FanHouse SanJoseSharks

The Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks meet Saturday night for the third time this season in a battle for supremacy in the West. A regulation win for Detroit would put them in first, while a point for San Jose would preserve their place in the standings.

The series is tied 1-1, with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings decisively winning the most recent meeting, and the Sharks winning the first. The Sharks will be looking for payback for the 6-0 drubbing they suffered at the hands of the Wings on December 18th.

The Detroit Red Wings host the San Jose Sharks tonight in the second of four games between the two teams this season. San Jose won the previous meeting 4-2 at home.

The Sharks stand atop the League standings with a remarkable 25-3-3 record through 31 games. They have been playing the game at such a high level that criticisms regarding the influence of their three shootout on their record-breaking start seem weak. Shootout wins or not, this team is the best in the NHL right now and has had one of the best opening stretches in League history.

They are coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to Columbus last night and will no doubt be at their best against their coach's former team.

The Wings hold down the #2 spot in the West, but are behind San Jose by nine points. Their record is 20-6-4, but as I wrote Tuesday, that record paints a false picture of how the team is playing. They are certainly suffering from some kind of Cup hangover and have yet to find their stride through 30 games.

Sharks coach Ron Wilson has failed to get over the hump with the team during his tenure. This season marked the fourth in a row that he had taken the team to the playoffs, with the only missed postseason of his time in San Jose coming during his first season there, 2002-03. His biggest fault has been the inability to make a deep playoff run. Now, there's an awful lot of speculation that this loss, the third straight second round exit for the team, will stand to be Wilson's last behind the bench. The team has been inconsistent with spurts that give us the impression they're headed for the promised land, only to fall flat on their faces. Many times in sports, the players can be at fault. They usually don't take the fall because that comes with the coaches' contract. Sometimes it's the other way around. This might be one of those cases. I'm no expert on the Sharks, but from everything I hear out of San Jose, this kind of behavior from Wilson is said to be the norm as opposed to the exception.

Some good news for Wings fans as Tomas Holmstrom, who has missed the first three games of the Sharks/Wings series, is expected to be back in the lineup for Game Four.

Holmstrom, like so many NHLers, suffered an eye injury due to his utter refusal to wear a VISOR. Yes, Holmstrom could have lost vision in one eye thanks to the lack of protection in that region of his body.

Holmstrom has been out since April 22, when Calgary's Craig Conroy hit him with his stick in Detroit's series-winning victory over the Flames. The left wing had 30 goals and 22 assists during the regular season, but missed the first three games against the Sharks.

Holmstrom lost vision in the eye on the night of the incident, and his sight remained cloudy for a few days while team doctors evaluated him. He wasn't allowed to skate or work out because the doctors feared the increased blood flow could cause further damage.

"Of course I was scared," said Holmstrom, who had just one assist in six games against Calgary. "They didn't know how badly injured the eye was. They didn't want to get the blood going and hurt the eye."

Although Holmstrom had just one lone assist in the series against Calgary, his big Swedish booty causes major problems for opposing goaltenders and defenders alike.

The Wings are just 1-for-10 on the Power Play against the Sharks, and don't have anyone else nearly as effective as Holmstrom at creating havoc.

Bertuzzi? He's now a finesse forward, apparently ... Evgeni Nabokov can expect some blocked vision in the hours to come.

When the San Jose Sharks sent St. Louis a first-round draft pick (in 2007) and forwards Ville Nieminen and Jay Barriball in exchange for Bill Guerin, they wanted a veteran goal-scorer who would push them over the edge.

What did they get? A loafer that has ZERO goals, two measly assists, and a team worst -3 in 8 playoff games.

Not exactly a great return on their investment, eh?

Oh, but he's such a great leaderman, or such nonsense:

"He brought a lot of leadership to this room," McLaren said. "He's made guys better in the locker room. There's so much we can learn from him as a person. He brings the intensity and he's been here before. I think he's our only guy here that's been here before, that's gone all the way."

Is leadership important? Yes. Is leadership worth a first round pick? Not when it comes with poor production and even worse defensive play.

If Guerin was such a leader, he might try leading by example and actually doing something productive.

As it is right now, Guerin is simply a luxury piece of furniture that just looks pretty and doesn't provide much in the way of function ... kinda like Paris Hilton.