Thanks, Jim Mora. That never gets old.

That’s where the Sharks are at right now. They have to be concerned about how the last group of games have gone. They've won two of their last nine games.

Confidence is gone; you can see it in their play. I’d wager the Sharks confidence strapped itself with a parachute and jumped out of the chartered flight somewhere along the trip between Dallas and Chicago.

Goals are few and far between these days for team teal and so are set lines. McLellan continues to play “shuffle the deck” with his forward group and is willing to die alongside the Mueller/Burns pairing on defense.

I will say this about Niemi’s performance last night: while he didn’t face a tonne of shots, he played well. He gave the Sharks a chance to win and did what he was asked to do. That’s not saying the Sharks don’t need an upgrade in goal, that’s just acknowledging a small bright spot during an otherwise dark time.

It’s time for Doug Wilson to pull the trigger on Todd McLellan.

With each new line that hops over the boards for a shift the players lose more and more confidence. They also feel the need to overplay and take chances instead of relaxing and playing their game. Can you blame them? At this point they have to feel like they need to score five goals every shift or the bench will implode.

The Sharks are on another two-day break between games before they play Anaheim on Saturday then again they’ll enjoy two days off before playing Philadelphia. The breaks in games are starting to feel more like time-outs where the Sharks are forced to sit in the corner and think about what they’ve done.

The team needs a shift in momentum but it doesn’t mean they should start selling the farm, unless of course they want to miss the playoffs and get in on the McDavid lottery. If you wait too long to make a coaching change when it’s needed then you are sacrificing potential points if the change works out. When you currently sit out of a playoff position and could be as far down as 2nd last in the West after the next 10 days those points becoming increasingly more valuable.

So who could replace McLellan? These four ex-coaches are all looking for work.

John Tortorella

I don’t think Tortorella is going to get another shot at being a head coach anytime soon. He’s a lightning rod for criticism and he doesn’t handle it very well. While I wouldn’t blame the Canucks failures solely on him, he was a factor. I don’t think he’s a fit for the Sharks.

Dan Bylsma

Bylsma is a horrid in-game manager much like someone else we know – that may or may not have been mentioned frequently in posts here – and it got him fired in Pittsburgh. Bylsma’s stock as a head coach right now exists because he held a long tenure as the bench boss of Crosby and Malkin. I don’t think he’s the right fit either.

Claude Noel

Noel was plagued with a mediocre roster and terrible goaltending while he was in Winnipeg. Bonus points to him because I enjoy his press conferences. Did he get a fair shake in Winnipeg? I don’t think he did. Could he help the Sharks? I’m not sure, but I think he’s a better option than the previous to mentioned candidates.

Guy Boucher

The Lightning that he coached was not the Lightning team that you see today. He took the team to the Eastern Conference finals in his first season before his luck fizzled out and he was shown the door. Is he the coach that made the East Finals or is he the coach that missed the playoffs? It’s hard to tell but I’m not sure it’s a chance you want to take unless you’re rebuilding.

There goes four coaches off the list. Who’s left? You can reach into your history books and look for stagnant ex-coaches all you want but you won’t find who the Sharks need. San Jose needs a guy that’s fresh, a coach that is up and coming that can inject a new thought process into this broken group of individuals.

What about Jeff Blashill?

He’s the current head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins and is another prodigy of Mike Babcock but has moved through the coaching ranks quickly. In 2010-2011 he was coaching at Western Michigan, the following season an assistant to Babcock in Detroit. The season after that he was given the reigns of Detroit’s affiliate in Grand Rapids and led them to a Calder Cup.

He’s fresh to the professional coaching ranks, already has a championship under his belt and could be just who the Sharks need to inject some positive movement within the organization and get this team back on track.

Each day that the Sharks remain idle is another day spent waiting for the genie to pop out and tell them everything’s OK.

Who do you think the Sharks should hire to replace Todd McLellan if when he gets fired?

Thanks for reading.

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