Hot Take Alert isn't exactly a hot take on anything
because even though I consider myself an armature writer at best I do take some
pride in my work and always strive to give you opinions based on real facts not
page views, mostly I just like the
dragon. Hot Take Alert is your pal Ian's
round up of miscellaneous Sharks and other hockey news that seems interesting
enough to write about. I hope you enjoy.
AHL Sharks to San Jose
Today it was announced that the AHL is expanding 5 teams
to California including the farm team of our San Jose Sharks who will be
sharing the same barn. This may have
been the worst kept secret and something that has been covered a lot over the
last week but I'd thought I'd throw my two cents in anyway. First this is why you put teams in places
where it might not work, the NHL and Gary Bettman in particular take way to
much flack for the NHL's failed experiments and not nearly enough for the ones
that have worked out. If you can make an expansion market last long enough so
that kids are introduced to the game grow up to be season ticket holders and if
you can put a stick in a kids hand and it stays there you will make a fan for
life. Here is a fun fact almost all of California's
ECHL teams (a league lower than the AHL) actually outdraw the Worcester
Sharks. Here is my list of Pros, Cons
and To Be Determined about this move specifically for the Sharks.
Pros:
The ticket prices are expected to range from $18-34
dollars, not I'm not local so I don't really know about parking and other
issues but to me this seems like a decent price for 2nd tier action and should
get more people into SAP to see live hockey.
The Sharks may actually put some effort into building
their AHL team. Prior to this season the
Sharks have generally left the baby sharks void of any top end talent as the
future was mortgaged in an attempt to win now.
The Sharks are probably going to sell this like come see the future of
the team.... you have to think they want to make the future look bright. I think this puts a lot of pressure on the
Sharks to ice a good team especially if the big club continues to take
backwards steps, if you can sell the future I think they can mend fences but if
this big club and little club is terrible this could actually end up being a
nightmare move for the Sharks. I'm also
keeping in mind that the Sharks have had to rely heavily on their farm to fill
the big clubs roster this year.
Calling up a guy from the minors does not have him
traveling across 3 time zones and having to practice and play a game while jet lagged. I have made this flight personally many times
and jet lag is terrible.
Cons:
Obviously the fans in Worcester lost their team and that
sucks. I think this is a great move for
the organization as a whole but the fans in Worcester did a good job supporting
this team and are an unfortunate and unavoidable casualty in this.
I worry about the Ice Quality in SAP Center when the
weather gets warmer if both teams are still playing especially if they play
twice in the same day.
To Be Determined (Things that could go either way)
Do they save money in travel? Depends on how often they have to go back
east, apparently the western teams are footing the bill for the east teams to
visit if the scuttlebut is correct.
I'm not a fan of Roy Sommer I think his best before date
is long past even though he has not been ever given a ton to work with. Will they give him better pieces? Will he last a season with the big clubs fans
watching.... stay tuned.
NHL.com to Include Fancy Stats
During all star weekend the NHL is going to be including
fancy stats like corsi, fenwick, zone starts in what should end up being 30
stats included. To me this is fantastic
and I can't wait. I know some people
don't like these stats and say there are flaws, I agree there are also flaws in
GAA and +/- as well. This is important
because like them or not fancy stats have taken the internet by storm and the
NHL sticking their head in the sand pretending they don't exist would have been
foolish. While I'm only have a casual
interest in these stats I do like to know I can find them on the
mothership. For those concerned that
they will show up more in my writings fear not, between Andrew Bensch and Fear
the Fin for example have you more than covered in those areas I'm sure I'd mess
it all up.
Former Shark Goc Traded To Blues
Former Sharks 1st round draft pick was traded by the
Penguins to the Blues for super pest Maxim Lapierre.
Although never living up to his drafting, Marcel Goc is a
steady bottom six center who is excellent defensively and in the faceoff
dot. He has a 65% faceoff percentage in
defensive zone shorthanded draws.
The Penguins not only get a little sand paper in their
lineup but also continue on their quest to employ every douche bag to ever lace
up skates in the NHL, I mean really who has this team not employed in the
history of ever that has had the distinction of guys that should be out of the
league. (Ok maybe that was a bit of a
hot take)
So what do you think if you would like to see more of
these blogs even though they won't always be Sharks related please let me know.
Remember if you have a question you would like me to
answer in the Breaking It Down blog please e-mail me at
ian.blogs.sharks@gmail.com and if you want to read previous blogs please check
out http://ianblogssharks.blogspot.ca
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