to swallow for the Bruins, late word before puck-drop revealed that David Krejci would miss tonight’s match-up with the San Jose Sharks with an undisclosed injury. The B’s number-three center turned number-one courtesy of injuries to Patrice Bergeron and Marc Savard, Krejci apparently injured himself in the [...]