Thoughts on the Goaltending Situation in San Jose

This season, I made a conscious decision not to write about the San Jose Sharks. I live in Chicago and I've witnessed the Blackhawks win two Stanley Cups as an Illinois resident so I've developed a soft spot for the club, I always root for the Montreal Canadiens as my Eastern Conference preference, and I've taken an interest in the emergence of the Blue Jackets, Ducks (blasphemy, I know), Stars, Blues, and Wild. I am a capital-H Hockey fan before any allegiance I may have but when the puck drops on any of the 1230 games in the NHL season, I Bleed Teal when the boys from my hometown are on the ice, without question. Me keeping hushed about the Sharks this year was just a show of some unfounded superstition I had relating to their success.

Well, I'm breaking the silence. We're all allowed to knock our favourite teams when they deserve it and, over the years, my general thought about the Sharks is that they play the most spirited 40 minutes of hockey you will ever see. They've put out a different look every season since I really started following the sport in 2007 but the story has remained the same: they come out strong, they sit back on a lead, they choke. I won't make excuses. It's like that girl that builds up your confidence for a year of cautious optimism and, when you finally ask her out, she just wants to be friends. They show so much promise and, just when you really start to believe that this could truly be the team, they're hitting the links and Pierre McGuire is spouting off about other players' junior teams for a few more weeks.

Sophomore Slumps: 2013-14, Part 1

Every year, the Professional Hockey Writers Association votes for the Calder Memorial Trophy, the award bestowed upon "the player selected as most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League." A handful of previous winners went on to have stellar careers and, like Teemu Selanne (1992-93), Martin Brodeur (1993-94), and Daniel Alfredsson (1995-96), some are still having productive twilight years. Others, such as Alex Ovechkin (2005-06), Evgeni Malkin (2006-07), and Patrick Kane (2007-08), remain in a class of their own in the league.

Yet for every Brodeur or Malkin, you have your Andrew Raycrofts (2003-04) and Dany Heatleys (2001-02). Over a long enough timeline, a promising prospect may turn into a significant bust. This might manifest as a young player enters his scoring prime or he might just hit a brick wall after a strong debut.

While the jury may still be out on many of the following individuals, each one didn't live up to the promise of their rookie years in 2012-13. 2013-14 was almost business as usual with a full 82 games played for each team so a rough year may be chalked up to growing pains. Let's take inventory of who to look for next season to either bounce back or fade further away.

2-4-T At Frozen Four 2014: Day 2

Saturday at the Frozen Four began with an afternoon open skate at the Wells Fargo Center. They opened the arena from 12:30pm to 2:30pm for fans to come down Broad Street, rent skates provided by Bauer, and traverse around the rink in standard counter-clockwise fashion.

2-4-T At Frozen Four 2014: Day 1

I admittedly don't have a whole lot of college hockey chops, my only real exposure to it being the Hockey City Classic in 2013 at Soldier Field in Chicago. That day featured two outdoor contests, one between Miami (Ohio) and Notre Dame, the other Minnesota versus Wisconsin, on a February day that got more and more frigid as the sun crept below the western edge of the stadium. While I can speak most fluently about NHL action, I'll never turn down an opportunity to take in some puck.