Greetings and salutations dear readers!

Today Mina and I set off on a cross state trip to visit the various ballparks that dot the southern california landscape. Now, normally, my vow to never again set foot in Angel Stadium, would prevent me from full participating in such an adventure. I hate the Angels as a team with the same passion that I hate the Ducks. It's a burning, deep seated hatred born out of being in socal during the 2002 World Series. (stoopid monkey!) But the lure of meeting the venerable Earl Sleek got me to agree to once again set foot inside this accursed stadium. Mina also tried to lure out Rudy Kelly, but he declined, thus adding to my belief that he is, in fact, a figment of our imaginations.

For Mina, this marks a journey into the heart of the enemy; Dodger Stadium. I've been there before and it's a wonderful ballpark, if just a tad on the fighty side. The traditional upper deck activities were amusing, although they did bring into question why anyone in their right mind would give away fold-able paper products. The FAA was called out to make sure that all the paper airplanes shooting about weren't going to have any mid air collisions.

We will also be hitting Petco Park, right during the insanity that is Comic Con before the insanity that is Comic Con. I suspect the park will be relatively empty as the local citizens will have fled to avoid to smell of mass quantities of nerds running around in their fair city. (I've been to Comic Con. Folks, let me tell you there are some FUNKY ass smells going on in there. It's a cool event, but seriously people, shower please!)

So off we go, into the wild, dusty yonder. I can smell Harris Ranch already.

It smells like cow butt.

Well you know you've been really busy when you miss your own blog's birthday. On 6/21/07 we burst onto the blogging scene with this lovely and amazing insight:

"Coming soon to a couch near you!"

As you can see, we've been about hard hitting blogging since day one.

The cartoons started in 2008 and looking back at them, man, did those come a long way. So happy birthday to us! My we continue to blather incoherently and about Dan Boyle's Abs and the Sharks for years to come! Maybe one day with less typos.

" />

So much for the summer being quiet and slow, eh? There have been some interesting moves going on across the league, many the result of poor cap management in this new era of poor economic outlook. The biggest splash so far in Teal Town has been the Sharks signing Niklas Hjalmarsson to an offer sheet. This move is super ballsy by DW and I absolutely love it. 14 mil over 4 years is crazy money, but this guy is good and it's clear DW is willing to play hard ball to secure his services.

The downside of this is, if the Sharks do succeed in snagging Hjalmarsson, someone will have to go. Seto, having opted to not file for arbitration, has to be close in getting a deal done with SJ, so it's less likely that this deal will negatively affect him. Possible trade bate seems to be Murray (NO), Clowe (NO) and Huskins (I would be ok with this. Not a hater just, he's making more than I agree with). All conjecture at this point, but interesting nonetheless.

The other big Shark related summer story so far has been the signing of Nabokov to the KHL. This is not a move I saw coming if only because I was pretty damn sure SOMEONE in the NHL would be dying to get their hands on Nabby. I know, he's not the best goalie in the world, but he IS GOOD and he could really help out some teams that need a more solid presence in net. Not only that but he's a work horse and would easily give any team that signed him 60+ games.

At first I saw this move as a reflection of Nabby's lack of desire to win the Cup, but I have since revised my views. This is a guy who wants to play. It was clear come July 1st that while folks might have been interested, his price was likely a little too high. The KHL seized this opportunity to get a world class player to come play for them, and Nabby, wanting to play, took it. It's shocking to know that I watched his last few games in the NHL (not to say he won't come back but at his age it is less likely), and that he spent them all as a Shark. My personal hope is that, maybe, just maybe, really didn't want to play for anyone BUT the Sharks and opted for the KHL out of a fondness for his old organization. I'm trying to avoid falling into the "greedy jerk" trap with him. I don't know his motivations, but I have a lot of fondness for the guy who was the man in net for the Sharks for some many years so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt here. (even if Toskala was my first love in net)

On the upside, it means we don't have to deal with the ridiculously sticky and overhyped game where the Sharks face Nabby for the first time as a memeber of the opposition. I don't know about you, but I was NOT looking forward to having to play against him. That game pretty much just had "train wreck" written all over it.

What saddens me about this, I think more than anything, is knowing that Nabby has moved on to the KHL while Turco will likely be signed by someone out of quiet desperation this summer. Look, I love Marty as a person, he's absolutely hilarious, and he used to be very solid in net. But he's past his heyday now and I fell like dragging out the end of his career is cruel and unusual punishment for the man.

That and I REALLY don't want him on the Sharks.

Free agency is upon us and with it comes the dashed dreams of thousands who saw their favorite players move or decide to sign elsewhere. Defenseman A? He was THE GUY this team needed. Only missing piece. Without him, we crumble. Sign him and save the season. Don't and it will be over before it begins.

Inevitably, some signings blindside us with their seeming stupidity, but that's the fun of free agency. What dude can dupe a team into paying way too much for their services? What else can the Rangers possibles screw up. How many times can the Flames trade away and then resign the same set of guys? It's a spectacle of occasionally epicly stupid proportions.

The Sharks never fail to disappoint, in the sense that it doesn't seem to matter what DW does, it's never "the right move" for the organization. I, personally, have given up the hardcore doubting, and instead have moved on to just being generally confused by some of the choices the Sharks make each year. These guys know hockey much better than I do, so, I'm just going to let them run the team and let the pieces fall where they may. (at least until they do something amazingly stupid) I still have opinions though, and what is a blog for if not the biased opinions of a passionate fan? So here are my opinions on some of the moves/signings/non signings the Sharks have made so far this summer.

Because there's nothing like judging free agency a day and a half in.

Resignings:

Wallin (HAMBURGE!R): Of all the signings, this one boggles me the most. Much like Huskins last year, Wallin got a substantial raise despite not really showing us much in the way of contributions since we acquired him last season.  2.5 mil seems a little steep for a guy that really didn't contribute a whole lot this past season. The fact it's a one year dear is even more mind boggling. I don't understand this decision at all. I'm hoping it will make more sense once the season gets going.

On the upside I can still make HAMBURGER! jokes. (you have to say his nickname like Steve Martin did in those pink panther commercials.)

Patty: We needed to bring him back. No question. Not resigning Patty would have been a HUGE mistake in my opinion and I was very very very glad to see we decided to bring him back. If this man isn't a Shark for life, it will be a crime.

The Big JoePavelski: Hands down the odds on favorite for future captain (after whoever takes the C this season), Pavelski is an amazingly solid player who represents a bright spot in the Sharls future. He's amazing and we needed him back. So glad he got resigned.

Scott Nichol (NicholCity): This guy is pretty much everything the Sharks have needed for several season now. Tough, gritty, small, fast, sonofabitch who works his ass off and plays with an incredible passion every night. I love Scotty Nichol in teal. He's also very affordable at $760,000. Welcome back, Scotty!

Desjardins (Disorono): Likely to still be down with the boys in woostah, but I can make more "on the rocks" puns when he's on the ice, so, this is a net win.

New Aquisitions:

Nittymaki (Tekka Maki or just Tekka): At 2 mil a year, this wasn't a terrible acquisition by DW. He stated they'd had their eyes on him for awhile, and the Sharks have a decent track record with finding talented players in people you might not expect. The upsides he provides are a willingness to work in a tandem and let Greiss see more ice time here in the Bigs. His season with the Lightning last season was also fairly solid and he does have success in his past. He's also very affordable. 4 million over 2 years is pretty good.

His downsides are that he's not exactly known for being a brick wall, which might cause issues with the current defensive corps the Sharks have. Also, this.

Not coming back

Nabby: When the season ended it was clear that one long time Shark would be on the move this summer. It was Nabby or Patty and most of us threw our lot in with Patty.

Nabby has been THE GUY in net for the past 10 years. He's a huge part of the Sharks, and while I'm going to miss him (and be really bitter if he gets signed by a division rival) it was time. It sucks, because I know from watching him he's still got a few good years left in net and when he's on he's a force. He's saved the Sharks bacon many time over the years and having that stalwart presence in another net will feel very very wrong. He was just too expensive though, and with cap constraints the way they are DW didn't really have much of a choice in letting him go. In order to sign Patty and JoePa AND have money left over for Seto, Nabby had to go.

I will feel better (or perhaps worse) about this once he signs with someone. Preferably in the East.

Malhotra: I am going to miss Manny a ton. Obviously Vancouver made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and coupled with his desire to summer there, it just made sense to move on. But we loved him and we'll miss him. He was great in teal.

Salary numbers provided by the wonderful folks over at CapGeek.com.

Today, at 12 noon Pacific, all hell has the possibility of breaking loose in the NHL. UFAs and RFAs hit the market to test the waters and we're bringing you full live blog coverage of it. Join The Pensblog, Rock the Red, Something's Bruin, Barry Melros Rocks, Thrashing the Blues, BlackHawksDL, NOHS and so many others I can't finish typing the list.

Tell your bosses you need the day off and plant yourself in front of your computer. This has the possibility to be a bumpy ride.

As most of you have already heard, Jed Ortmeyer will not be back as a memeber of the Sharks next year.

It's a sad announcement, as it means losing a man with a very inspirational story and amazing work ethic who fit in well and was a nice addition to the Sharks. He wasn't the flashiest player or the biggest point getter, but he was solid and reliable, and a decently defensive minded winger, and that's going to be missed.

Possibly the greatest loss of this move is the sudden absence of Patrick Marleau's long lost eyebrow brother. They were like the eyebrow twins. Wonder twins, even. Imagine what amazing this could have happened had we only let them truly discover their powers. Imagine what greatness wonder twin eyebrows could have wrought.

Truly, these are sad days.

Look at those eyebrows. You can't tell me that he and Patty aren't somehow related.

You'll be missed Jed. Good luck wherever you go.

So, as we saw earlier today, Nabby has been told that it's time for him to move on. While this is not a huge, major surprise, based on what I saw a few weeks ago, I thought they might try to negotiate with Nabby up until the 1st, rather than let him walk. Best I can guess, knowing what I know as a fan and what I know from what I infer from that information, Nabby simply was going to cost the Sharks too much to keep. In fact, the official article from the Sharks basically says as much.

We NEED cap space, and Nabby has/is/was a like candidate for trade or walking papers since the season ended. Patty's statues has been up in the air as well, although with this move, HOPEFULLY, we can keep him in teal. It will be hard enough to see Nabby in another jersey, I don't know if I could handle Patty being out of teal too.

I'll miss Nabby. For all his ups and downs, he has been the man in nets for 10 years and he has served us well. I would have loved to see him lift the Cup with Team Teal, but it was not to be. I wish him the best of luck wherever he goes and am sad that he won't be able to finish his career here.

Thank you for a fantastic, and occasionally heart stopping ten years Nabby. Good luck, and we will miss you seeing you in teal.

And to address tonight's popular twitter and HFBoard rumors, Gonchar to the Sharks is just that. A RUMOR. We have no confirmation from any reliable news sources. (this poorly translated Russian article says MAYBE and hardly counts as evidence of anything other than the existence of Google translator) Until we do, do not take it seriously.