LA Kings-140
(I know this seems kind of steep especially a team with revenge on their minds but I do have some good reasons to make us feel more confident in it.)
The Kings will raise their Championship banner when they face the San Jose Sharks tonight in Los Angeles. The same San Jose team that almost prevented them from winning the cup last year. Down 0-3 in the first round of the playoffs the Kings stormed back to take the next four and win the series. Many are saying the sharks have revenge on their minds, I don't believe this to be the case at all. First off, all this is a regular-season game not the playoffs. Second, if I was up 3-0 in a best-of-seven series and blew the next four games, as much as I'd like to blame the other team I would have no one to look at but myself.
That's just what San Jose did, well, on some level. You would think that this first round implosion would bring about major changes in San Jose's front office and coaching staff. Not to be the case, actually they all retained their jobs and some were even given contract extensions! No the finger was pointing was aimed directly at the players. San Jose is trying to go with the mixture of young players an older veterans something the Kings and Blackhawks have done well, well enough (during the salary cap era) to win the last four out of five Stanley Cups. However, I dont Think the San Jose brass are going about it the right way, comments like "we're at tomorrow team" (made by GM Doug Wilson in reference to the direction that the sharks are going in) and by stripping Joe Thorton Of his capitancy And Patrick Marleau of his alternate status, are no way, in my opinion, going to bring about team cohesion, Something that is Paramount to have a successful team in the salary cap era.
If these comments/actions were intended to motivate now ex cap Joe Thorton I think it backfired lol. That’s Doug’s opinion,” said Thornton, “I have enough motivation,”. . . “I don’t need somebody else telling me we can’t do it.”. . ."I think if you’d ask anybody in here I don’t think they have the same feeling. We’re confident with this group. Just ask these guys, I think we’re pretty confident we can get the job done." (San Jose Mercury news) Well guy's LOL (sorry to laugh) but the guys had other opinions, it was reported that some players told GM Wilson that they felt like a group of "coworkers and not teammates." With the group of rookies and young players San Jose is bringing in, and leadership honors up for grabs, I don't think this will bring about friendly competition. It will be more like a "mutiny on the bounty" oh, but without a captain. in my opinion, it will bring about resentment, bitterness and strife.
To make things worse, they have no clear cut #1 goalie. According to the San Jose Mercury News it was announced that the spot would be up for grabs between Staylock and Niemi but now, head coachTodd McLellin is thinking of playing them together, “I think we have 1-A and 1-B, and we want to play both of them,” “We play 16 of our first 21 on the road, I think, so both goaltenders are going to need to play and play a lot, and that’s a perfect scenario for our team — we’re going to need both of them.”
Ok coach Todd, whatever you say. Give me Jonathan Quick and virtually the same championship squad they had from last year all day (and at such a nice price too.) When the championship banner is raised tonight I think the San Jose Sharks will have alot of things on their minds and revenge wont be one of them. Best of Luck all its Hockey time!
Smaller plays on:
Montreal-105
Vancouver-115