The Pittsburgh Penguins are in town to face the Sharks tonight and, I’m not going to lie, it’s a game I've had circled on the digital schedule. Sidney Crosby is the best hockey player in the world and when you don’t have to watch him play some team that doesn’t matter to you it’s a treat – even if the potential is he destroys your team.
They've failed to win in 11 straight games in San Jose, going 0-9-2 in that stretch while losing their past nine.
Here’s to hoping that streak continues.
The Sharks have to come out strong against a team as talented as the Penguins. The Pens are third in the Metropolitan Division and are stuck in a three-way battle for the first seed, so they’re going to be hungry.
The Canucks are the only other team in action that matters to the Sharks tonight – although they have the biggest spread and are the least likely to be caught by team teal. A win for the Sharks will pull them within one point of LA and three points of Calgary to try and keep their playoff dreams alive.
Sportsclubstats.com has the Sharks current percentage to make the playoffs at a dismal 15.9%. Those, Sharks fans, are not good odds.
Ross McKeon is certainly siding with the odds in his latest piece where his title is ‘Will winning even matter for the Sharks?’
I march to the tune that the Sharks provide – if they suck, the blog will most likely be on the negative side, as per lately – but if you’re not in a position to draft in the top five and have even a remote chance at the playoffs then winning always matters. There’s no need to throw in the towel even if there’s little hope in hell you’ll make the dance, especially for a fragile team like San Jose. The attendance is down to 18 or 19 sellouts this year – versus every single game last year – so when the Sharks lose, they don’t just lose the game, they lose fans.
What’s the point of increasing your draft position from 14th to 12th? Not much.
Anyway, on to Brent Burns.
Everyone hates Brent Burns. He causes a lot of turnovers and he’s only for a ridiculous amount of 5v5 goals. He’s also on the ice way more than he should be and is making a difficult transition. It’s much easier to transition from defence to forward. Alas, patience has run thin with the fanbase.
I will say this, though, to all those Burns-to-forward lovers.
Who is going to move the puck from the back-end? Irwin? C’mon man. Who will replace his minutes? Hannan? C’mon man. He’s back there for a reason – the Sharks have no one to play defence that can provide his offense or puck movement, even if it does result in bad turnovers from time to time. He’s one goal back of leading all defenseman in goals and one point back of the lead for points. He’s outscored his forward total from last year in less games this year. If you think that Brent Burns not being a forward is the biggest problem with this team then you have clearly not been watching all 66 games this season. The issues run much deeper than Brent Burns struggling to transition back to the blueline.
In any event, Kevin Kurz had an interesting answer to fixing the defense in his latest mail bag. Here it is:
Put another way, if the Sharks are looking to make a major trade in the offseason, as Wilson has suggested, looking at moving the 29-year-old could make sense. He’ll be coming off of an impressive season offensively, has the ability to be an effective power forward, and reportedly has just a limited no-trade clause the details of which are currently unclear.
Brent Burns’ greatest value to the Sharks might just be in a trade. He’s going to have great point totals by the end of the year and is able to log big minutes. If he spent an entire season on a good team, where he only has to spend 20 minutes on the ice – and not nearly 40% of his 5v5 time with a rookie, Scott Hannan or Matt Irwin – he might not be as bad defensively.
The Sharks would still need to obtain a puck moving defender that isn’t named Matt Irwin but they could potentially flip Burns to fill some holes in the team. If they couldn’t get a player capable of moving the puck for Burns they will have created another big hole – but chances are chances. At least with Burns traded people might focus on what’s actually wrong with this team.
Thanks for reading.
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