Hawks Gameday: How Are Things On The West Coast?, The Dodgers Assume Their Place

Setting up the Hawks dip into The Tank, and wrapping up the World Series.

Sector 1901 - How Are Things On The West Coast?

San Jost Sharks Lineup:

Eklund - Granlund - Toffoli

Gushchin - Wennberg - Zetterlund

Goodrow - Smith - Kunin

Grundstrom - Sturm - Cardwell

Walman - Ceci

Ferraro - Rutta

Thompson - Benning

Vanecek/Blackwood

What You Need To Know: If there were ever a time the Sharks might be spiky, it would be tonight. They're coming off their first home win on Tuesday night, against what I assume are the still-hated Kings, though it's likely that the Kings have no feeling toward an organization that hasn't been a threat to them in over 10 years and whatever Sharks fans are left (and judging by the crowd on Tuesday, it ain't many!) are too busy feeling sorry for themselves to have ire for anyone.

Anywho, the sobering fact is that should San Jose win tonight's tilt in regulation, they'll actually leap over the Hawks in the standings. But don't worry, should that even happen it is not a long-term outlook, as this outfit is every bit rotten fish-smelling as expected before the season. Though they do have better metrics than the Yzerplan, which is life affirmingly funny. You take your jollies where you can find them.

The Sharks are bad in all the ways you'd expect, giving up the most shots per game, in the bottom-five in goals allowed per game, etc. The goaltending hasn't been as bad as you'd think when it's comprised of McKenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek, ranking 21st in even-strength SV%. The duo have even kept the Sharks middle of the pack on the kill as well, ranking 16th in save-percentage while shorthanded. Problem is, the Sharks lead the league in times shorthanded, so even an acceptable performance on the kill is going to yield more goals than this roster is equipped to handle. And they're going to keep taking penalties, because it can't play at NHL speed.

Fabian Zetterlund, one of the few on the roster the Sharks hope will be part of important games somewhere down the road, is on a bit of a tear with four points in his last three games, including a goal against L.A. Macklin Celebrini is still in the trainer's room (Sharks or Warriors where his dad works, doesn't matter) and has only played the opener. Will Smith, who the Sharks hope will form one half of their future axis of death down the middle with Celebrini, is playing heavily sheltered minutes on the third line and not exactly excelling with them either. His metrics are 41.9 Corsi and a 44.0 xG%. He doesn't have a point yet, and has been a healthy scratch for a game or two. This league can be a steep learning curve, Head coach Ryan Warsofsky, who really needs to admit the fight is over and shave his head, is clearly trying to give Smith the best platform he can by putting him between "solid pros" like Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin. Still, Smith's zone-starts aren't as weighted toward the offensive end as you'd think (56.6%).

This is still a team that is led in minutes by Cody Ceci and Jake Wahlman, which means that tonight and the Ducks on Sunday night could result in something of a winning stretch for the Hawks. It's happened before. Anything resembling the effort in Denver should see at least the first part of that collected.

Player To Watch - Mikael Granlund

There's a tried and trusted saying in hockey about players on bad teams. "Someone's gotta score the goals." It's the base of a category of player I've bandied about for sometime, the "Yeah, But Who Gives A Shit?" guy. There are just some players that are meant to gobble up the power play time on a team where there really isn't anyone else to do so, play on a go-nowhere team's top line because there's no one else to do so otherwise they'd be going somewhere. And they're just good enough to turn those opportunities into something against teams that probably are having a tough time locating a flying fuck to give when playing said go-nowhere team.

Mikael Granlund wasn't always that guy, as he was at least an interesting player for a Wild team that could hang around the bottom of the playoff picture before being eliminated quickly enough to forget they were ever there in the first place. Granlund attempted to find more illustrious staging in stints in Nashville and Pittsburgh. But by the time he was booted out of each, the fanbases were offering to drive him to wherever his next destination was and pay for his seat upgrade.

Some of that was due to the contract he signed in Minnesota, and then repeated by Nashville, which gave him a $5 million cap hit that the strapped Penguins really couldn't afford to waste on a third-liner. Some of it was due to rotten luck, as Granlund's brief stint in Pittsburgh wasn't as bad as it first looked. He just couldn't buy a bucket (3.1 shooting-percentage).

But Granlund has found a home in San Jose, for now, as he can center the top line while Celebrini is out and Smith is learning his craft and the Sharks would probably prefer to land in the top three of the draft again anyway. He's got 13 points in 11 games so far, after registering 60 last year. He's getting better chances than ever (0.83 ixG/60). And more time on the power play, which has resulted in three power play goals already.

Yes, if Mikael Granlund is your top scorer and top line player, your team sucks. But the Sharks weren't really planning on going anywhere, and this is the last year of his deal, so someone might take the plunge without seeing the air in his numbers. For teams like the Hawks and Sharks, that's the dream.

I've always gotten the impression that Yankees fans hate Aaron Boone. Despite him, usually, constructing a good to great bullpen out of what is normally scraps lying around. Despite consistently getting 90+ wins out of a lineup that prototypically is Aaron Judge, the three weeks Giancarlo Stanton is healthy, and some rodeo clowns filling out the rest of the lineup. Juan Soto wasn't always there, after all.

Yes, his constant arguing with umps always seems performative. But there was this idea from the Boogie Down faithful that something was missing from their manager. Well, now I get it.

In the playoffs, even if a team has a genuine ace on the hill, that's nothing more than two trips through the lineup before a manager has to be on alert. Yes, in the regular season, a manager can let one of the league's best pitchers work their way out of jams a third time through the lineup. This isn't July, and Gerrit Cole isn't the normal Gerrit Cole, thanks to injury problems. Also, there was an off-day to follow.

To boot, on four days of rest this year, hitters slugged .547 against Cole. There was not a lot of rope to be had here.

Instead, Boone froze...and froze, and froze. He got through Shohei Ohtani. But after Cole had his controller turn off on Mookie Betts's groundball and didn't cover first, there's no way he can be allowed to face Freddie Freeman. Or Teoscar Hernandez.

On top of that, Boone just hasn't run a tight ship all season. The Yankees have been a terrible defensive team all season, and a terrible baserunning team. The former can be excused if they just have a bunch Budweiser clydesdales in the field. Whether the Yanks do or not, I leave to you. The latter is definitely on whether a manager keeps everyone tuned in. The Yankees were definitely not tuned in during the 5th inning. Or for large swaths of this series. A team can't outrun that forever, especially when bringing in Nestor Cortes cold out of the pen with the game on the line. Twice.

And we turn to the Dodgers. Who have been a something of a figure of fun for a while now, for what they didn't do. Well, now they have, basically, the same record over the past decade as the Astros, considered the gold standard. That may depend on what your mileage is on the 2020 World Series. At this point though, it is impossible to argue that the Dodgers haven't been on one of, if not the, greatest run in MLB history.

They've won their division 11 of the past 12 seasons, and the one year they didn't they won 106 games and beat the team that topped them in the NL West in the first round. They've failed to win more than 95 games once in the past seven full seasons.

Anyone can bitch and moan about their TV deal. The Yankees have one too. And they don't own a real estate empire around their park either. They're probably not done, because next year Ohtani will pitch. Glasnow will too, at least for like, two months. Yamamoto will be in his second season on these shores. Walker Buehler will be even more removed from surgery. They have $38 million coming off the books, and $46M if they just let Buehler walk. They're already making noise about chasing Juan Soto.

Mock them if it helps. Try to convince them they should be forlorn about all the chances they blew. There isn't a team or fanbase that shouldn't want to trade places with them.

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