Channeling their inner Holmstrom

It was a marvelous sight to see. Clowe in front of the net. Bernier in front of the net. Davison in front of the net. Michalek in front of the net. Semenov dumping Godard into the Sharks bench....okay, maybe the last one was a little embarrassing since Semenov was getting pounded - but still, it was pretty funny.

The Sharks played their best game of the season tonight, destroying the Flames and chasing the Kipper on Calgary's home ice. The Sharks own this team, having won four of the five from them - which is interesting given the physical brand of hockey Calgary plays. What can you say, the Flames bring out the inner beast in the Sharkies. An all around excellent effort with an A+ going to Coach Ron Wilson for following through with his promise to send the big boys in front of the net, ala Holmstrom. He did and boy did they get results. I hope this part of the gameplan sticks for it has been missing the last few years and, in my opinion, is a major reason why we haven't risen to the next level.

One of the only guys who didn't play well, again, was Cheechoo. The Train was invisible and got even less ice time than Rob Davison. With some big name defensemen rumored to be available, could Cheechoo be the bait the Sharks use to land Kaberle or Chara?

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.