Post-Game Talk: Pre-Season | GM: 1 | Sharks def. Canucks - 3-2 (OT)

[CanaFan]

I don't know, I think the performance underwhelmed more than I might have expected going in. For example, Larsen was a guy we didn't know how he would look and thought would actually challenge for a spot, but, admittedly from the one game sample, he sounds like a nothing prospect that isn't even close, to me. Subban doesn't seem to have progressed, and Pedan's hinted improvement seems fabricated. I think it's fair to have a "That's it? Not good, and telling" reaction to this game.

It's fair but when you have marginal prospects or NHL players as BY FAR the best players on your roster, don't be surprised when they don't look that good. At the end of the day, they ARE marginal prospects/NHLers (except the BHV line) and this merely reflects that. Now put them in proper roles on a properly structured team and they likely perform better than they did last night. But when they are the best of a bad lot? It's all going to look chaotic.

 

[CanaFan]

The Sharks team that played was no different. This is the expected Sharks starting lineup, bolded are the guys that played last night:

Tomas Hertl Joe Thornton Joe Pavelski
Mikkel Boedker Logan Couture Joonas Donskoi
Nikolay Goldobin Patrick Marleau Joel Ward
Matt Nieto Chris Tierney Melker Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic Justin Braun
Paul Martin Brent Burns
Brendon Dillon David Schlemko

Martin Jones
Aaron Dell

When you have rosters such as this you hope the effort is a high level as guys are fighting for jobs. Now you never want to read too much into a single game, but just saying.

All that tells you is our garbage is worse than their garbage. But at the end of the day only 5-6 players from that game even factor into our NHL plans. And I've watched Gaunce, Horvat, Virtanen, Baertschi, and Tryamkin look much better in tougher competition so this game doesn't tell me anything. Maybe its a bad sign for Larsen, Subban, and Pedan but again when the whole team is a mess, it's hard for anyone to stand out.

 

[Samzilla]

The gift that is Virtanen just keeps on giving.