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About Curtis Zupke

Curtis Zupke grew up in Los Angeles and got hooked on hockey (along with thousands of other Southern Californians) upon Wayne Gretzky’s arrival to the Kings in 1988.

He covered the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County (Calif.) Register from 2006 to 2011.

His work has also appeared in The Hockey News, Associated Press and QMI Agency (a Quebec-based wire service that serves 250 daily and weekly newspapers in Canada).

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Strange times in San Jose Print
Pacific
Written by J.P. Hoornstra   
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 00:00

How long can the San Jose Sharks wait out Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley’s coincidental scoring droughts? The answer to that question could dictate the course of their season.

Jon Paul Hoornstra
Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley have combined for one goal in their last six games. So the Sharks are looking like flounder, right?

Not exactly. Their 3-2-1 record in that span, including Monday’s shootout loss to the Dallas Stars, treads the middle ground between lukewarm and satisfactory.

AROUND THE PACIFIC
For San Jose, Monday’s loss served as an appropriate game-as-microcosm-of-season: You weren’t quite sure what you were looking at, but it wasn’t the same old Sharks. After Dallas' Jamie Benn scored to interrupt their lackluster first period, the Sharks looked strong on the forecheck in the middle period, long enough to produce two goals in a two-minute span to claim the lead.

Of course the goals did not belong to any of the familiar offensive superstars, but rather Derek Joslin and Ryane Clowe. For Joslin, a baby-faced 23-year-old defenseman, it was his first in the NHL. For Clowe, it was his fourth goal in his last four games. The agitating power forward has nine points in his last five games and was named the NHL's first star of the week earlier in the day.

Mike Ribeiro scored on a re-direction to tie the game at 2, and the Sharks’ Antti Niemi made several spectacular saves – another rare sight this season – to force a shootout. Then, Niemi wilted. Jamie Benn and Brad Richards scored on Dallas’ first two attempts, and Stars goalie Andrew Raycroft preserved the 3-2 victory on the other end.

The line of Benn Ferriero, Calder Trophy candidate Logan Couture and Clowe continued to generate the bulk of the scoring chances. Couture is leading the team in goals with 14, and it’s been weeks since Sharks head coach Todd McLellan has found a reason to break up the line. Marleau, Thornton and Heatley can’t say the same.

This is why it’s tough to simply declare which is the team’s top line at the moment: Three of the lines seem to change on a nightly basis. When Devin Setoguchi returns from his upper-body injury (which could be soon), McLellan will have to juggle his lines again. Some believe Setoguchi, a former 31-goal scorer, will be plugged in to the fourth line when he gets back. That’s how wide-open forward jobs are in San Jose at the moment.

The question is, how long will the committee approach work? The Sharks weren’t built on parity; Marleau, Thornton and Heatley will make a combined $22.1 million this season.

An educated guess: Longer than you might expect.

No team has seized control of the Pacific Division through the season’s first three months. First-place Dallas is four points ahead of fifth-place Phoenix, making for the closest division race in the NHL, and making "somewhere between lukewarm and satisfactory" the norm.

So long as parity rules in the division, parity probably can rule in San Jose, too.

Notes

Joslin wasn't the only Sharks defenseman to score his first goal of the season this week. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Douglas Murray both tallied their first in a 6-3 loss in Buffalo on Thursday. ... In the franchise's 20-year history San Jose had never come back from a three-goal third period deficit to win before Wednesday's 5-4 shootout victory in Philadelphia. ... Couture's 14 goals and 21 points lead all NHL rookies. Some have complained that Couture should not be eligible for the Calder Trophy because he played the maximum 25 regular-season games last season, then another 15 in the playoffs. ... Dallas' seven wins in the overtime/shootout period are the most in the NHL. ... Kings G Jonathan Quick made a career-high 51 saves Monday in Detroit to lead the Kings to a 5-0 win. ... The last Kings goalie to shut out the Red Wings in Detroit, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, was Rogie Vachon on March 30, 1978. ... Kings D Willie Mitchell (broken wrist) and LW Alexei Ponikarovsky (broken finger) both returned to the lineup this week from injuries sustained Nov. 6. ... The Kings finally announced their trade for Bruins forward Marco Sturm, pending a physical exam that still hadn't been completed as of Monday. Head coach Terry Murray told reporters in Detroit that Sturm could join the team on the road for Thursday's game in St. Louis, but isn't likely to play right away. ... LW Corey Perry had his first career hat trick, and his first career penalty-shot goal, in the Ducks' 6-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. ... The game also featured an unusual goal by Bobby Ryan in which he had his stick stolen by Mikko Koivu, then picked up Koivu's stick off the ice and used it to score a goal. ... The Ducks will be without Aaron Voros for the next 3-4 weeks after the rugged left wing suffered a broken orbital bone in a fight Wednesday with Vancouver's Kevin Bieksa.

Photos by Getty Images

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Last Updated on Thursday, December 16, 2010 04:18