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.

The World Cup of Hockey is over for Team USA, Team Finland and I guess some other scrubs, but something like half of the Sharks players continue to compete for the gold, while Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi come home. More than happy to have them in camp tbqh. We talk about the Team USA flameout, Training Camp hopes, guys who need to have great camps just to stick with the org (probably) and more.

Enjoy and GO SHARKS!

It’s been a long summer lacking much in the way of Sharks news, but since we didn’t do a Free Agency wrap, Alex, Colin and I get together before Training Camp to kick off our new season of podcasts. We discuss the additions (Boedker and Schlemko), a faster, better team (pending the possible collapse of the elder Sharks stars), and our expectations of what the team will look like this year. Of course, that’s all just as rookie camp has barely begun and Joe Pavelski or Jumbo could die in the World Cup (also, RIP Patrick Marleau, who is mostly dead entering training camp). Join us for an accidentally jumbo-sized podcast as we talk about all of the above and MORE.

Colin and I spent some time thinking about the Sharks’ draft and the free agency period to come…and then yesterday happened (tl;dr version: Canadian teams are dumb). So we talk about how the Pacific keeps getting weaker, how Nashville is now a lot scarier in the Western Conference and what the Sharks’ draft means for the team during our ‘Jumbo WINdow’. Also, we lay out what we would do in Free Agency if we had the keys to the kingdom and what we would definitely not do at all thank you very much. Have a listen and GO SHARKS!

Alex was taken away by parenting duties (not the coke binge speculated on the podcast), but Colin and I finally found time to talk about the disappointing end to the Sharks season (which was, admittedly, the least disappointing end we’ve seen as fans). We talk a little bit about what’s next for the Sharks now that Jumbo is a year older and Marleau is a year deader, both in terms of the team’s RFA’s and UFA’s (who to re-sign, who to trade) and then what happens with all of the young guys and Nords who are flooding into SJ at the AHL and NHL level next year. We also share our favorite memories from the ‘Best Sharks Year Yet’. Go Sharks!

Games 4 and 5 are in the books and a somewhat improbable Game 6 is tonight. Alex and Colin were indisposed (or as the Sharks would say ‘day to day’) so I brought in Tony, a long time listener and first time caller, to talk about the Stanley Cup Final so far and how the Sharks could, theoretically, win games 6 and 7. Like Melker Karlsson in Game 5, Tony stepped up and saved the day.

The San Jose Sharks were dangerously close to being down three games to none in the OT of Game 3, and for the most part hadn’t deserved any better than that. Aside from the play of Martin Jones in goal, the Pens had been the better team for much of the series. But, thanks to some not-so-great play from Matt Murray and the heroics of Joel Ward, we’re going to Game 4 with the Sharks having a shot at evening the series. We talk about how we got here, Alex’s experience attending a Stanley Cup Final at the Shark Tank and what the Sharks might need to do to get a Stanley Cup (play Polak and Dillon less, if you can). Are injuries adding up to poor performance or are the Pens largely the better team? We’ll see Monday night.