The nice thing about San Jose’s advancement into the Western Conference finals is that there are quite a few heroes responsible for the Sharks finally dumping their choke artists reputation. Here are five thank yous the Sharks need to express: Thank You One: Coaching First of all, you have to thank coach Todd McLellan, who [...]

I’m loving the San Jose-Detroit series because of how it represents a rebirth for the Sharks. Instead of being a first-round choke kind of team, they’re suddenly confident and composed. The officiating has been a bit strange, though. Specifically, the NHL suddenly seems to have taken exception to some of Detroit’s around-the-net play. Last night [...]

[picappgallerysingle id="8523816"] Out in Denver, the Sharks are dealing with the fallout from Dan Boyle’s freak goal on his own team. A day later, Boyle said he’s still not over the mistake, but he’ll have forgotten by tonight’s game. Sharks coach Todd McLellan seems content to write the whole thing off as a freak accident, [...]

[picappgallerysingle id="8535182"] I loved the end of last night’s Vancouver-Los Angeles game because the final few minutes were a microcosm of the Canucks’ season. You had Mikael Samuelsson, an off-season acquisition, scoring in overtime, proving his playoff experience and ability to get into the slot made him a solid pick-up. You had Henrik Sedin setting [...]

San Jose’s 5-1 loss to Dallas would have been brutal enough without a Steve Ott hat trick, the first of his career. Obviously, there were a lot of problems in the loss. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov had a tough night, giving up five goals on 21 shots. San Jose’s defense was, as the final score indicates, [...]

Mrs. PuckUpdate and I love to joke about announcers who warn against the dreaded two-goal lead, what a lot of them call ‘the most dangerous lead to have.’ A lot of times, a team will go up two goals and the announcer will talk about how it’s actually a risky lead to have, since a [...]

David Pollak had an interesting take on the Sharks’ recent troubles, via coach Todd McLellan: The team simply wasn’t playing frequently enough to establish a rhythm. The Sharks have won their last two, with a victory over Anaheim Thursday and a win over Dallas last night. Since there were quite a few days between the [...]

Good coaching is often about managing personalities as much as it’s about Xs and Os. The Sharks had lost a step (or two) so coach Todd McLellan had an interesting idea: he shifted Dany Heatley off of the first powerplay unit. It seems to have worked, as the Sharks earned a big win over the [...]

As I mentioned yesterday, it’s still early in the season, so it’s still hard to make observations about team problems and team successes. But having said that, some interesting ideas are already starting to emerge. Like will the Sharks play defense this season? They went down four goals to the Kings, managed to come back, [...]

It’s corn Friday. Sorry! Buccigross’ ‘Heatley will be a Shark’ call is just a big misunderstanding: he’s talking about an upcoming Ottawa production of WESTSIDE STORY. Also, don’t miss Jason Spezza as Maria. The Sabres released photos of the commemorative bricks from the Aud, which they’ll be selling. So the Sabres will hold onto bricks [...]