O' Mama, where to start?

First off, I'd like to give myself a hearty welcome back and, while I am at it, I'll give you one, too.  Things have been quiet around the Meows lately.  For one reason (taking time off to mend your soul post break-up), or another (laziness), there haven't been many postings about the past eight weeks' drama.  To be sure of what we have missed, I'll briefly recap from memory in order of importance:

-  The Sharks have, at times, really sucked out there against more focused and ready opponents.  At one point, they lost six straight.  At no point during that streak did they look at all dangerous yet it is funny to note that the Sharks actually had better statistical nights than their opponents.  Ba! Do not look at Nabokov like that!  It was not just him stinking up the joint, it took a whole team effort to play that poorly defensively.  If I had the time, I'd go back on to the the Mercury News site and dig up some of quotes from that time streak.  Either you can do it on your own or you can just believe me.  How to read this slide is the question that only hindsight can bring clarity to.  The jackals have started prancing around the desert, proclaiming that the Sharks April follies have hit hard a month early this year and its time to say "That's all, folks!"  Others say that the Sharks March slump is a benefit because it provides the Sharks with time to right the ship and play strong, solid hockey through adversity

-  Joe Thornton FINALLY took some time off, albeit involuntarily.  I missed this game last week while I was in transit, so it was fitting that I got this news almost immediately after one of the members of the Meownation lost a couple hundred dollars at the craps table.  Depending on how you look at this injury it is either a catastrophic harbinger of playoff failure or a serendipitous panacea for the Sharks playoffs ails.  Does Joe need time off in general, or did this ankle injury cripple his chances for playing well in the playoffs?  To be sure, I have not seen him play since the ankle injury, so I have no way of knowing yet.  Intuitively, I am going with the latter.  I think a break is exactly what Thornton needed to heal his game.  He is a big boy and for his size he is most aptly compared to a Western-Pacific Freight Train, constantly hauling cargo (the Sharks) forward through the NHL season, year after year.  Like a train, Joe needed to sit down for a bit and rest the motor.  As we so often grow accustomed to Joe's decreased performances at the end of the season, it is helpful to remember just how quick a skater Joe is and how dominant his performances are for the first quarter of the season.  As I always tell my friends, you can tell what kind of game he is going to have in the first ten minutes by judging the pace with which he moves his legs up the rink.  Hopefully, this break will allow him to return with some of the early-season giddyup.

-  The Sharks called up Logan Couture.  Hallelujah!  Echoing the hopes I've expressed all season for the playoffs, the thought of Logan Couture on the fourth line instead of Brad Staubitz has now become a reality.  I love this for two reasons: (1) benching Staubitz in the playoffs is a must.  He is a penalty machine with almost zero discipline, (2) Couture is dangerous on the rink and can flat out play.  Calling up Logan Couture is analogous to a decent trade deadline deal because the player adds depth to the roster immediately without affecting the top six or the power play.  His play over the past 10 days has proven that he is NHL ready and that he can be capable if not near-dominant at times during the game.  As Doug Wilson has said, the NHL is a young man's game and Logan Couture (just turned 21 this week) is certainly that.  Logan looks to help the Sharks with his speed, movement off the puck, and his stick handling.  He has played well at both winger and center and should be helpful to the Sharks as he helps us in the playoffs.

-  The Sharks called up Jason Demers to be the seventh/eighth D.  I like this move to keep Demers on the ice during the playoffs as the sixth or seventh D.  We all know that Rob Blake needs time to take a seat 5 on 5, and that his quality of play descends as his amount of ice time accumulates.  Adding the young and speedy Demers changes the character of the Sharks d-corps by providing a speedy, moving pivot that looks to zing the puck up the ice and change zones immediately.  He is youthful and, lord knows, he is going to make mistakes that will end up in the back of our net but the help he provides on the power play and, yes, at even strength are strong enough assets to have earned him playoff ice time.  I would expect that TM will play blake 5 on 5 predominantly and then mix in Demers if the Sharks took the lead, as well as playing opposite Blake or Boyle on the point during the power play.  At the bare minimum: We have to face it, having Pavelski on the point for a power play just does not work for the Sharks and it's worth Staubitz's ice time to have Demers on the roster.

-  Jed Ortmeyer....have you seen him?  Neither have I.

-  Ryan Clowe has emerged, once again, as a player who gets bored during the regular season and emerges to shine later in the year.  I said time and time again, DW would not trade Ryan Clowe mid-season because Clowe is a late season/ post-season player who is important for the Sharks.  I don't like to count on him because he is an important supplemental player who can make a good team better.  I am, though, glad to see the old Ry-no is back.

-  Nabby has struggled pretty solidly since his return from the Olympics.  This would seem to be at the top of the list, right?  Wrong.  If there was every a position in sports that can change directions on a dime, it is goaltending in hockey.  How Nabby plays during the playoffs is something that will be at the top of this list.  Until then, we have no idea how he is going to play.  As such, his current play stays down here until it's time to measure the important aspects of his game: post-season performance.