Dan Vado's San Jose Sharks fan blog

It’s July 1st and the NHL Free Agent season has begun. Our home team San Jose Sharks have begun the process of addition with a little subtraction letting several players go to make room for the player who will become the latest in a long string of players who will get the Sharks to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Below is my look at the recent departures and whether I think the Sharks are Gonne Miss ‘Em (G) or Not Gonna Miss ‘Em (NG).

Marcel Goc (C): A former first round pick, Goc was one of several German players on the Sharks, Goc got off to a good start career-wise when, after spending the entire 03/04 season in Cleveland he was called up during the Sharks  2004 playoffs where he assisted on a clinching goal in the St. Louis series and scored the series-clinching goal against the Avalanche in the conference semi-finals. But, that seems to have been the high-point for Goc who never really had anything other than a mediocre regular season after that and has been particularly absent in the last two playoffs as he put up zero points in those last two Stanley Cup campaigns. Goc is a guy who really needs a change of scenery at this point, he is a good kid though so on a personal level he’s a G, but on the ice, particularly in the playoffs he’s an NG. 

Continue reading "San Jose Sharks Say Goodbye to Mike Grier and others."

The Detroit Red Wings announced that they would not be offering 47 year old D-Man Chris Chelios a new contract, ending his run with that team.

Watching Chelios in the last couple of years was amazing, here is a guy, virtually my age, banging away with the best and the youngest of them in the NHL. I am sure that, if he wanted to, he could find a slot on another team, but should he? I think no.

Chelios has a chance to go out virtually on top. While the Wings did not win the Stanley Cup this year, he still played a decent number of minutes and proved what a person could do when motivated and driven to stay in shape. He is an inspiration  to not just athletes, but to anyone approaching or just past middle-age who thinks getting out of the bed in the morning counts as a sit-up.

Continue reading "Detroit Red Wings say Bye bye to Chris Chelios"

There is no equivalent to the NHL Captain in any other major US professional sport. The man who has a "C" on his sweater has a unique position, both in terms of rules and expectations. The team captain in hockey is the only player who is allowed to discuss penalties with a referee and he becomes the on-ice representative of the coach and the entire team, thus he is identified with the C (or an A for alternate captains who serve as sort of co-captains and can speak to the officials in place of the regular captain). You see these guys standing in front of the scorers tables waiting for the official to sort out penalties.
But the job also dictates that the Captain become the locker room leader of the team. Calling people out when they are not playing up to their abilities and making sure everyone is focused on the jobs and tasks at hand. The Sharks have had some interesting choices in terms of people who have had that C on their chest.

Continue reading "San Jose Sharks Captains, look back and look forward."