It’s not at all unusual for the San Jose Sharks we know and love to largely manage to control the puck and lose on mistakes or bad bounces. So this was a somewhat better week for them, in that they lost one ugly, not well-played game to the Red Wings, but rebounded at home to take down two bad teams. And Marc-Edouard Vlasic showed the world what he could do if a goalie is dumb enough to respect his backhand. The Sharks’ lines were ground up a bit, so we talk about how that went and Ben pleads for people to go watch the hugely entertaining San Jose Barracuda in the mostly-empty SAP Center. Do it for the children.

This was not the best week for the Sharks, but they emerged from the majority of the road trip (which finishes up Saturday in Detroit) with 2 wins and 2 losses. It could have been worse. Barring some horrible defensive lapses by noted pylon Brendan Dillon and 900-year-old Paul Martin, it might have been better as well. Alex and I talk about the games, Jumbo Joe’s penchant for bare chests and much, much more this week, while Colin is away somewhere contemplating the horror of childrens’ birthday parties. Here’s to a win against the Red Wings, hopefully!

The Sharks took their first win of the season in game one and, even better, injured Jonathan Quick in the bargain. It wasn’t a perfect game, but closer to it than you might expect for a team that played approximately 1000 games last year and had half their roster in the World Cup until September. We talk about that and make fun of Toronto and Edmonton, so, basically, it was an average Circling the Cup podcast. Can’t wait til game 2! Go Sharks.

Dan Boyle returned to San Jose this week to announce his retirement in a nice little press conference helmed by Randy Hahn. Colin and I reflect on what Dan Boyle meant to the Sharks and whether he’ll have a shot at the Hall of Fame or not. Meanwhile, Training Camp is still on-going, though most of the young guys have gone to the Barracuda for their pre-season now. We discuss whether the Sharks are going to waste their 13th forward spot on Micheal Haley (likely) or whether there is a chance that Goldobin (no), Goodrow (not likely) or Labanc (eh) have a chance of sticking with this team out of camp, on the forward side. We already know Demelo is screwed because of the organizations myopia about Dillon on defense, so not much to talk about there. Game 1 of the new season is SO CLOSE NOW. Go Sharks!

How are we already on our third podcast of the season? Crazy. We decide to take some time to talk about preseason and contracts, but if you don’t care about that, jump about ten minutes in, where we start making fun of mono instead. That’s right — poor Timo Meier has mononucleosis, ending his bid for an opening day roster spot (or, really, probably any shot at one before Christmas). So we talk about who benefits from Meier’s misfortune and other preseason goings-on. Also, about whether we’ll learn in 4 days that Marleau also has mono.