In the poker game that is the 2010-2011 NHL season, the San Jose Sharks find themselves as the short stack at the Pacific Division table.
The Sharks took a gamble in the off-season that has yet to pay off—going with home-grown youth on defense and a pair of largely unproven veterans in net. While it helped Team Teal maintain their entire offensive core, the strategy has yielded just seven points in as many games so far this season.
This means the Sharks are on pace for just 82 points this season, far below the likely cutoff for making the playoffs in the Western Conference.
It has only been seven games, and may well be too early to make any reasonable numeric extrapolation of how many points the Sharks can expect to earn this year, but it is never too early to notice trends in the way the team is playing.
These trends suggest just how disastrous the combination of defensive liability and suspect goaltending could be, if the Sharks continue along their current path much longer. The defense has done Antero Niittymaki and Antti Niemi no huge favors with their play, allowing poor turnovers to feed the transition game of opponents resulting in d ...
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Article written by Patrick Goulding II
Niemi’s Poor Play Could Force San Jose Sharks To ‘Antti’ Up Sooner Than Expected
October 25th, 2010 by Patrick Goulding II Leave a reply »
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