What a difference a few weeks make. Points in 8 straight. 7 wins in 8 games. Where has this team been (besides injured)?  Alex was indisposed come Sunday morning, so this week Ben hosts and Colin provides the HOT TAEKS. Mostly we talk about the reasons why this team has looked so much better than in their previous, limited win and point streaks this season. As always, there’s limited complaining about Mike Brown (even before he cost the Sharks a win against the Kings after this podcast was recorded). Stupid Kings.

Man, the NHL sure screwed the pooch with this All-Star game voting thing, didn’t they? Thanks a lot Reddit! Besides the evil done by Gary Bettman and the Arizona Coyotes, we talk about that, Marc-Édouard Vlasic’s recent decision to start shooting more (which we applaud) and the Sharks’ sort of good, sort of lucky week past. Oh yeah, and Colin’s back with us, so it’s the full 3-man team on this podcast, for the first time since before Christmas. Huzzah!

Some combination of Circling the Cup podcasters had been present at each of the last five home games (with Colin here in the states from Sweden, but still absent from the podcast). Despite each home game hosting at least two of us, we experienced a combined 4 wins (Alex and Ben were present for only one win each but Colin was lucky to see both). So, we were on a path to a pretty bitter podcast, I think, until that last one was a 7 – 0 drubbing (somewhat luck-driven) of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In honor of the Sharks’ awful home record, we talked a lot about puck luck (including PDO), and a little bit about last week’s start to the ‘trading frenzy’ with Nashville and Columbus’ joint move of Jones for Johansen, heads up. Spoiler: The Sharks don’t have much room to maneuver over the next 51 days, thanks to No Movement Clauses and salary cap realities. Sorry, fans!