San Jose Sharks Hockey is Back Baby!
San Jose Sharks Hockey is officially back. The Preseason starts tonight against the rival Anaheim Ducks at 7:30 at SAP Center in San Jose. A mix of veteran players and rookies will be on tonight’s roster.
Welp. It’s that time of year again folks. The puck finally drops on the 2018-2019 San Jose Sharks season. The expectations, up until about four or five days ago, were being tampered down. The Sharks had about the same team they had after another familiar second round loss. Then all of a sudden, everything changed.
The San Jose Sharks added some new guy right before training camp opened and everything got turned on its head. The Sharks were maybe contenders to finish first or second in the Pacific Division and then subsequently lose in the second round of the playoffs again, like they always do. Now, after the acquisition of said new guy the San Jose Sharks are arguably the favorite to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Las Vegas odds makers put the San Jose Sharks at 12/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup and 6/1 odds to win the Western Conference. This puts them right in the mix with Nashville and Winnipeg in what is going to shape up to be a dogfight in the best conference in hockey.
All of that starts tonight. Granted. It IS preseason, but the NHL preseason are where unexpected story lines develop. What prospect is going to cement himself with the big boys on the NHL roster? Who is going to make that leap from decent player to impact player? Is there going to be a major injury affecting your team to begin the season? There are many more questions and stories that can arise in the three weeks before the season.
Preseason rosters are out and the San Jose Sharks are facing some of the same questions.
And as you can see, there are some interesting players donning the teal sweaters tonight, and even more-so, some interesting story lines already developing.
Goalie-Antoine Bibeau
One of the more underrated scenes to unfold out of Sharks camp is the Goalie situation. Martin Jones and Aaron Dell lead what are one of the better goalie groups in the NHL (MARTIN JONES IS A TOP TEN GOALIE, DON’T @ ME!). Jones and Dell have the starting and back up jobs locked up, but like every season, guys get banged up and teams are going to need guys from the AHL to fill in certain spots here and there.
Antoine Bibeau is the clear third guy on the roster now that Troy Grosenick was traded to Nashville along with Enforcer Brandon Bollig for a sixth round pick.
Bibeau, who signed as a non tendered free agent from the Toronto Marlies (Maple Leafs), on July 1 2017 hit the ground running with The Barracuda last season. In his 43 starts Bibeau averaged 2.37 goals against, along with pushing a .919 Sv% to boot.
The Quebec native is expected to do more of the same in the AHL this season, but in the case that Dell or Jones god forbid go down, it will be the 25-year-old Bibeau’s name as the first phone call to replace one of those two net-minders.
I’m interested to see Bibeau’s performance tonight against a very good, very skilled young Anaheim roster.
Defenseman-Ryan Merkley
This is the guy everyone is going to be watching tonight. Merkley is set to make his NHL debut, donning the number six (an interesting number for a kid who isn’t going to make the pro roster).
Ryan Merkley was the San Jose Sharks first round pick in this years draft and according to some, Merkley is projected to be the second best defenseman in this class. He was projected anywhere from the top ten, to out of the first round completely by some, due to character concerns. But what seventeen year old doesn’t have character concerns?
Merkely had extremely high expectations even before he laced up his skates in San Jose. His numbers at Guelph were not off the charts, but as the best player on a bad OHL team, that was to be expected. But it was Merkley’s offensive prowess and eye for the puck that made scouts jaws drop.
He’s been compared to Brent Burns offensively and even defensively as he’s often times had lapses in his own zone. But nothing good coaching and a bit of big league experience can’t clean up.
All eyes will be on number six tonight as he makes his NHL debut.
Left Wing-Marcus Sorensen
For me, Sorensen is going to turn out as one of the most important players for the San Jose Sharks this season.
Marcus Sorensen has all the skills. He’s arguably the fastest player on the Sharks, and has a knack for scoring the big goal . In his 32 games last season he lit the lamp 5 times, but it was the playoffs where he shined.
Sorensen, in 10 playoff games netted 4 goals with a Shooting Percentage of 44% which is off the charts. He stepped up big time in the playoffs on a team that was starved for goals.
The San Jose Sharks are going to need to see playoff Scorensen all year as the trade for Erik Karlsson left the Sharks a bit thin in terms of young, skilled forwards. And maybe even a little bit thin in the bottom six.
Head Coach Peter DeBoer wants to roll all four lines with impunity, and he’ll be able to do so if Marcus Sorensen takes the next step in his young career as an NHLer.
If Sorensen can prove to be a mismatch for teams checking lines then he will be an important cog in what could be the biggest year in San Jose Sharks history. If Sorensen isn’t who we think he can become, then that would shed light on an issue I don’t think Sharks fans are really looking at yet due to the Karlsson trade.
It’s entirely possible that the Sharks could have a big fat question mark on the bottom six with Tierney’s absence, and everyone is going to have to step up and pull their weight on the wings with essentially two rookies on the bottom six pivots. Marcus Sorensen, along with others, is one of those guys that need to do so.
Next. Any Significant Changes to the Sharks Defensive Pairings???. dark
But, we’ll revisit that question a little bit later, because it is time to rejoice folks. ‘Tis hockey season once again, and the San Jose Sharks and their fans have something to look forward to. Another playoff berth, and a possible Stanley Cup run. Oh, and did we mention THIS GUY!