[J0e Th0rnton]

Well, some teams are a quarter through the season, with most hitting the quarter mark tonight. How is your team doing in regards to where you thought they would be?

Personally, you will probably think I'm a headcase for this.
The Sharks are 2nd in the West, 1st in their division, and playing well as a team, yet I am disappointed as heck with their play because they are capable of so much more.

In order of Pros and cons.....

Pros: Thornton, as usual, is playing great hockey, even though his linemates have been a disappearing act. He leads the team in goals, assists, and points of course, while being a solid two way player.

Roenick has done what I expected of him and more. He leads the league in Game winning goals, and is currently 2nd on the sharks team in points. I knew it was a great move to pick him up, and the team is getting paid off for it.

Setoguchi. Well, I was waiting for him to get a call up. He was injured last season, but was easily our best prospect. I have not been disappointed so far. Jeez, the kid has 7 goals and an assist in 9 games.

Rivet has been a rock on defense. Above and beyond what montreal fans and everyone else expected of him.

Vlassic is repeating his rookie shutdown Dman run, playing huge minutes as a 20 year old. Better than Hannan was defensively, which is saying a lot.

Now, my old doghouse Dman, Doug Murray(Next to Gorges) has decided to totally surprise me and be a rock on defense this season. Not only does he make nice outlet passes, but he has been a physical force, doing Mclaren's job for him. Heck, he's +15 with 3 points just because of his great outlet passes.

Ozolish coming back was unexpected, and Ill admit, I groaned. However, he has played above my expectations, helping our young inexperienced blueline.
I'm almost expecting John Leclair to sign a minimum year deal in San Jose and come back and have a good left wing year just because all these guys everyone thinks are done are coming over and playing so well.

Nabokov, despite what stats have shown, has been a stellar game winning goaltender. Sharks are the top Western GAA team, and 2nd best PK team. He has played every game this season. We have yet to see backup action. However, at this point, it is clear we kept the better goaltender.

Cons:
Well this is easy.
#1 Marleau
#2 Cheechoo
#3 Michalek
There are more, but those 3 are HUGE MIA cases. Michalek started great. 6 goals, 2 assist in 9 games or so, but has dried up in the last 9 games. To make matters worse, he got injured because of Doan's dirty hit vs Phoenix. The good news is, he is still our best two way forward and is extremely hard to beat when he backchecks.

Marleau finally had a good game the other night. It better open the floodgates. For a guy who just signed a fat contract, he sure went missing on the scoreboard. 6+ million a year for 11 points in 20 games is unacceptable. Especially for the captain. Hopefully, he can shake the pressure off.

Cheechoo. Former Rocket Richard winner? Where? 3 goals, 7 points in 20 games. He was a 30 goal scorer before Thornton showed up so he has the talent to get it done. He just needs to find it again. He started slow last season too, so hopefully, he can get rid of this snakebite.

A few other cons are Carle, Ehrhoff(Our 2 top offensive Dmen)not living up to what they are supposed to be doing. When Doug Murray is your best outlet passer, its not hard to imagine how well the team might do with a real outlet passer.
Mclaren has been invisible since he hurt his knee last season. he has never seemed to recover. Where are the big hip checks? The tough solid defense? Get it back Kyle.....

Ryane Clowe getting injured hurt us. Not only was he a good second liner. He was our toughest grittiest power forward and best puck possession man outside of Joe T on the team. Joe really taught him a lot.

Bernier has again, failed to show any signs of maturing beyond his current ability. Pavelski as well, though there is still time, they are young. The good news is they are playing well defensively, as is Torrey Mitchell.

If Marleau, Cheechoo and Michalek could start scoring like they are capable of, the sharks would look unbeatable right now.

How about you guys? as well as feedback on thoughts about each others teams.

[Phaneuf]

my team sure as hell isnt. I thought the flames would be way better than they are right now.

Pros:
Iginla-He pretty much is the team right now
Langkow and Tanguay-good secondary scorers

Cons:
Kiprusoff-Underpreforming. Not as good as he can be.
Conroy-He has 5 points in 18 games. yet he is still given 1st line minutes
Regehr-I hate to rag on my favorite player. But he hasnt been as good as he has in previous year. Our defense just hasnt really clicked yet.
Keenan-No need for an explaination.

[Æn7ropy]

Nope not one bit, my team's not where I expected them.


They're much higher, tied for 5th in the league and 4th in the east.


I'm a Habs fan (is there any other respectable kind? hehehe :P )

[IslesFan9]

The Isles are doing better than I had originally thought they would.

I'm happy in that respect, however, I don't see them doing much damage in the playoffs IF they were to make it in.

You know what I would like? I'd like what just about every team in the league has: a superstar. When is the last time we had one? Dont' you even think abut saying Yashin. He's a JOKE.

When is the last time we had a Jagr, Modano, Thorton, Federov, Yzerman, Messier, Forsberg, Sakic, Sundin, etc etc etc.... :(

Ziggy was the last player we had that was close to being a superstar of anykind.

[Æn7ropy]

Originally Posted by IslesFan9

The Isles are doing better than I had originally thought they would.

I'm happy in that respect, however, I don't see them doing much damage in the playoffs IF they were to make it in.

You know what I would like? I'd like what just about every team in the league has: a superstar. When is the last time we had one? Dont' you even think abut saying Yashin. He's a JOKE.

When is the last time we had a Jagr, Modano, Thorton, Federov, Yzerman, Messier, Forsberg, Sakic, Sundin, etc etc etc.... :(

Ziggy was the last player we had that was close to being a superstar of anykind.

You do in nets but I understand what you mean being a habs fan but I like teamwork. While a 50+ goal scoring mega star is great I rather have 4 lines filled with good team players. Actually I wish we had a fighter hehe

[Canuck]

I thought the Canucks would be fighting for the division lead at this time right now but there behind in the standings. Its good to see things are starting to come along now in the last few games. Luongo is starting to come around as well.

[canes_fan]

I thought Carolina would be much better than last year if they avoided the injuries. Well we haven't exactly avoided the injuries, but even with that they have still exceeded my expectations.

[nossagog]

Nope, not close. Now I was not one of those fans that had super high expectations due to last year, I'm a little more realistic, but none the less, at this point they are not at a playoff contender level.

Pros:
Crosby, shouldn't have to say much more but will. His speed, skill and simple turning ability behind the net is just amazing and fun to watch.

Malkin, at times he can cimply dominate periods of times in a game. He is as fast as Crosby, just too bad he refuses to hit. Shame he doesn't have a little Ovechkin in him.

Sykora, has come in and contributes, fighting in front of the net.

Talbot and Laraque(yes Laraque) are solid players who are constantly contributing and playing hard.

I liked the addition of Hall, gives them someone who is good in faceoffs, but a couple of goals would be nice

Their power play, with the talent they have, they can just dominate with the puck once set up. Only need to get point men to shoot a little more. Too bad they don't seem to be calling as many hooking and holding penalties, because they could put in 2 or 3 a game on the PP.

Cons:
Recchi/Roberts, sorry but determination, grit and leadership is not making up for age. Both are having a hard time keeping up with the young stars. Only one should be in the lineup per night, and that should be the fourth line.

Christensen is not producing a thing this year, and looks lost.

Staal, now he is really lost. Although he is a stable on the penalty kill, he looks out of place at center on his own line this year, and can't put away chances when matched up on Malkins line.

Wingers for Malkin, at this point he has Staal and Roberts on his line. As just mentioned, Stall can't figure out how to put the puck in the net, and Roberts just can't keep up.

Malone, although he's playing hard, he should have more than 4 goals playing 20 games on 15 or so games on crosby's wing.

Defense, more than the players, I simply hate the Pens system. The defense is not allowed to challange at the blue line and allows entry into the defensive zone. Get rid of the 1-2-2 neutral zone trap(they don't play it, and drop one of the forwards back an go three accross the blue line and challange. They have the speed up front that if they can take the puck at their blue line, its going to the other end.

Goaltending, simply put, it stinks. One quarter of the way in and the pens have been playing goalie merry-go-round with two questionable goalies. Fleury is not turning into the goalie that the pens thought, yes I know, he's young, but look at Cam Ward and what he is doing in Carolina. Fleury had a penchant for making some great saves, but also for going down way to early in the b'fly and giving up easy ones. Everybody in the league knows, shoot high glove side, he'll be down on the ice and can't get his glove up to stop it.

Therrien, sigh, just don't like the way that he coaches. His constant switching up of lines has many people confused, and the dedication to the older players is just plain dumb. He keeps playing Recchi and Roberts, while young speed players like Kennedy and Armstrong sit in the press box. And what team in the NHL is afraid of their second PP unit which contains both of them. Their first unit is off the chart, their second unit doesn't make the chart.

[gagne22]

Pretty much where I expected...

Pros:
MIKE RICHARDS- hes been so important to this team...hes putting up points, fighting, hitting, and overall being a great leader for this team. Ive been waiting fo rhim to start playing like this for a while now...

Martin Biron- Hes been a little better than I expected...he plays a solid positional game and doesnt give up too many rebounds.

Scottie Upshall- Fast, physical, and with some nice moves...better than I expected, and I expected a lot.

Joffrey Lupul- I heard a lot of bad things about him, and none of them turned out to be the case.

Braydon Coburn- Man, its a thing of beauty when he carries the puck through the neutral zone. Still needs to work on clearing the zone though.

Denis Tolpeko has been a nice callup as well...

Cons-

Scott Hartnell- He hasnt been producing at all...hes played solid, but you expect more than solid with that kind of price tag.

Mike Knuble- Stone hands. Too slow to keep up with guys like Briere and Gagne. Still a good player though.

Ben Eager- Only because I had expected more from him...production-wise as well as in the physical play. I can see him as a 20-30 point guy who brings a physical edge, but that isnt what hes showing right now.

[IslesFan9]

Originally Posted by Æn7ropy

While a 50+ goal scoring mega star is great I rather have 4 lines filled with good team players. Actually I wish we had a fighter hehe

If we had 4 good lines I wouldn't care about having a 50+ goal scorer. Problem is, we only have 1 good line