After hearing San Jose Sharks president Greg Jamison on KNBR 680 with Gary Radnich today, my suspicions about the near future of the team were all but confirmed outright.

He intimated that over the next few weeks, hard decisions about the “core” of the team would have to be made. When Gary offered that Jumbo Joe Thornton needed a more competent running mate, Jamison did not deny that fact.

This subtlety was not lost on this commentator. I have overty claimed on the radio that this “core” of Sharks must be overhauled, and I have even gone so far as to “name those names”.

First to go would have to be Patrick Marleau.

I’m well aware of his no-trade clause but if the right situation was presented, he would go. Even though he has spent his entire career with the organization, the time has come for change and I’m sure he wouldn’t object to a new scene.

His career numbers are trending downward, especially those from the all-important Stanley Cup playoffs. 

Over the past four regular seasons, Marleau is averaging nearly a full point per game (283 pts. in 313 games). Great production that has been greatly aided by the arrival of Joe Thornton.

However, in the taut playoffs, those numbers are miniscule. In 41 playoffs game over the same stretch he’s collected just 31 points, including a paltry three points in the 6 game loss to Anaheim.

The biggest deficiency has been in his inability as captain to rally the team over tough challenges in the playoffs. The team is 20-21 over the last 4 playoff years and it’s impossible to win the Cup with a losing record.

The other big move would take creativity and awareness that are outside my level of expertise but I’ll propose half of it anyway. It’s not a popular stance but I’m not afraid of the tough take.

Trade Evgeny Nabokov.

Brian Boucher had a great year while playing 33% of the minutes. His Goals Against Average (GAA) was 2.18 to Nabokov’s 2.44 and his save percentage was a couple clicks higher (.917 to .910).

Nabokov is great but he has also shown a propensity to NOT BE BETTER in the postseason.

This year, his GAA went up nearly an entire goal (2.82) from the regular season and his save percentage dipped below .900 in the defeat.

Maybe the stats don’t alarm you but it’s a fact that only once in the last four seasons did Nabokov’s GAA go DOWN in the Stanley Cup playoffs versus his regular season numbers.

Let me close by saying Greg Jamison was forthright, classy, and impressive today on the radio. He is the perfect embodiment of the way the Sharks run the franchise. I have no doubt that they’ll make the tough decisions and get this team ready for a deep run in 2010.

So as it turned out, my last-minute journey to Anaheim for Game 6 of the Western Conference quarterfinals was a vain effort at seeing history.

Unless you consider the Sharks’ calamitous meltdown something worthy remembering.

I’ll choose to channel Roger Clemens and “misremember” the 26-hour round trip to Anaheim from downtown San Francisco. I’ll block out the painful memory of trudging out of the Honda Center after the 4-1 loss that symbolized the lifeless passion shown by the Sharks all series.

I’ll instead focus on the turning point in the game, when the Sharks scored their only goal and I dodged the throw-the-bum-out bullet after a fan altercation.

Milan Michalek had just “lit the lamp” and I leapt out into the aisle from my tony seat 18 rows above the ice near the center face-off circle (thank you Sharks front office). Excited after the goal, I rolled down about 10 rows, searching for anyone in Teal with whom I could celebrate this huge road goal.

After a somewhat lengthy celebratory stroll down the section, I was making my way back toward my seat when I was lashed on the face by one of the Puke Orange Go Ducks rally towels.

My head on a swivel, I whirled to my left to see a somewhat frail man aged out of the “demographic” (25-54) holding a rag and shaking it menacingly at me. Stunned, I had only one comment.

“Whip me again.”

Had he lashed again I was ready with a series of countermoves that would have escalated the situation to unseen levels of flailing and frustration. The usher took me to the concourse where I was detained and debriefed by Anaheim Police Department officers while the facts came out.

Fortunately I was neither beligerrent nor bombastic, quietly giving my side of the story while the Sharks began their slide. Once the facts came out, Whippy (as the near octagenarian will heretofore be referred) was on his way out the door, back to his McCommunity in Crapville.

I became public enemy #1 but with a one goal lead and momentum I liked my chances of long-term Section supremacy. Even at the 1st intermission, it still felt a lot like a Sharks win in the making.

Needless to say, by the third period I was ”wearing” all kinds of insults from the most ignorant hockey fans on the planet. Very humiliating.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

846 miles driven round trip

13 hours of driving

4 diet Mountain Dew consumed (thank you Skip Bayless)

1 bag of vegan almond snack gobbled (thank you Paulie Mac)

1 near ejection

The word has come down from the desk of Lee Hammer. Inexplicably, he has said yes.

The program director at KNBR 680 has given me the go-ahead to drive down to Anaheim for Game 6 tonight between the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks.

The caveat is I must fill-in for the first half of Gary Radnich’s 9-noon show before driving 422 miles to the Honda Center for the must-win game.

Assuming I average 60 miles per hour (including the one scheduled stop), I should arrive in Anaheim about 5:30pm, in plenty of time to get my pre-game on.

I gotta believe the Sharks will play their collective asses off, knowing that I made the titanic drive to watch their historic comeback continue.

I think the pressure is now really on Anaheim, knowing that they do not want to face a game 7 on the road.

Bottom line for the Sharks, Thornton and marleau must play huge again but Nabokov is the biggest X-factor in the game.

If Nabby “stands on his head” then the Sharks will earn another home game, despite the naysaying of some in the media community.

GO SHARKS!

Well, that sure was a gigantic stink-job of a playoff hockey game by the Sharks. It’s a meltdown of epic proportion.

You can see the Sharks Stanley Cup hopes washing away

In a near must-win situation, the Presidents Trophy winning, best-record having, top-seed earning San Jose Sharks went out and basically laid down in a 4-0 loss to Anaheim.

I’m not here to gloat over the fact that I was one of the only “pundits” to forecast an early Sharks exit. I’d much rather have them advance deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It would be different if they were down 3-1 in the series while playing good, tough hockey but they’re not. Yesterday’s defeat is the worst in Sharks playoff history and it came at the worst possible time.

Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton were dominated again by the Ducks’ top line of Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan and goalie Jonas Hiller has been impenetrable.

The most disturbing part is the lack of urgency and fire shown by San Jose at a time when those commodities were most-needed.

Now they’re in a desperate situation as only 9% of NHL playoff teams down 3-1 in a best-of-seven have come back to win the series.

If they fail to win three straight against the Ducks they’ll become the third team since the inception of the Presidents Cup in 1985 to be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.

All that talk about home-ice advantage and a showdown with the Detroit Red Wings looks pretty damn silly about now.

If this is the end of the season for the Sharks, don’t be surprised if the team jettisons some big names and doesn’t display what looks like a meaningless Presidents Trophy.

First off let me say how wrong I was about yesterday’s Barry Zito pitching performance.

I had theorized that Barry would get knocked around again by the San Diego Padres and the team would lose. What took place was quite the opposite as Zito threw seven scoreless innings as the Giants won their third straight game.

When I saw that Zito would be pitching yesterday I just assumed it would be another rough outing. After all, he has had more bad outings than good ones in his 2 plus years with the Giants.

It’s much easier to assume the worst when #75 is on the hill than to expect the best but I should be above that sort of negative chatter. I should give him the benefit of the doubt when he takes the ball and not be a hate monger.

Even though his ERA still hovers near 6, I will no longer expect bad things when he’s on the mound. I vow to take a positive tack both on and off the air when it comes to Barry Zito.

It’s clear that he still has the stuff to pitch well and get major league hitters out, even though he hasn’t done it consistently during his time in the orange and black.

Yesterday he had the curve curving, the fastball zooming (kinda), and the change up changing things up. Bottom line, he was dealing.

Zito is a man who thrives on positivity and self-assurance and I will no longer spread the kind of vitriol that could derail his confidence and psyche.

There’s too much hate in the world and I will no longer peddle such negativity.

Be great Barry. I’m behind you from now on into eternity.

126,000,000 has become a stigmatic number, not only in the Bay Area but in the world at large.

That figure of course relates to the gigantic contract signed by Barry Zito just a few short years ago. He’s being paid that much money over seven years to throw a baseball for the San Francisco Giants, regardless of how well he does.

Therein lies the biggest problem with the deal; he doesn’t  have to perform well to “earn” the money. He’ll be paid 126 million dollars no matter how many times he gets shelled, bombed, roughed up, or knocked around.

Zito is on display today as the Giants face the Padres in a matinee at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Today’s performance is a big one for Barry because the rest of the rotation has dominated over the last four games.

Already relegated to the #4 spot in the rotation, expectations for Zito have plummeted. At this point, most fans would take a 6 inning, 3 earned run performance anytime, a sad fact considering how high hopes were when he signed.

Just for perspective, here are the past four pitching efforts by Giants’ starters. I’ll give the numerical line score (IP, H, R, ER, BB, SO) for each.

Sanchez 6.2 2 0 0 4 4 WIN

Lincecum 8 5 0 0 0 13 No Decision

Johnson 7 1 0 0 2 7 WIN

Cain 6 9 2 2 0 5 WIN

The four horsemen of the Giants rotation have yielded just 2 earned runs over 27 and two-thirds innings over the last four starts.

If this was bowling, Zito would be staring down the barrel of a beer frame. This happens when all players on a lane bowl a strike and one player does not. This guy must then buy a round of beers.

Judging by the size of Zito’s contract, he’s able to buy a round of beers for the entire stadium.

Assuming there will be 30,ooo fans in the house today, multiplied by the cost of a beer (approximately 9 bucks at the yard), Zeets is looking at a bill of $270,000 for a bad outing.

That’s chump change. Zito probably has that much in his car’s ashtray or couch cushion.

When you break it all down, there’s really not much difference between me, you, Milan Mihalek, and Marcel Goc.

All of us in this world have “gut check” moments in our life, although admittedly most of our “moments” are not being played out on Versus before a National television audience (small as it might be).

The San Jose Sharks spent an entire season establishing home ice advantage, then gave it away in the span of just three nights. As a result, they trail the somewhat-mighty Ducks of Anaheim 2-0 in the best of seven Western Conference quarterfinal series, and now have the tough task of playing the next two games on the road.

The fact that the Sharks have been a postseason buzzkill over the past few seasons only adds to the pressure they now feel after gagging away games 1 and 2 at home. The expectation is heightened by the fact they had the best record in the NHL in the regular season.

It takes four wins to claim the series, making this not a must-win for San Jose but instead The Most Important Game Of The Year. Hence, it’s gut-check time.

Everyone has these moments in their life where their decisions or actions will have major life-ramifications. I liken this to the pressure that athletes feel in these big games.

Maybe you want to approach a woman in a bar, ask your boss for a raise, or figure out where to live, these are all gut check, big life-changing moments. I’m fortunate to have made good decisions that have resulted in positive life outcomes.

The biggest gut-check moment is an action I didn’t take.

I was just minutes removed from being fired by a local radio station and I was hot. Very hot. Pissed. Steamed. You get the point.

I decided I would roll into the studio and steal as many CD’s as I could possibly handle. I was going to get even by god. My employer would feel my wrath!

As I turned to the door to leave it hit me. This is not how I was raised. This is not who I am. I didn’t want to go out like a “buster”.

I put every CD back, in order, and took my firing like a man. I gathered my things and trudged defeatedly toward the elevator.

Lo and behold, four years later the same company that had fired me called to see about hiring me at one of their sister stations. Because I had taken the “high road” I was in good enough graces to get another gig with the company.

I’ve been at KNBR ever since.

Here’s hoping Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dan Boyle, and the gang can handle their gut check tonight.

I would consider myself a hypocrite if I did not venture down to San Jose to the Sharks in Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

After all, it was me who theorized that this could be the final home game of the 2008-2009 season.

For me to sit back and wait for San Jose to return home before I went out to a playoff game would go against the very urgency that I implored Sharks’ fans to have.

Therefore, I’m on my way out the door to make the journey south. I’ll be enjoying the game from the highest possible vantage point; in the auxillary press box.

This perch is across from the regular press box, which is up a couple flights of stairs from the upper deck seating area.

I’m nor complaining about this seat location; it’s actually a pretty good place to see all the action. I wanted to give some perspective as to where I’ll be for those of you following on Twitter.

Despite the Sharks being highly motivated and the better team overall, I’m seeing at least one overtime and a Sharks 2-1 win. San Jose will outshoot the Ducks nearly 2-1 again but it will take OT heroics, thereby limiting my Sunday Night Sleep.

I’ll go ahead and call a Pavelski game-winner.

GIANTS WIN BEHIND R-J

A very big outing from the pitcher-formerly-known-as-the-Big-Unit.

Just one hit allowed and a super-quality start was enough as the Giants bats were uber-quiet again. It took a great outing (and a good close from one of Twitter pals Brian Wilson) to nurse a 2-0 win as the offense failed to erupt for anything. They’re averaging 2 runs a game over the last 10.

Basically, the formula for 100 I laid out is looking pretty cogent in the early going.

Let me start by saying that I don’t think Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals against Anaheim will be the final home game for the San Jose Sharks this Sunday.

But it could be. And that fact should be a big wake up call for this team that has to prove it can succeed in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Thus the team, and by extension the fans, need to bring much more urgency and desperation to the ice on Sunday to avoid another stunning upset.

Sure the Sharks outshot the Ducks 35-17 and drew two more penalties than Anaheim. The problem was the poor power play performance that was caused by a staunch Ducks’ blue-line defense that prevented San Jose from setting up.

Even though they faced a hot goalie in Jonas Hiller, the Sharks offense never clicked in getting shutout at home. The Joe Thornton line was outplayed by Anaheim’s Getzlaf line.

Losing game 1 of a best-of-seven NHL series is not a death knell. Game 2 is the real indicator of postseason success as 71% of Game 2 winners, regardless of the Game 1 outcome, win the best-of-seven series.

For those of you who don’t believe this Game 2 is a must-win, teams that have gone up 2-0, have won series’ at a 87 percent clip.

The President’s Trophy would become nothing more than a paper-weight if the Sharks fail to get out of the first round.

Sharks fans need to stop talking about a possible matchup with Detroit and focus on the scary reality staring them in the face.

Sunday could be the final home game of the season for the Sharks.

John Madden has announced his retirement from broadcasting, ending the reign of the most popular broadcaster in sports history.

I must make this immediate clarification (as Tim Roye would say, a Clarification Sensation). John Madden is by no means the BEST broadcaster, simply the most popular.

His vast popularity and connectivity with the audience were always far more important than his relative ability to break down the coveted X’s and O’s.

From his incessant pitch-man schtick to his name-brand video game empire, John Madden has been synonymous with the National Football League for nearly three GENERATIONS.

His Madden bus, Turducken (sp?), all-Madden team and more all changed the way we all broadcast sports. He made entertainment the most important quotient in a broadcast and showed that color commentary could be an all-encompassing gig.

It’s fair to say that his skills have diminished over the last few seasons but I must acknowledge how good he still was into his late 60’s. He and Al Michaels had a nice partnership that I will miss.

Here’s to you John. Enjoy the family in the 925 and the afternoons chasing the pallino on the bocce court.