GRINDSTONE LAKE…. Last week I chronicled the past ten years for the NHL San Jose Sharks and that they have been one of the top teams in the NHL over that span. The downside is that their success hasn’t turned into a Stanley Cup win for them. This appears to have exacted some severe pressure upon some members of the club. I have been witness to some bizarre post season behavior from GM Doug Wilson in the past. And after last years bow-out to the eventual SC Champ LA Kings, I thought Doug finally went off the end of the pier. That they blew a 3 games to none series lead couldn’t have helped.

In seasons past he engaged in some self mutilation (verbal) and public flogging that seemed to be more to let the fans know how much he cared about the team and their success then anything else. He has made some off-season moves in an attempt to shore up the roster and some have panned out and some not. After last years loss to the Kings he was up against a salary cap wall of sorts and his ability to make moves were limited. He attempted to accomplish two substantial roster moves in trading Team Captain Joe Thornton and long time Shark Patrick Marleau, and both have No Trade clauses and balked at being moved.

The two biggest roster moves were to strip Thornton of his Captaincy and to move offensively gifted player Brent Burns back to defense. Both moves were weak, desperate attempts at fixing a much larger problem, a lack of depth at forward and at ‘D’ plague this club along with a goalie who might not be a true number one (Antti Niemi) and another who is good but building his body of pro work and experience (former UMD Bulldog Alex Stalock). Burns has 55 points and is a minus 5. He has never been a shutdown guy. These moves accomplished little and at least one of them threatened the normalcy of the club environment and culture. Then a couple of weeks ago, with the season slipping away, the stuff hit the fan.
At a Q & A session with some season ticket holders, Wilson was asked about the move to take the ‘C’ away from Jumbo Joe. Wilson responded, and I’ll paraphrase here, that Joe has a tough time with the pressure of the ‘C’ and of the team and the stress was getting to him. When Joe heard this he stated that “Wilson needs to shutup and stop lying”. The aftershock was felt throughout the entire Bay area. Soon after, Wilson tried to assure everyone that all was well. It sure didn’t look that way.

24 hours after, Joe was still looking fairly tepid, and Wilson was doing his best to spin the mess into something more positive. The problem was that every time Wilson opened his mouth, he just made matters worse. On top of that, the club is taking an unacceptable self-inflicted public image hit.
The Sharks are unlikely to make the playoffs this year. That has prompted many to call for the firings of Wilson and Coach Todd McLellan. As I truly believe the club is kind of a mess right now, these two have by and large been excellent, guiding the team to the upper tier of the NHL over the past decade. I do not think dismissing them is the right thing to do at this time, and McLellan is certainly much less culpable in the current woes of the team then is Wilson.

I believe that Wilson’s post playoff mindset last summer was very clouded and that he knew he had to do something bold but had limited options and of course he chose the wrong ones. And if you believe removing the ’C’ from a long term veteran captain will go smoothly, you should have first called the Dallas NorthStars and asked how it went with Mikey Mo. It was as smooth as a washboard and the move alone insinuates that the person wearing the ’C’ may have been the source of the teams malaise. I don’t see a leadership void on the club or they wouldn’t have had the record they did the previous decade.

Wilson and Todd should stay. Wilson has some fences to mend and he should wait at least a month after each season before he speaks to anyone. If he wants to move Joe and Marleau he will need a different approach, and if they still balk, he will sadly have to play hardball. It’s too bad it has come to this, but it is time for the Sharks to retool. Can Wilson make the right moves and still have a cohesive club?

SOME HOCKEY SHORTS; best story of the weekend, go to you tube and look up; First Star-Garrett Gamble. Heart touching and you will be glad you watched. MINNESOTA WILD are hotter then lava right now. On Friday eve the team dispatched the Calgary Flames, and then on Saturday eve when a lot of observers thought the party would be over versus the LA Kings, the Wild prevailed again. The Kings had the upper hand for some stretches, but net minder Devan Dubnyk held them off and the team got some timely scoring from Nino Neidereitter and Mikko Koivu. (2 goals apiece) They dismissed the Flame 4-2 and the King 4-1. Take that!

In the NCAA Men’s tourney the UMD Bulldogs bested long time nemesis Minnesota 4-1 and then lost out to Boston University in a hard fought battle 3-2. The Dogs had a late potential game tying goal dismissed and I’m not entirely sure the goal should have been waved off, but I need to see the replays some more and haven’t yet. The team was clearly more on their game Friday then were the Gophers. As always the defeat has some Gopher followers making their annual call for the dismissal of Coach Don Lucia. This isn’t unique to the Gophers and I wonder what Coach Scott Sandelin would say about this. I have watched college hockey for 50 years. I have never seen more parity then the game has now, and that team has won the most D1 games in the last 4 seasons going. Yet, some fans are dissatisfied. High standards are great, just don’t forget a dose of reality to go with them…. PEACE

Marc Elliott is a sports opinion writer who splits his time between his hometown in Illinois and Minnesota