This is the End

Oh, hey, look at that. It hasn’t been nearly as long between posts as I was thinking.

Apologies for the delay, but things have been really busy in Graytown lately, so blogging fell by the wayside.

The Sharks, until basically tonight, kept refusing to end this hellish roller coaster of a season, winning JUST enough games to maintain the slimmest of chances of making the playoffs. Not enough that anyone outside of the CSN broadcast team thought it was really a reality, but enough to be really annoying. Like, oh god, they aren’t actually going to manage to sneak in on the last day and ruin everything, are they, kind of annoying. Thankfully, tonight’s loss in Phoenix ruled that terrifying possibility out and the season will end, peacefully, quietly, in April.

The CSN studio crew kept trying to say that the Sharks weren’t mathematically eliminated, SO THERE’S STILL A CHANCE YOU GUYS, but really, let’s drop it, OK? At least they finally stopped showing playoff ticket commercials. That was getting really ridiculous.

I’d almost feel more comfortable if the Sharks had just started tanking, because at least then, things wouldn’t feel so damn mercurial. Shork or don’t. Please decide.

Of course, tanking is currently a hot topic around the league, with some arguing for a draft revamp to end it. Honestly? I don’t care. It’s a broken system, but if people want to cheer for their team to lose, so be it. Sports is all about wearing your bitterness on your sleeve.

Tanking might lead to Doug Wilson and Todd McLellan getting fired but, since that’s likely to happen anyway, does it even matter? This season will forever been known as the result of a gross, and largely incompetent, overreaction to a playoff loss that added nothing and destroyed a decently viable team. Maybe stripping all the As from the team will change things? Sure worked with the C…

Speaking of the C, holy hell have they really been pushing for Pavs to get it.

I’m actually not opposed to this, though I am opposed to how they’ve been going about it. A few years back, many of us saw Joe Pavelski becoming the next Captain of the San Jose Sharks, though most of us figured it’d happen after Marleau and Thornton retired. He was the next generation, up and coming, and seemed to have the right mix of skill and leadership to do the job, and do it well. Now it just feels forced. The team clearly isn’t behind it, although they aren’t totally opposed either, as they did give him an ‘A’, but it is still very much Joe Thornton’s locker room, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. (Even if I can see them forcing the C onto Pavelski, I don’t see him immediately owning the room.)

In random other news, the Sharks announced this week, (on April 1st. Seriously, who does that?), that the Worcester Sharks (the Sharks AHL affiliate) would be known as the San Jose Barracuda starting this summer. If they don’t come out onto to the ice to Heart, everyone will be seriously disappointed.

SERIOUSLY.

DISAPPOINTED.

In a very Silicon Valley move, the team was re-named after a corporate sponsor, Barracuda Networks. Welcome to modern sports, where corporate money decides everything. (the name isn’t really that bad, it’s just so stereotypically Silicon Valley that I can’t quite get over it.) They’ll play in the same place as the Sharks, at least for the first season, so it will be interesting to see how that works out. (or doesn’t)

It will be pretty cool to have the AHL team right here though, as opposed to a five hour flight away.  Call ups will be easier, less of a burden on the players, and if the call up sits, at least he won’t burn two days traveling for nothing. Plus, tickets will be quite a bit cheaper, meaning they might get pretty good attendance, even as the Sharks’ attendance sags. If nothing else, it will be fun to have another team nearby to watch again. The Bulls were fun, but way too far away to be viable for random last minute game outings.