Jeff Friesen interview

Here is a link to Jeff Friesen's post-game interview with reporters last season, after his first visit to San Jose as a duck.

Is Rathje's request unreasonable?
Suter makes $1.8 mil, Rags $1.675 mil, Mush $2.7 mil, and the newbies Hannan and Stuart at $.7 mil and $.975 mil respectively. And I haven't mentioned bonuses.

Is $2.25 mil out of line? $1.6 gets him even with Rags, for now. When Selanne gets $9.5 mil and has done very little, I wonder ... Is Rats request unreasonable?

Adam Graves featured on NHL.com
Sharks left wing Adam Graves is the featured player on NHL.com's - the heart of hockey.

Adam Graves has 1 assist in 11 games so far this season.

Jillson vs Rathje
With defenseman Mike Rathje sitting out due to an extended contract dispute, rookie Jeff Jillson has made the most of his opportunity. With one PP goal, and four PP assists, Jillson changed the look of the Sharks power play.

Jeff is able to keep the puck in the offensive zone, make quality passes, and keep his shots on net through traffic. It remains to be seen how quickly he will improve in other areas of his game [skating, 5-on-5 defense], but the future looks promising.

Korolyuk trade rumor
Sporting News columnist Larry Wigge speculates on a Phillips for Korolyuk trade in todays edition of inside dish.

SJ vs CLB game audio
If you have trouble with the MSN audio stream of the Sharks game tonight, try listening from two Columbus radio affiliates 1460-WBNS or CD 101FM. Note: After a disappointing 5-2 loss to Edmonton Thursday night, fed up Bluejacket fans threw beer bottles onto the ice.

Went to a fight and a hockey game broke out
During a minor league match between the Quad City Mallards and the Asheville Smoke, multiple brawls ended the game prematurely. "The referee called 14 major penalties for fighting, six 10-minute misconduct penalties and five game misconduct penalties."

Sharks vs Hawks
Not only are the Sharks going to have to stop Zhamnov [4G, 7A] and Amonte [3G, 6A] tonight to pick up a win, they should keep Eric Daze [6G, 2A] from getting a breakaway.

Watch Mr. Daze bury the game winner Oct. 18 vs. Nashville on the Blackhawks highlight page [2nd from bottom].

ESPN2 blacked out
To all the fans that emailed yesterday about the blacked out Sharks-Buffalo game, refer to this post Malcolm Bordelon made last season on FSNBA and the issue of DirecTV/NHL Center Ice Blackouts.

New Sharks third jersey
A press release today announced the Sharks are going with a Raider-esque, all black, alternate jersey this season.

It is one more indication that Al Davis is making behind the scene moves to buy the team. You heard it here first.

Jillson heads rookie class
MSNBC covers the strong 2001 rookie class including: Vaclav Nedorost, Dan Blackburn, Ivan Ciernik, and of course Jeff Jillson.

Closer look @ Selanne
It's time to take a closer look at Selanne. Re-watching the 1st period of the Devils game I saw several instances when Selanne made defensive zone blunders. If this were Korolyuk, he would have been benched! In fact, I thought the team played better against Boston when Teemu wasn't on the bench in the 3rd period. That fact disturbed me.

Perhaps the error of the Sharks is to always pass to Selanne rather than making the play themselves. I get a copy of the Wild game tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how he and the team played there. One can say that Teemu isn't fully tuned into Sutter's defense first system of play ... one can also say he is still a duck!