JD is joined by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now to discuss Thomas Bordeleau’s debut and his contract. Then we look at the San Jose Sharks’ General Manager search, debate Bob Boughner’s season, and if he is safe going into 2022-2023. We finish with what Sheng is looking out for over the last two weeks, and the statuses of Adin Hill, Erik Karlsson, Radim Simek, and Alexander Barabanov.
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6 Comments
Gotta love Sheng
I’ve been saying for the last few seasons that its Hasso, not Doug. Doug would’ve rebuilt this team if he had the freedom. Hasso is the problem, they wont be able to do anything until they get an owner who is willing to rebuild.
Love Sheng!!
A lot of things that Sheng said were spot on. I do believe that Bob has gotten the most out of this team as anyone probably could. The problem is that they have a lot of young guys, and Bob is not a player development type coach. For that reason, he’s got to go. I totally disagree with his take on Merkley. You cannot compare Merkley to Burns or Karlson. It’s unfair. Both of those guys won the Norris. The problem with Burns is that he’s getting old, and he can’t play 25 plus minutes a game anymore. If you limit his minutes to 21 maybe 22, he’s just as effective as he was five years ago. I have got a believe that there’s more upside to Merkley than a player like Maloche for example. At this point in his career, he’s much better than Vlassic or pretty much anyone who isn’t Burns, Karlson, or Ferraro. Sooner or later they’re gonna have to let him play.
If the new GM candidate has to be in WIN NOW mode, one of the easy levers they can pull is a coaching change. I don’t know how someone accepts that job being expected to win, then look at Boughner’s record the past 3 years and think “Maybe next year is going to be different with Bob!” It’s time to bring someone else in.
Sheng is right that not many coaches would be giving the young players like Merkley a longer leash. But as he alludes to, it is simply incomprehensible that Merkley is competing with Meloche and Megna for minutes. Merkley has the potential of being a core member of this team for a decade and his biggest problem is learning good decision-making at game speed. The obvious best way to improve that is to actually have to make decisions at game speed and see the outcome. He should be getting the Thomas Bordeleau treatment right now – no doubt in the lineup every night and Bob taking every opportunity to get him into positions to succeed.
Re: Burns, DonTheMyth's comment is the take I agree with. He should be playing 20-22 minutes (maybe less with the team now out of playoff contention). He is still a valuable player.
For the vets playing in general down the stretch, my position is this: the veterans have failed in their goal in getting the team to the playoffs. This is on top of the fact that no veteran save Meier and Reimer have met expectations for their year. As they have failed in their primary team and individual goals, they need to be held accountable and should lose their entitlement to minutes and playing in prime situations for the remainder of the year. That is not to say they should be scolded or shamed. But accountability comes in many forms, and it has to come to vets and rookies alike.
So that means Burns and Couture don't get to play on PP1. It means Bonino and Nieto (two vets I love on this team) get stapled to the bench in the last 5 minutes of a 1 goal game. Not because they aren't good, but because we need to see if Gregor and Chemelevski and Bordeleau can handle that pressure. And if they can't handle it now, maybe it is a good learning experience so they can handle it better next year. The vets are in no position to complain about young players playing more, they had 65+ games to prevent being in this position. They can resume their spot at the top of the pecking order starting next year.