Midseason Report Card

Close enough. Doug Wilson recently stated about 10 of the Sharks are "grading out at about a C". That means it's time to pull out the red pen and pass out marks:


Straight A Students:

Two students are at the head-of-the-class: Nabokov and Thornton. I said in my season preview that these two would have to be nothing short of stellar for the Sharks to make an impact, and they certainly have lived up to that. They are the driving force keeping the Sharks near the top of the NHL standings.

Also earning an A: Mike Grier gets an A- for busting his ass every shift. We're grading on the curve, apparently.

Solid B:

I'm handing out B+'s to Milan Mihalek and Torrey Mitchell. Both have played over their heads so far and it's always exciting to see the puck on their sticks. They are still not the playmakers to launch them into the next stratosphere.

Also earning a B: B- for Bernier, partially because he's playing much better/physically the last 10 games, partially because I wanted to give a B to Big Bear.

C, or basically half the Sharks

Capable of doing more but not, still not anything horrifically bad, disappear for stretches of time, half the time infuriating me and half the time causing cheers. This sound like anyone on the roster to you?

Carle, Cheechoo, McLaren, Pavelski, Rissmiller, Rivet, Vlasic


D

Marcel Goc - kinda good at face-offs but sucks at everything else. Only saved from an F because he doesn't draw my ire like those below, and his blog entertains me for about 30 seconds each week - 30 seconds longer than his on ice performance, I should note.

F - YOU FAIL

Patrick, Patrick, Patrick... Remember the hat tricks? Remember busting your ass as the only star on a rising Stanley Cup contender? Remember looking like you care? When Marleau touches the puck now, I expect bad things to happen. I expect he'll cough it up on the entry dump. I expect he'll be a step behind the forward he's defending. I expect his shot on goal to be a soft little saucer into the goalie's glove. I remember expecting greatness.

Also failing: Ehrhoff and his alergic reaction towards controlling the puck, Semenov and his alergic reaction towards talent, skill, and movement.

Good Behavior

The Douggernaut and Ozolinsh - both guys playing better than expected, even if that's not too great. Also, for not getting drunk.

Insubordination

Jeremy Roenick has been more than willing to call out poor efforts from his fellow teammates, both behind closed doors and in the media. And on this report card, Insubordination is a great thing. For a team that's lacked vocal leadership and a killer instinct, J.R. has done his best to provide both.

Most Improved

Rob Davison - he's been a minor revelation. Necessity breeds invention, and the Sharks needed another left-handed shot amongst the forwards, so they promoted their least talented lefty D-man. This worked out incredibly - Davey's seeing way more playing time for being more than willing to forecheck and work hard for those pucks in the corner. Even better, he's the rare Shark that's down to drop the gloves.

Tardy

Curtis Brown just hasn't had the ice time to do much, but he's provided his trademark so-good-defensively-I-can't-be-any-good-offensively style of play. Brown is talented enough to create turnovers on the PK, but has no breakaway skills to actually score on them.

Incomplete

Clowe, Setoguchi, Greiss. Obvious enough - we haven't seen enough from these fellows to warrant a grade. I have high hopes though. I didn't think Clowe was gonna make it back on the ice this year, so that's a welcome surprise.


Leave your grades in the comments section. How about Ron Wilson? Drew Remenda? S.J. Sharkie?