The Right Idea

Here's a quote from Ron Wilson about Tomas Holmstrom that I found in David Pollak's blog:

He goes and stands in front of the net. And he gets punched and he gets whacked by the goalie, he gets knocked on his keister and he fights back and he maybe gets a penalty. The next shift, where’s Tomas Holmstrom? Back in front of the net. It might have taken him some time to get comfortable doing that, but because of what the reward is, you have to do that.

That’s what I want to see. When you do get punched in the head, or they dump it in the corner and you get run on the very first shift of the game, does it effect your second and your third and your fourth shifts?

Don’t allow anybody’s efforts to get you off your game. That’s what we’re working on.

I don't know if you can put it any better than that. This is what the Sharks need to do. This tells me Ron Wilson is still the right coach for the Sharks. That may change. In my view, the Sharks haven't played this way, until maybe last night.

There was an interesting remark made by Drew on the telecast last night, and he just said it offhand during the middle of the action, but it stuck with me. It's sort of a different way of saying what Ron Wilson said. He said basically: The foundation of good play is a strong work ethic. Lots of talent will put you over the top, where you win games and be dominant. Right now, the Sharks are trying to use their talent as a foundation, and work a bit to win games. Until they decide they have work hard every night, every shift, even with all their talent, they will struggle.

Shit, maybe we should put Drew back behind the bench too.

Officially the new best newsy Sharks blog

Written by David Pollak, the new beat writer for the Merc. I've also added it to the blog roll.
Interesting tidbits of late on that blog (call me you own personal aggregator)

• Osgood will be starting tomorrow, and not Hasek. Ozzy actually has better stats this year than the Dominator.
• Matt Cooke was originally suspended for 10 games for leaving the bench for the altercation at the end of the Canucks game, but that was recinded. I'm still wondering how come they had five skaters and a goalie at that point (while on the penalty kill) and Cooke didn't count as leaving the bench. Who cares? As Joe said, he's "amusing" and not much more.