Email Bag
We receive a number of emails during the season, but by far our favorites come from the younger hockey fans.

One San Jose 5th grader asked why the Sharks always lose in the playoffs? [We have no answer.]

A Canadian 3rd grader wanted Owen Nolan to tell one of his classmates that they met once. [We forwarded that email to the official site.]

Yesterday we received an email from a young fan asking: "Can girls play?"

Yes, they can.

Manon Rheaume became the first woman to play in a major professional sport when she made an exhibition start for the Lightning against the Blues on September 23, 1992.

[Anyone under 13 please get your parents permission before writing.]

Home Goal #10,000 sinks the Sharks
The Montreal Canadiens trade Brian Savage for Sergei Berezin on Friday.

Saturday Berezin records 3 shots on goal in a 1-1 tie with rival Ottawa. On Sunday, Sergei scored home goal #10,000 in Montreal, a GW goal against the San Jose Sharks.

"It was fun to see the new guy get the goal" said the former Habs captain Vincent Damphousse.

[Damphousse scored 91 of the 10,000 Montreal home goals, 91-92-02 NHL allstar, 1993 Stanley Cup champion]

FaheyforHobey.com
Sharks defensive prospect Jim Fahey needs your support to win the Hobey Baker award.

Nominate him from the official site, and check out FaheyforHobey.com for great background information.

"He does everything for us. He has a great shot that he gets to the net, is a leader on the PP and PK, and this year he has really anchored a young defense" - NorthEastern coach Bruce Crowder on Jim Fahey.

Whats up with Sharkspage?
[Q. from Bob] What was up with Sharkspage over the weekend?

[A] We tried to change our DNS server, but it did not work. We will take a stab at it again over the offseason. Also the lack of updates was caused by an outage of our publishing tool at blogger.com.

On a positive note, we have a line on a used Nikon Coolpix 5000. A 5.24 mega-pixel camera capable of taking bursts of 8 shots in a 2 second span. This will make for amazing game photos.

The purchase in large part is due to commissions earned from fans shopping on this website. We look forward to testing the camera Feb. 5 against Nashville, Feb. 7 against Ottawa, and Feb. 9 against Vancouver.

Thanks again for your support.

From the "It's too good not to happen" department
The Bruins have contacted retired defenseman Ray Bourque [#77] about returning to the NHL.

Bourque's agent denied interest in the offer.

Home team fans berate defenseman
60 Montreal fans were threatened with ejection if they did not surrender their anti-Patrice Brisebois signs during a game with Philly.

What is offensive about a sign that says "Brise-boo"?

Top 100 people of power and influence in hockey
To save you time we read through the Hockey News 100 people of power and influence in hockey. No Sharks were named.

SJ will get no respect from the national media unless they win a Stanley Cup.

All-star and Olympic Sharks
[Q. from Andrew]
Which Sharks are in the allstar game, and which Sharks will play in the Olympics?

[A.] Due to zealous fan ballot stuffing in San Jose, 3 Sharks [Vincent Damphousse, Owen Nolan, & Teemu Selanne] were named to the starting NHL all-star lineup.

Marcus Ragnarsson had a plate inserted into his broken index finger and will miss playing for Sweden in the Olympics.

Nicklas Sundstrom [SWE], Marco Sturm [GER], Teemu Selanne [FIN], Owen Nolan [CAN], and Gary Suter [USA] are slated to play for their respective Olympic teams.

Sharks prospect Marcel Goc may be selected when Germany announces its roster January 20th.

The IIHF ruled Evgeni Nabokov ineligible for the Russian Olympic team because he represented Kazakhstan in 1994. Russia has named Evgeni to their Olympic roster, and the IOC may rule further on this issue.

Sharks vs Avalanche behind the numbers
I am not a gambling man, but this morning I took a look at the Sagarin NHL ratings index.

The Colorado Avalanche have a 4.51 Sagarin rating [6th], while the Sharks have a 4.40 rating [17th]. Factoring in the .39 home ice advantage, the Avalanche are favored tonight by 0.5 goals.

Taking that knowledge to covers.com, I see that San Jose is 7-1-1 against the spread for its last 9 games on the road, has a 21-12 over/under, and a -45 money record.

Confused? I am.

Gallagher in Limbo
Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province writes a particularly mean spirited article on the recent Selanne/Sutter situation.

It's hard to imagine there has been such a flap over San Jose Sharks coach Darryl Sutter allegedly telling Teemu Selanne that he could "drive his Ferrari back to Anaheim."

It was "drive his Porsche back to Anaheim", and as Selanne said "Besides, my new Porsche isn't ready yet, it's still in Finland.''

The Selanne situation will come down to the trade deadline [Holik?], or a single post season run with the Sharks. Gallagher could have made this point without all the commentary on Sutter.

With San Jose mgmt. looking for new investors, Teemu's re-signing in the offseason is a big question mark for the team.

Thomas Junta found guilty of manslaughter
Thomas Junta was found guilty on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Michael Costin.

The fight started over physical play during drills at their son's hockey practice.

NY rumor mill pt II
The NY Post is at it again. Apparently creating rumors about the Sharks sells more papers for them. I would rather purchase a copy of the National Inquirer.

Devils to pull off Arnott for Marleau deal.

It should be noted that the Sharks organization has denied the trade rumor.

Vote Jim Fahey for the Hobey Baker award
Nominate Sharks defensive prospect Jim Fahey [9G, 18A] for the Hobey Baker award, the college hockey equivalent of the Heisman trophy. 25 nominations are needed for him to be eligible for the second phase, finalist selection.

The Northeastern senior was also named Hockey East player of the month for November.

Vote for the award here. Thanks to Victor Chi for the link.

NY rumor mill pt I
[update] Sutter and Selanne deny these comments were made.

From yesterday's NY Post: "The uneasy relationship between Teemu Selanne and Darryl Sutter reached new proportions last week when the San Jose coach blasted the unhappy winger in front of his teammates immediately following the team's 5-3 loss to the Rangers"

Larry Brooks should write more about Theo Fleury [attacks Sharkie, mocks crowd in LA, & then leaves the next game early], instead of trying to create drama in the Sharks locker room.

1. The whole team needed a lecture after the Rangers game.
2. When you make $9,500,000.00 a season, you should be prepared for criticism if you can't score consistently.
3. Current Teemu stats: 41 GP 13G 14A -7 [75th]
4. The team is 3-1 after D. Sutter's "alleged" comments.

Owen Nolan trick play
In the third period against Florida, Owen fanned on a shot. The puck then bounced off the goalie's leg pads and left Graves a tap-in goal. Was it a set play?

"That was just something you mess around with in practice. When you are up a couple of goals, you try it" Owen Nolan said after the game.

Hockey on TV
Is hockey the least watchable major sport on television? What can be done to improve the broadcasts to pull in average sports fans?

Hockey should rate higher than professional bowling.

Send me your opinion.

Bay Area's youngest Sharks fan
Happy Birthday to Joseph Elijah Castro. Born one second after midnight, he becomes the Bay Area's youngest Sharks fan.

Who said hockey wasn't catching on in this market?

Hockey player's father faces trial
The father of a youth hockey player from Massachusetts faces a manslaughter charge after a fight during practice results in a death.

More blacked out Sharks games?
From what I can tell, for the rest of the year, the games that will not be on local TV are the following, with the games that WILL be on Center Ice noted:

1/4 Phoenix
1/12 LA (Was to be an ABC game, but ABC cancelled, so Fox may later elect to pick it up)
1/24 Columbus (Fox Ohio)
3/3 Dallas (channel 27 - Center Ice sometimes will pick up the backhaul from this) - yeah, no fan interest here!
3/7 Ottawa
3/16 Chicago (Fox Chicago)
3/21 Calgary (SN)

So with luck, there will only be 6-7 more blacked out games for Bay Area fans, and 3-4 for those of us with dishes registered out of the Bay Area who have Center Ice.
[from Duane]