Sharks lose to Dallas — again; and we’re heading towards the trade deadline, so let’s go start some rumors…

Sharkspage – San Jose Sharks, Hockey, NHL sports blog:

The defensive minded Dallas Stars outscored the Sharks by 1 goal in each of three periods on Thursday night. A 4-2 win over San Jose improved the Dallas Stars record to 3-1 at HP Pavilion. Tied at 1-1 in Dallas, the Sharks will travel to the American Airlines Center on February 18th and March 4th to close out the regular season series.

The Sharks looked bad; worse than the first loss earlier in the week.

I saw two key reasons:

1) Nabokov (again) gave up a soft goal early on the first shot. (see trade rumors below).

2) Joe “little joe” Pavelski was out of the lineup due to a lower body injury (aka an “owie foot” from a shot block), screwing up the top two lines again.

Wilson reacted to losing Pavelski by trying Mark Bell (see trade rumors below) with Joe Thornton again. It was as ineffective as Bell has been all season.

I know there’s still a call from some people in my section at the arena for a power-play-QB type quarterback, but I think the real problem is we only have five true “top six” players — Thornton, Cheechoo (okay, four and a half, although he’s improving), Marleau, and Milan Michalek. Pavelski has stepped in and taken Bell’s slot, which is nice. and Clowe has stepped into the Bernier role (also presumed to be a top 6 forward — and ended up in Worcester before a foot injury took him down). Grier has stepped in ably at times in the top six when a grit player is needed, but he’s not a top six guy.

Now, the Sharks have struggled a little when McLaren or Hannan are out of the lineup, but they’re dismal when they don’t have that top six group, and they keep proving they don’t really have an “extra” to fill in when one goes down; Bernier is out for a few more weeks, and it’s a reach to assume he’ll be back to potential when he gets back. It’s important to keep Grier on the third/checking line with Rissmiller and Curtis Brown. Niemenen has shown himself basically to be a spot-player on the 4th line this year, if that; his first game back from this most recent injury he was more than invisible, he was downright missing.

So I’ve decided the sharks are both a buyer and a seller at the trade deadline.

My shopping list: a good, solid, veteran forward who can play a top six wing position and apply some grit. If we can find one, a good, solid veteran Dman who can eat 18-20 minutes a game and is a plus player; offense is extra. When the top six forwards are clicking, we don’t NEED the offense. We won’t fix the top six forwards with a Dman — but I’d love to have a guy who can cut Hannan and McLaren’s minutes and take on some of the load so the younger kids don’t have to (even though they’ve played pretty admirably when needed — the playoffs are another level of crazy altogether). A cup ring on one hand or the other would be nice.

What I’m selling:

Evgeni Nabokov. I’ve talked about this before. I still think it’s a good idea. Nabby has a no-trade, but if it’s made clear he’s now the backup, he’ll take a move to a team where he can start. In the arena you can hear it; the fans have lost confidence in Nabby; when Toskala is announced, there’s a huge cheer. When Nabby is announced, it’s much more muted. Until Nabby makes the first few saves, the fans are hesitant to believe. And far too often, he hasn’t. If you compare Nabokov’s and Toskala’s numbers, they’re pretty similar, except for W/L and “goals scored for” — the sharks team consistently scores over a goal a game less for Nabokov, so his record is much closer to .500. Dan Rusanowsky and Jamie Baker can profess amazement at this “coincidence” all they want, but it’s simply not true: the team is playing much more cautious in front of Nabokov, more paranoid. they hang back to protect him, costing them offense. And he STiLL gives up soft goals.

And it’s now in the team’s head, and Nabby’s head. And bluntly – there’s not a damn thing wrong with Nabokov that would keep him from going to a new team and kicking a lot of butt. He simply hasn’t figured out how to get that “gotta make the first save OH DAMN” out of his head here, and the team’s playing down to that. And it’s a viscious little circle now.

So a fresh start works for everyone. Toskala can take over as top dog, Schaeffer comes up and plays every fifth game, and Nabokov can go play 65 games for someone else — and Nabokov has shown he plays better with lots of play, this season’s swapping notwithstanding.

So, who needs a goalie, and is willing to give up a top-six gritty forward with a cup ring (hopefully) to help carry the sharks forward this season? I’ll happily take a soon-to-be-unrestricted, because even if we lose them in the offseason, clearing out Nabokov’s salary off the cap is a win in itself, now that Toskala is clearly the first goalie.

How about St. Louis? Bill Guerin is soon to be unrestricted. He’s close to perfect for what I’d like right now.

How about Nabokov (and his salary) and Rissmiller for Guerin and a draft pick?

Or maybe Gary Roberts?

Just thinking, ya know?

update: Tim Kawakami of the Merc helps GM Doug Wilson chime in… (personally, given what Doug says, I don’t think his thoughts are incompatible with mine… I think there’s a deal in the works, personally).

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