Tonight @ 7:30pm

CSNCA and 98.5 KFOX

Do it

Niemi's in, Maven's still out, knit shark cap will not be in attendance.

Not a lot to say about this bout pregame. Our D needs to step up and our team needs to work better as a whole if they want to get the W tonight. Carolina is nowhere near as strong a team as Atlanta is this year, but every team should be considered dangerous. Play all games to win, and you'll be fine. Get a little too over confident and you'll end up like the Emperor. Which is to say, some random dude who had half his face torn off in a motorcycle accident will distract you while your apprentice tosses you down a long metal shoot that goes nowhere pleasant.

Seriously.

That's just wrong.

Let's get the win tonight boys.

Go Sharks!

My defensive corps! They do nothing!

Let's just address the large bloated, and likely somewhat smelly rotting whale carcass in the room; I am REALLY sick and tired of seeing people bitch about goalies.

Three games in and people are all ready to trade Niemi and Nitty for two bags a pucks and a slurpee.  We'll ignore, of course, how all these arguments/complaints/rans/raves/personal expressions of outrage are EERILY similar to the ones that used to be attached to Nabby's name. We'll forget that "Nabby should've had that," has been supplanted by "Nabby would've had that." We'll also forget that, as Mina said tonight, "Nabby goes to Russia and suddenly everyone forgets he couldn't shut his damn legs." (she means his 5 hole, people) Because clearly, clearly, Niemi and Nitty are terrible, and in no way shape or form are subject to the abilities and performance of the team in front of them on a nightly basis. Nay, they can quite clearly win the entire game themselves, and since they're not, well, we should get rid of them.

Seriously, it vexes me beyond words to see this. It's like everyone turned in to freakin Edzo when Nabby left for Russia. What. The. Hell. People.

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It's here, it's here! The first game of the year!

We've waited all summer for this. Be it patiently, impatiently, angrily, basebally, rosterbationaly, zomgwhatisDWdoingaly, and occasionall World Cup-aly.

But enought substitutions, it's time for the real deal. Hockey is back, it's here, and it's going to be one helluva ride.

Strap in, because at Noon PDT, this thing is on. The Sharks, lead by "still has that new Captain smell" Joe Thornton, will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in Sweden. Watch it on Versus, listen on KFOX.

It was announced earlier this week that the Sharks, despite giving him the number 6, a nice teal jersey, and a trip to Europe, have cut Andreas Lilja from the roster. This brings them down to the 24 man roster needed for opening night in Sweden against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

A cruel cut, to be sure, but would we be saying that if the Sharks hadn't brought him with them to Europe? I'm not so sure.

I suppose a heads up so he could get his family, who is still hanging out in Detroit, back to Sweden with him might have been nice, but then again he also turned down a secure 1 year spot with Detroit earlier this off season. I don't blame him, you have to go where you think you'll get the most minutes, (most money) and a decent contract term. He thought he could get a good deal here, and maybe he could have if the Sharks hadn't already been pretty full up in the 6/7 Dman department.

Mike Moore had a good camp and could easily take the 6/7 spot. We already know Demers and Joslin can handle it, Wallin ain't really a top line guy, and neither is out Patron Saint, the venerable Kent Huskins, (KENT HUSKINS?!), and while they'll each likely be in a higher pairing, they could each easily play in that spot as needed. We had Leach too, and we gave him the boot before the Sharks headed overseas. Really that spot that Lilja was most likely to slide into was already pretty full. He was never really going to be the type of player to take Blake's place, and he likely wanted more money than some of our rookies would get. The Sharks simply don't have the space for another Hamburger like deal.

He may have been a boon to our PK unit and he certainly isn't afraid to block shots when needed, but whatever he could give us, it clearly wasn't enough.

The fact is, someone was coming home from Europe NOT a Shark. This time, it was Lilja.