Milestones, Sochi on point, NFL off season, Bruins and other fun facts

Sharks Head coach Todd Mclellan.

Yesterday the San Jose Sharks faced off against the Columbus Blue Jackets for the last Sharks game before the Olympic Winter game break in Sochi. A game in which Sharks head coach Todd Mclellan name was officially engraved into San Jose hockey history as he coached his 435th game behind the bench and passed former Sharks coach and present LA Kings head coach Darryl Sutter for the most games coached in Sharks franchise history.  Mclellan is already the franchise leader in wins (257), winning percentage (.590) and points percentage (.652).  Even move interesting, in only his first four seasons as an NHL head coach (2008-2012), Todd Mclellan has already accumulated more wins than any other coach in League history (195).  He posted the second most wins (236) in his first 400 games of any NHL coach in League history (Bruce Boudreau, 238) and was the second-fastest coach in NHL history to reach 250 wins (424 games, behind Boudreau, 416 games).  Combine that with the fact that Mclellan became the second-fastest NHL coach to win 200 games.  Needless to say, Todd Mclellan's not too shabby and the only item missing from this impeccable coaching resume is the the Stanley Cup hardware to back it all up.  The Shark as a franchise have never won a Cup since it joined the NHL in 1990, maybe coach Mclellan is capable of accomplishing another franchise first.

McCarthy shoots the puck over Bobrovsky's shoulder last night.

All things aside the Sharks still had a game to play with Columbus and what a game it was.  Tommy Wingels showed up big again in a tie game and picked up the game winning goal again as he did two nights before against the Dallas Stars.  John McCarthy joined the fun scoring his first goal since 2010.  "You feel the atmosphere now," said Sharks captain Joe Thornton.  "Guys are excited for the break.  It's always nice to win before things like this or Christmas.  The guys will enjoy the break and come back ready to work for the second half."  Patrick Marleau also scored for the Sharks last night before he makes his way to Sochi to help his country and team Canada win another gold in the Winter Olympics.  The final score was 3-2 and helps San Jose solidify their position as the second place team in the Pacific Division and just at the right time as the Anaheim Ducks can't seem to win games at home after starting the season as one of the top dogs.  San Jose will also have a different look after the Olympic break when they next play Feb. 28th in Philadelphia, with expected returns of injured players Logan Couture, Raffi Torres, Matt Nieto and Tyler Kennedy.

Raffi Torres returns after the break to assist Mike Brown as the Sharks enforcers.  

"We're 80 points at the Olympic break" coach Mclellan said. "We would have been probably pleased with that at the beginning of the season considering some of the players we lost over and throughout the year.  We go into the break satisfied.  Coming out of it, we have work to do."  Ryan Johansen and Boone Jenner scored for Columbus, who trail Philadelphia by only one point for third place in the Metropolitan Division after losing in two tight games with San Jose and LA.  Columbus net-minder Sergei Bobrovsky made 44 saves while Sharks goalie Antti Niemi made 19.  "Obviously, you don't want to go into the break with a loss but we have been playing great hockey the past few games," Johansen said.  "The boys battled hard, and we just fell a little short." To sum it all up without breaking down every period, the Sharks looked and were the more rested team but the Blue Jackets clearly will be a team to contend in the playoffs as the season carries on.

Boston Bruins Captain Zedano Chara carrying the flag for his country Slovakia.

After all the prodding and poking fun at the accommodations over in Sochi (myself included) the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies were actually quite breath-taking once the athletes representing their countries started rolling out, even if one of the 5 Olympic snowflake's malfunctioned being the only minuet issue in the grand scheme of it all.  Vladimir Putin must be credited, he made the Sochi games possible and had his hand in everything from paying homage to the cultured history of his country by highlighting the industrial workers and industrial movement of years past while steering clear from the nasty aspects of the Soviet Union. Pyotr Tchaikovsky the creator of the ballet Swan Lake would even be impressed with last night's interpretation of Swan Lake. With dancers looking like over-sized jelly fish moving gracefully around the lighted dark lake center stage with the neon-light costumes  assisted with extraordinary choreography. The all-out presentation of the ceremonies finished with the lighting of the Olympic Torch with Russian women's tennis pro and Sochi native Maria Sharapova jogging the Olympic torch into Sochi's Fisht Stadium finishing the passing of the torch in truly amazing fashion with former 3-time gold medalist and Olympic figure skating champion Irina Rodnina and Russian hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak hand in hand to lite to the fire leading to an awe-inspiring fireworks show and must have made all the demanding labor and stressful times feel a little rewarding for the people of Sochi.  

If you missed the lighting of the torch you missed Sochi lite up the sky.

In New England Patriots news, Pats owner Robert Kraft made the first official off-season business comment when he touched upon the topic of retaining presently under contract cornerback Aqib Talib but next month Talib's 1 year $5 million deal will expire and he will once again hit the open free agent market. Last year when Talib tested the open market there really wasn't that many takers so obviously he decided to return to New England and took the 1 year deal in hopes that he could get a better return investment the following year.  Now things start to get tricky because while Talib only played 13 games this past season and was knocked out again due to injury in the second straight AFC Championship game he was still dominate in the games he did play, shutting down Pro Bowler and New Orleans Saint tight end Jimmy Graham to zero catches in week 6.

Aqib Talib brawling with Steve Smith during their teams Week 11 meeting.

The Carolina Panthers game in week 11 where some my remember Talib let Panther's wide receiver Steve Smith get under his skin so Belichick was being weary of the conflict and sat Talib on different dives, the most notable one was when quarterback Cam Newton pulled off Carolina's game winning drive against the Patriots defense and I feel that not having Aqib Talib out there on that final Panther offensive drive maybe he could have changed the outcome is he was out there and if the refs called holding later when Luke Kuechly bear-hugged Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski in the Carolina end zone.  My point is that Talib is a premier cornerback but he not always out there on the field and that prevents him from getting a huge payday investment and clearly Robert Kraft feels similar as he stated in his interview with 98.5 the Sports hub 

Kraft hopes Talib will take the hometown discount to help win another title.

"Well, we want to retain all the good players we can," Kraft said via Patriots insider Tom Curranof CSN New England. "It's not like we have unlimited funding so...He wasn't on the field a lot of the time since he's been with us.  It's a balance of us balancing all that out and what is he worth.  I think he's happy here and would like to be here and we're happy with him and we'd like to have him here and now it's just about doing business." Talib has a past history of incidents and maybe that scares many teams away from investing long-term big money but sometimes teams like to roll the dice when it comes to the high risk high reward players.  Regardless, the Patriots and Kraft have till Mach 8th to sign Talib before he gets another shot at a market that will probably be licking their chops at the chance to sign a Pro Bowl cornerback. Especially since the Seattle Seahawks just won the Super Bowl and the NFL is known for copycat antics and I wouldn't be surprised if another team took a shot at becoming the next great defense by inking Talib long term.  Patriots fans can only hope he takes the hometown discount verses the supposed payday.   

The Bruins go into the Olympic break smoking hot.

While constructing today's blog I've been watching the Boston Bruins lay down the hammer on the Ottawa Senators and man this Saturday matinee game has been a exciting so far one sided match.  Ottawa net-minder Craig Anderson has been pelted throughout the game, and Patrice Bergeron has already scored two goals. His first goal of the game was scored when the Bruins were up on a power play opportunity and a quick dash and nifty passing by Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson to set up Bergeron, while the second came on a beautiful give and go play coming out of the Boston defensive zone with assists from Dougie Hamilton and Brad Marchand to Bergeron for a double tab into the net past Anderson.  Ottawa player Zack Smith thought he could breathe some life into his team by picking a fight after getting hit by B's Kevan Miller, well, he thought wrong because Miller laid down a killer beating on Smith as the two headed to the locker room with only a couple of minutes remaining in the 1st period.  Bruin's Chris Kelly and Jarome Iginla also helped the puck find its way into the back of the net and as it stands now the only Ottawa goal in the game scored is Bobby Ryan's scored in the 2nd period.  I'd say it's safe to say the Boston Bruins will be going into the Winter Olympic break with the W but hey its sports and that's the beauty of it all you truly never know, Diesel out. (I came back to deliver the final score of the Bruins game with Ottawa from earlier today and the Senators had no shot as I thought before having to take off to take care of some nonsense, but at any rate the B's took Ottawa to the woodshed winning 7 to 2 and no Patrice Bergeron didn't get a hat trick but he did pick up an assist on a Brad Marchand goal later in the 3rd, this is the Diesel signing off.)