San Jose Sharks: What I would do if I owned the team
As I write this, the San Jose Sharks are fresh off a 5-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the worst team in the NHL. The Sharks were one of those teams people picked to win it all. People have been picking them to do it for the last couple of years. They have responded by getting bounced in the early rounds of the play-offs the last couple of years. Last year, against the Ducks, they looked weak and pathetic in getting bounced in five games.
This season, heading into the play-offs, The Sharks have lost six straight and looked like a minor league team playing against all-star teams. They clearly have only one card left to play to make a strong run during the Cup play-offs. So, if I owned the Sharks this is what I would do before tomorrow nights game.
I would walk into the locker room and tell the team that, lose again tonight, look like the pathetic bunch they have been looking like the last couple of weeks, the coach is gone. Fired.
Todd McLellan has done a good job as coach. He deserves better. But, he was brought in to solve the team's post-season troubles. Clearly he has not been the answer. More than likely he will be gone if not at the end of this season, then the end of next season, and it won't be his fault because the Sharks are clearly built on a foundation of over-rated, under-achieving chokers.
So, win against the Wild, or lose your coach, and let the players know that if this otherwise good coach and good man loses his job, it was on them. And their reward for letting down their coach, their GM and the team? Mike Keenan.
Yeah, Iron Mike. Bring him in, right now. Bring in the guy who once changed goalies five times in a single game. A guy NOBODY likes and everyone hates. A guy who has won a Stanley Cup and who, until he landed in Vancouver, had never coached a team that did not make the play-offs. Bring in Keenan to irritate the shit out of these people and they will respond either by shutting down completely or by winning the Stanley Cup.
Drastic? Sure. Angry, no more like disgusted. The Sharks have become a team that is less than the sum of its parts. Watching them melt down over the last couple of weeks has been, not painful because there is so much more in life to feel pain over, but disheartening and disgusting. Watching hockey is a nice distraction for me. As things in the real world swirl into a mess the notion of maybe watching our boys in teal bring home the Stanley Cup is a cool thing to think about instead of the squalid emptiness of the world we live in. Watching this team cave, it's been a metaphor for the demise of our economy and of our nation to a certain degree, This shouldn't be happening, but it is.
So, fuck these guys, Put it on the line for them like it is for everyone, Win or else. Win or a good man loses his job for something that he had nothing to do with. Win or always be a part of that team that never lived up to expectations and that had to be broken up because, despite all the talent on it, it could not find a way out of the mess its in.
Maybe the Sharks are a metaphor for the time. Maybe I take this stuff too seriously.
Whatever the case these guys need a big-time wake-up call.
If they don't win the Cup, or at least make a good run at it, then fire Keenan AND GM Doug Wilson. Then rip the team apart and start from scratch. Because this crap has gotten way old and another off-season of posturing and tough talk and empty promises will not make this fan feel any better about the team's chances of ever being a Stanley Cup contender.
This season, heading into the play-offs, The Sharks have lost six straight and looked like a minor league team playing against all-star teams. They clearly have only one card left to play to make a strong run during the Cup play-offs. So, if I owned the Sharks this is what I would do before tomorrow nights game.
I would walk into the locker room and tell the team that, lose again tonight, look like the pathetic bunch they have been looking like the last couple of weeks, the coach is gone. Fired.
Todd McLellan has done a good job as coach. He deserves better. But, he was brought in to solve the team's post-season troubles. Clearly he has not been the answer. More than likely he will be gone if not at the end of this season, then the end of next season, and it won't be his fault because the Sharks are clearly built on a foundation of over-rated, under-achieving chokers.
So, win against the Wild, or lose your coach, and let the players know that if this otherwise good coach and good man loses his job, it was on them. And their reward for letting down their coach, their GM and the team? Mike Keenan.
Yeah, Iron Mike. Bring him in, right now. Bring in the guy who once changed goalies five times in a single game. A guy NOBODY likes and everyone hates. A guy who has won a Stanley Cup and who, until he landed in Vancouver, had never coached a team that did not make the play-offs. Bring in Keenan to irritate the shit out of these people and they will respond either by shutting down completely or by winning the Stanley Cup.
Drastic? Sure. Angry, no more like disgusted. The Sharks have become a team that is less than the sum of its parts. Watching them melt down over the last couple of weeks has been, not painful because there is so much more in life to feel pain over, but disheartening and disgusting. Watching hockey is a nice distraction for me. As things in the real world swirl into a mess the notion of maybe watching our boys in teal bring home the Stanley Cup is a cool thing to think about instead of the squalid emptiness of the world we live in. Watching this team cave, it's been a metaphor for the demise of our economy and of our nation to a certain degree, This shouldn't be happening, but it is.
So, fuck these guys, Put it on the line for them like it is for everyone, Win or else. Win or a good man loses his job for something that he had nothing to do with. Win or always be a part of that team that never lived up to expectations and that had to be broken up because, despite all the talent on it, it could not find a way out of the mess its in.
Maybe the Sharks are a metaphor for the time. Maybe I take this stuff too seriously.
Whatever the case these guys need a big-time wake-up call.
If they don't win the Cup, or at least make a good run at it, then fire Keenan AND GM Doug Wilson. Then rip the team apart and start from scratch. Because this crap has gotten way old and another off-season of posturing and tough talk and empty promises will not make this fan feel any better about the team's chances of ever being a Stanley Cup contender.
Comments