141004 — Sharks @ Ducks 7pm (Radio Only) pregame

Final preseason game for both the Sharks and Ducks.

Sharks are looking to finalize who will be in the NHL roster for the season opener and fine tune some line and pairing combinations.

Ducks the same, with perhaps a bit of added revenge for the loss to the Sharks previously.

Niemi is expected to start this game.  (Stalock notched the winner against the Ducks in San Jose.) Looks like Ducks will start Andersen; former Shark Dany Heatley is out with groin injury.

Ducks enjoyed US Olympian Hillary Knight joining their practice on Friday.

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  • 1h1 hour ago

    No line rushes today but BB said he’s not playing both Rakell and Karlsson. One will as he wants Getzlaf, Kesler and Thompson in.

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141003 – Sharks @ Coyotes postgame

Hockey is back on the radio!!   It was very refreshing to hear live play-by-play again.

New voice in my ear, Bret Hedican, analyzing to Rusanowsky’s play-by-play.  Seemed to be working fairly well.  Some good insights, and good pacing between the two.

Thornton and Goldobin were among the more notable players not participating in the tilt for the Sharks.

Stalock kept the Coyotes in check, with Scott making sure things were “nicely” played.  McGinn (dust up with Crombeen) and Braun (after boarding on Couture) dropped the gloves as well.  Nieto and McGinn scored, with Wingels notching an insurance empty netter after Stalock’s shut out was thwarted.  Sharks won 3-1.  With a goal and fight, McGinn was #1 star of the game.  Nieto’s goal and play netted him the #3 star of the game.

(Niemi previously faced the Coyotes, loosing in a shootout, so this was Stalock’s game.)

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141003 – preseason Sharks @ Coyotes pregame

Sharks are heading off on the road for their final two road games.  Both games will be on the Sharks Radio Network.

First up is a rematch with the Arizona Coyotes.

Sharks have not (yet) announced any further cuts since the last game, but Dohery, Fedun and Goldobin have each taken one or more maintenance days.  (So hard to determine exact line combinations or pairings that might be used in tonight’s game.)  But with Sheppard and Kennedy probably on the IR to start the season, a few forwards may get longer looks.

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  • 13m13 minutes ago Dave Tippett says Mike Smith will start tonight’s preseason game vs. Sharks & Sam Gagner will play on line w/ Martin Hanzal & Martin Erat

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3.75 months of anticipation: NHL Presser for Stadium Series between Sharks and Kings @ Levi’s Stadium

After years of hoping, months of speculation, and a short announcement, the league brass will descend on Silicon Valley to formally announce (with all the bells and whistles) the Sharks-Kings Stadium Series game at Levi’s Stadium today.

3pm PT presser is expected to have Bettman and more.  (You can watch live, locally on CSNCA; or around North America on the NHL Network. And streaming live on nhl.com + CSNBayArea.com. And will be on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio live.)

WTC whetting whistle for presser

NHL formal announcement of presser

Excitement building for NHL Stadium Series game (NHL)

Nearly 65,000 seats sold for Sharks-Kings outdoor game (AP)

Video from Thursday’s presser

CSN: Sharks outdoor game will be sellout, Bettman says

CSN: 49ers staff has hockey in its blood

MercNews: Sharks, Kings close to selling out game at Levi’s Stadium

MercNews: WTC: Busy day: Near sellout for outdoor game, coach has high praise for Thornton — plus Bettman says Sharks opening season at Staples “not by accident” and Chuck Reed’s cap

Event videos

  • Randy Hahn
  • Jed York
  • Gary Bettman
  • John Tortora
  • Luc Robitaille
  • Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Mathews
  • SJ Mayor Chuck Reed
  • Mathieu Schneider
  • Sharks Players – Vlasic, Pavelski, Couture

Outdoor ice hockey in Silicon Valley? That’ll be the day Levi’s Stadium freezes over (SVBJ)

Preseason rankings

A number of sites have weekly updates as to where they think teams are ranked among the league.

USA Today: 11 (and USA Today’s group of pundits predict division, major award winners — no Shark mentions)
USA Today: 3rd in Pacific
USA Today’s team preview
USA Today Kevin Allen Western Conference overview

The Hockey News: 3rd in Pacific Division

Kukla’s Korner (PuckStopsHere): 2nd in Pacific Division
Kukla’s Korner (SabresObserver): 2nd in Pacific Division

Bleacher Report (Utz): 3rd in Pacific Division (and best new rivalry)

Fansided (SenShot): 3rd in Pacific

Sportsnet:  8th in league

Buffalo News’ Harrington: 11th in league

ESPN: 11th in the league

New York Post: 10th in league

Puck Daddy/Yahoo: Most pundits have the Sharks finishing 2nd or 3rd in division, but one has the Sharks winning the division
Yahoo/Cotsonika: 7th in league

TSN: 4

(Will be updating as more sources release their predictions, so bookmark and check back)

CSN Sharks Preview (video)

TSN season preview

Reuter’s capsule season preview

NHL.com pundit predictions: only one has Sharks winning division

Puck Daddy predictions: Sharks mentioned as most underhyped team; McLellan as potential first coach fired; and Scott as potential most/longest suspended

Sportsnet predictions (no Sharks mentions)

140930 – Kings @ Sharks postgame

Meh. Fans got into it here and there (but not sustained).  Sharks managed only 24 shots (while Niemi faced 30).  Some guys just weren’t playing well; tape-to-tape passes often ended up on the other team’s player’s stick.

First goal against was due to a horrendous line change.

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140930 – preseason Kings @ Sharks (pregame)

Sharks had Sunday off (CBA mandate).  They’ll have practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday before finishing their preseason games on Friday and Saturday. Over the weekend, more players were sent to Worcester (roster down to 30, including Torres who will start season on IR and Sheppard).

Sharks players have a couple of bumps and bruises from camp and games, excluding Sheppard and Torres.  The Kings have a longer laundry list of more seriously dinged/recovering guys; but Quick, Doughty and Stoll may be finally ready to take to the ice.

The fans, players, coaches, and teams do not like each other in this rivalry.  And with the February outdoor game, this may be escalating in intensity through the season (with the entire league keeping an eye on the matchups; beside which the Sharks would love to see the Kings fail to win after raising their Stanley Cup banner on the opening day).

McLellan may have a more veteran group on the ice Tuesday, but some of the rookies may be tested against tougher competition.

Kings will have radio coverage for this game.

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140927 – Ducks @ Sharks preseason game … links and thoughts

Sharks again were dominant on the shot clock.  Barclay Goodrow and Nikolay Goldobin stole the show.  Stalock had a shut out until midway through the third period.

And the Sharks won 3-1 over the Ducks.  Didn’t notice Tarasov or Oleksuk until late in the third period.  Doherty dropped the gloves early in the game.

After Friday’s game, McLellan gave good marks to the blueline.  After Saturday’s game, it was time for the forwards to get some good words spoken.  And in both cases, it was the rookies and prospects making for the good words.

(More perhaps Sunday afternoon)

On Sunday, the Sharks assigned four players to Worcester.

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140926 – postgame

The Sharks squad was populated with a lot of rookies and prospects.  There were flashes of brilliance from many, a number of players showing their rust.

But even with a surfeit of shots, the Sharks only managed one goal, on the power play.  They did ensure the fans saw some new rules in place, such as the cleaning of ice before overtime and the swapping of ends into the OT and for the shootout.

Defensively, the team was pretty good.  But if you aren’t scoring, it’s hard to win.  (At least it’s the preseason.)

Sharks 1-2 SO Coyotes

McLellan is talking about the possibility in his post game interview that a few vets might be elsewhere when the season starts as they’ve been supplanted by those rookies.  (Especially on the blueline.)

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140926 – preseason Coyotes @ Sharks 7:30pm

The Sharks are ready host their first preseason game against the renamed Arizona Coyotes.

Sharks have skated for a couple of days since the split squad games against Vancouver to work on a few things and do some more analysis of players in camp.  Roster sits at 45, and probably won’t have any more reduction until after this weekend’s pair of preseason game.  (The AHL camp starts on Monday. And the waiver period — to clear players to be assigned to AHL — starts 12 days before start of NHL season, so some could not be sent down until that started.  Thinking there will be a number of names on the waiver wire Sunday.)

But for the game Friday (and Saturday), expect a number of prospects and AHL names on the ice.  Perhaps everyone healthy will be in the lineup, one or the other game.  (CBA rules that at LEAST 8 NHL vets and/or first round picks be in the lineup.)  Sounds like Niemi may get his first start of the preseason on Friday.

Meanwhile, in Glendale, Arizona…. The Coyotes played an early preseason game as part of Kraft Hockeyville against Calgary. They’ve played five (some split squad) games already.

No TV coverage/stream.  And does not appear to be any radio feed either. Twitter for the latest (see lists below).

In the afternoon, the Sharks announced the signing of 2014 first round draft pick Nikolay Goldobin (whose agent is former Shark Igor Larionov), and (finally) announced signing of draftee Julius Bergman.

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