What else do you say?

We went down to the locker room and this was the scene: Guys like Krys Barch, Toby Petersen, Matt Niskanen, James Neal, Loui Eriksson... those were the ones remaining (wait, sorry, Sergei Zubov was in there, too). Now Marty Turco did come out, as did Darryl Sydor, but otherwise, most were cleared out by then.

Just don't know what you can say at this point. There's no building on positives with this group. They get behind and they fall apart. Coach Dave Tippett said this team needs its goaltender first and foremost:
    "Everybody has to do their part. Certain players we expect a lot more from, and it starts in goal with marty. Right now with our lineup, we just have to have good goaltending to give ourselves a chance."

So Tobias Stephan comes in to cheers from the AAC crowd and stops 10 of 11. Most of his stops were also met with fan appreciation. I asked Tippett if that means Stephan is a consideration for Sunday's game against Edmonton. His answer: "Everything is wide open for discussion."

Yes, your goaltending needs to be the backbone with this injury-riddled group. But the blame hardly stops there. Too many Sharks were able to just skate into points and slots wide open. Too many Sharks were planting themselves right in front of the net. Now Marty said his vision wasn't impaired:
    "I pretty much saw them all. We got bounces the other night, and tonight not so. The pucks were skipping up off the ice, knucklers and you try to track them and it’s tough. They squeak through. You want to do so much more, be the guy who turns it around but we all have to do this together."

Loui Eriksson, once again, was playing hard from start to finish. I'll even give James Neal credit for not quitting. Obviously seeing those guys bodes well for the future, but what about now? What does it say when two of your best players are 23 and 21 years old, respectively? 17 goals between those two, 39 goals among everyone else (Mike Modano has eight of those, Richards and Brunnstrom have six each).

Anyway, the broken record continues. So do the boatload of problems. Don't know at this point.

Comments

[bw]

Is it time to ask Marty to waive his no trade clause and move him?
What about Tippett?