Sharks place Blake on injured list

Fair weather fans, sharks do great everyone talks about how great they are, when they are losing they all run away and talk crap. Stand behind your team if you are a true fan. Yes the playoffs were a disappointment but don't be so quick to throw out the entire regular season, and mental midget you are an idiot we have won 6 games in a row and being injured has nothing to do with the mental side of the game. Look at our IR and look at other teams with the same injuries they fall apart while the sharks improve and play through it. Oh and nabby is the 3rd star for the week for his amazing effort in goal so far this season watch some games before you think you know whats going on with the team right now.

Who wears the C tonight versus the Red Wings?

Mental midgets, I know, it's not a PC thing to say, but that describes the Sharks to a tee. It comes straight from their core. Every year the Sharks bomb out of the playoffs and every offseason, they tinker with their periphery players on their roster, hoping that'll fix it. Thorton, Marleau, Nabokov. That's the problem. They'll never win pressure-cooker games as long as those three players are on their roster. And, of course, they are a long way from getting rid of any of those players. Hence, they are many seasons away from having any chance of making a dent in the playoffs. Boston's general manger was fired basically for trading Thorton, but Thorton's lifetime playoff numbers are an embarrassment. They're inconcievably bad. To say that Joe Thorton fails to produce meaningful goals (even assisted goals) in the playoffs is a vast, vast understatement. When you need him the most, it's like he's not even on the ice. Boyle and Blake don't help much either. They are a couple of offensively gifted skill players, granted, but they're just so soft. The Sharks have had multiple chances I would imagine over the last 3-4 seasons to reacquire Owen Nolan, and they really should've done it. It's probably too late for that now though.

ohhhhhhhhh thats not good.

I love Nabby but Cup winners almost always have a goaltender that steals a few playoff games and Nabby hasnt done that in my opinion.

What's all this nonsense about Nabokov being a bad performer? Do these people even watch hockey?

Loved Staubitz last year. Should have kept him called-up for the playoffs...we needed his tenacity and toughness. Mitchell is fun to watch and brings some energy...Speed is essential, but I've always felt that the Sharks also needed more players with grit, tenacity, and energy. I think keeping these two players, along with Clowe, and getting rid of Michalek is a good direction. We're still missing a couple more players with these needed characteristics, though, before a Cup befalls us! Sad to see Cheech go, but he seems to be in a perpetual cold streak.

Good trade and look forward to seeing Torrey's speeding down the wing! Finally got rid of a guy who wouldn't go in the corners, especially come playoff time in Mihalek. If the Sharks has scored on all those power plays in the first two games, it would have been different. Get to see them in Ontario next week against the Kings. Go Sharks!

I'm a big sharks fan, but I thought that a few years ago, Vesa Toskala should have replaced Nabokov as starting goalkeeper. I love just about every player on the sharks, including Nabokov, but I do think he's lost his confidence or something. Last season I cringed at some of the goals he gave up. He's one of those goalies that can make the spectacular save, but can't always make the average one. He's certainly not the answer, but I thought Boucher did a pretty good job last season (in most games) and deserves some more playing time. As for the topic of this article, I'm really excited about seeing Torrey Mitchell in action for a whole year. He's not a superstar, but he plays with such passion that he and Grier are a joy to watch. I remember two years ago watching them on the penalty-kill and just being like... wow. There's some chemistry. I think with Mitchell back the Sharks will be significantly better in terms of penalty kill. I'm sure they won't do as well as they did during the regular season last year, but I hope to see good things from the sharks this year.

it's way too easy to blame the goalie, especially if a team doesn't have playoff success. now you can blame the goalie if you want to and be sadly mistaken, or you can open your eyes to the more serious matter of the Sharks scoring a grand total of 3 GOAL while LOSING 4 times. should we or ANYBODY ELSE be very surprised by this. come on now the Sharks were SHUT OUT TWICE so there was NO WAY THEY WERE GOING TO WIN THOSE 2 and they scored 1 goal in a 3rd LOSS. SHOCKING!! scoring 1 goal in 3 playoff games were the reason the Sharks lost last season. and all that has very little to do with their goalie. there isn't a goalie on the planet who could have won with such inept offense.

Wow... This small little piece was about Tori Mitchell.. How did Nabby, or any of the other sharks even get into this conversation? I'm just excited to see a full year of Tori Mitchell, and hope he's not a dissapointment. 10 goals, 10 points, in 82 carrer games (NHL or AHL) isn't all that impressive.. Sure he shows speed, skill, and tanacity; but replacing Patty in the future (Coondogs post) is a little far fetched..

LETS GO SHARKS!!!!

According to the San Jose Mercury News online his contract is 3 years @ 4.1 Million. By professional sports in the U.S. this is a bargain. by my pay scale, it is atrocious. Torrey Mictchell is so awesome, as a rookie he to me was going to be one of the biggest stars in the NHL's future. He is so fast, skilled, and tenacious. Watching him with Grier on a penalty kill was so exciting. If he is truly healthy again, him with Setoguchi or Cheechoo lined with Nichol will be a great third line. when Marleau is no longer a Shark; Mitchell will be the leader, so screw this Heatley crap. I predict that Mitchell will be the talk of the NHL this year. 8 - 9 - 29 what a line! Need D in San Jose if they want the cup, and to get by the Dirty Quacks.

Nabby has been good, but he has been averageing a soft goal per game since Stralow died. In the past he would be great when he was challenged, like during games against Roy or Turco, but very average the rest of the time and my season ticket seats are on the goal line at our defensive end during the first and third periods (sec 227) so I've had an advantage of watching him closely for 5 seasons now and he isn't the Calder material he was.

It may sound crazy to those who haven't seen much of Torrey, but I think Mitchell was the difference last year in the playoffs. If he could have got back for the month of March the Sharks would have gone much further. He is an incredible spark especially in the locker room and is well worth 1 mil a year. I haven't seen terms listed anywhere so where are you getting $3mil a year or $3mil over 3 years. I would be surprised if he got more than a mil a year and I'd personally rate him at 750k/yr.

I've been a sharks fan since day 1 and have loved having Nabby. But it's time to move on. He's proven he can't take the playoffs. If you think he did great last season, you haven't looked at his stats. Martin Biron had a better GAA and Save precentage then Nabby did in the playoffs. And you see what happened to Biron after last season? Chris Mason, on a team that got swept in the first round, did better then Nabby. I love Nabby for what he's done. But it's time for a new goalie. One that might get us past the 2nd round for once.

Break a leg this season Torrey you wanker!

First to the comments about Nabokov, I am glad most of you know that he is not the problem in San Jose. Come on, offensively if Joe would just shot more he would be at the top of the league in both assist and goals. Trade Marleau, are you crazy? he the best Shark on offense; put Cheechoo back on line one now that he is healthy again (hopefully). Who's line three? not only a great top line, but 8 - 9 - 29, has got to be the best 2nd line in the NHL, as for the 3rd a healthy Mitchell, Setoguchi, and now Nichol (instead of Goc) is a good, fast, and one of the best penalty killing lines around. Yes they all need to score more, it seem as though they don't understand that you can't score if you don't shot the puck on net! Come on, Shark fan or not you would have to be blind if you don't see that the defense is the total problem. Bolye is all around awesome! as a black belt in martial arts he need to teach Murray how to fight! can you imagine having Tank knock you on your a$$, then kicking it once you got up, boy Murray would be Awesome too. Blake is to old and slow (not that he is not good, just slow) therefore they place him with Valasic, whom I think is the BIGGEST problem the Sharks have! How many times did he give the puck to the Dirty Quacks deep in the defensive zone where Blake could not bail him out? that does the offense, defense, nor the goaltending any justice. and people blame Nabby? Put a pickle in it! I am no great player, but when i did play goalie recreationally, I always begged to play on the crappiest team (especially defensively) so that I had a whole lot of play! This is what Nabby must feel like! Get defensive help, not some useless Heatley gangster.

My bad..... Not 3 mill. 3 year deal..... I thought they were crazy signing him for 3 mill but 3 year deal... Nice job wilson Mitchell is a keeper.

Mitchell for 3 mill a year...... uh.... Well SJ there goes your Heatley cap room... I guess they traded Erhoff for Mitchell... I guess that's a better trade than Erhoff for WHite? Kinding aside I thought Mitchell was SJ's best playoff performer and he only played a couple of games.... Nabby will be spitting diamonds out his a$$ come playoff time this year..... We can only wait and see how he performs. Pressure is building.

Nabokov is s h i t !!!!!!! Face it the Sharks are a regular season winning team because they Face teams all season long that come to Cali to Golf,Party And Oh yeah play hockey. It's a proven fact every year come playoff time/

Post18 Dropthegloves

Who taught you how to spoke?? Just wondering!!!!

why is everyone talkin' about nabby when it's not even an article on him....

I don't know if the Sharks will ever the Stanley Cup with Nabakov. He might win it with other team. Too bad the coach ripped the C from Patric Marlau. 3 years in the row they exit early in the playoffs. How are they going to fix that problems. Now they singn Torrey Mitchell to a long term contract. Financial term was not disclose. Brad Staubitz got 1 year deal. I never heard of him. Any way, I'm not a Shark's fan. I can feel your pains Sharks fans! Can you imagine, 3 years in a row they exit early in the playoffs. That's not good. It's suck.
They are not considered as an elite team. Nothing personal against Sharks fans. The Sharks definetly need two good defensemen and a good goalie Martin Broduoer, Chris Osgood, J.S Giguere, or the retired Patrick Roy.

While I don't agree with those who claim Nabby is a horrible goalie who needs to be traded NOW NOW NOW, it does seem to me that he has clearly lost a step or two since his mentor, Warren Strelow, died a few years ago. It doesn't seem like the Sharks' current goaltending coach, Wayne Thomas, has quite the same calming, refocusing effect on Nabby. Perhaps the Sharks need a new goaltending coach more than they need a new goaltender.

I read that the Capitals hired former Sharks' goaltender Arturs Irbe as their goaltending coach today. I wonder if perhaps the Sharks missed an opportunity to hire him before the Caps did.

p.s. I hope this isn't a duplicate post. I can't tell if it was accepted the first time or not.

Not sure Nabby is going anywhere. Contrary to what Steve S says, Nabby is in the last year of his deal at around $6 million. That will be hard to trade, because most teams already have their goalies. I thought he might go to Philly, but they chose Emery. We didn't DW keep Boucher? He had a better win and save % than Nabby did last year. I think Nabby will be 34 and it's doubtful he'll be back next year. DW said the Sharks will be about $20 million under the cap next year since Blake, Nabby, and Marleau are all in their last year of their deals. Go to nhlnumbers.com if you want to know what the players make and the length of their deal. I think Nabby will have a great year because it's a contract year and because he's a fierce competitor. Look for the Sharks to go deep into the playoffs w/Nabby carrying the along. Now, who's playing RW on the 3rd line? GO SHARKS!