| Sharks
Report
IN MY HUMBLE
OPINION
The Mark Bell
DUI case
August 19, 2007
By Heidi P. Ehrich
In an off season trade in July of 2006, Mark
Bell was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks,
sending the Sharks Tom Preissing (D) and prospect
Josh Hennessey to Chicago. Bell had a respectable
25 goals and 23 assists in 82 games in the 05-06
season, and was hoped to add to the already
potent first line combination of Joe Thornton
(C) and Jonathan Cheechoo (RW).
However, on September 4, 2006, Bell was to make
a decision that would affect his first season
as a San Jose Shark, and perhaps the rest of
his career. After drinking too much, he got
behind the wheel, and rear-ended another vehicle
sitting at a stop sign, leaving the victim with
multiple back and neck injuries. This in itself
was bad enough, but he then left the scene on
foot, making a bad situation worse. Police found
him a short distance away and arrested him.
His blood alcohol level was 0.15, almost twice
the legal limit.
This incident seemed to haunt him for the rest
of the season. Posting only 11 goals and 10
assists, he played 71 regular season games,
and was a healthy scratch for most of the playoffs.
Bell pleaded no contest on August 15, and will
serve six months (which could be commuted to
4 months for good behavior) jail time in the
Santa Clara County jail, as well as paying restitution
to the victim. His sentence will be served next
summer, so as not to interfere with the regular
hockey season.
And now for my opinion.
Did he deserve what he got? Absolutely. It doesn’t
matter who you are, drinking and driving is
never a good combination, and leaving the scene
of the crime only makes matters worse. A little
known fact is that the victim was unlicensed
and uninsured, which begs the question, what
was HE doing behind the wheel of a car in the
first place? If justice is to be meted out,
then it should be equal justice for all. I find
it interesting that this fact has been glossed
over in reports of this incident. It does not
lighten nor does it justify what Mark Bell did
that night in any way, but both parties had
broken the law. The victim’s lawyer is
bringing a lawsuit against Bell seeking “unlimited”
damages, and was quoted as saying “We’ve
sued the Superior Court for unlimited. Basically
that means we’re going to be going for
everything.” Part of Bell’s sentence
is to pay restitution to the victim for his
injuries, which he still apparently suffers
from to this day. So why the greediness? Is
it because Mark Bell is a pro-athlete, and makes
a good amount of money, which the victim’s
lawyer sees as an opportunity to “cash
in”? It just reinforces my opinion that
some lawyers are bottom feeders at best.
Amongst all this drama, Mark Bell was traded
to the Toronto Maple Leafs along with Vesa Toskala
(G) for two 1st round draft picks in the 2007
NHL Entry draft, and a 4th rounder in 2009.
While Mark Bell did not produce as expected
during his tenure as a San Jose Shark, he still
tried to make his presence count. 83 penalty
minutes, 2 game winning goals, 116 shots on
goal and 3 power play goals does not qualify
him as a “star” or elite player,
but it does show that he tried. I wish him the
best of luck in Toronto, and hope he can find
his stride once again.
That’s all for now, hockey fans!
A FAREWELL TO FINS
By Heidi P. Ehrich
May 9, 2007
I am heartbroken, I’ll
admit it. I was not ready for our season to
be over so soon. I can’t imagine how the
Sharks must feel. Kyle McLaren’s (#4 D)
comment to the press was probably the most succinct
and honest, and pretty much sums it up; “I’m
sick to my stomach.”
I’m not going to sit here and analyze
and ask “why?” and “how come?”
The press is already doing a fine job of that,
thank you very much. And frankly, I am sick
to death of reading about how bad the Sharks
were, and how, true to form, they’ve disappointed
us once again, blah blah blah…Of course
we’re disappointed, just as we’re
disappointed any time they lose a game, but
that doesn’t mean we stop being fans.
A comment I read posted on the San Jose Mercury
Times website in response to another negative
article summed it up very well for me, and I’d
like to quote it here in its entirety:
“You know, every year about this time,
when teams get eliminated you get these jokers
who go around lamenting the team’s “collapse”
and making smart comments about early tee times
and catching up on their TV shows. I say congratulations
Sharks, you have a great team. To win in hockey
you need talent, toughness, a solid game plan,
desire, etc. and both of these teams have that
in spades but in hockey more than any other
sport you need a little luck. I’ve been
a Red Wings fan for nearly twenty years and
I’ve seen plenty of times when the luck
has turned against them and it could just as
easily have done it this time. So I say again
congratulations Sharks, you have a great young
team and a classy organization. You’ll
be in the hunt for a while with the package
like that.”
(Unfortunately all I know about the guy who
wrote this comment is that his name is Dave
and he is a Red Wings fan. I would like to thank
him for his comments.)
Basically, he’s saying keep the faith.
It’s all about faith. Faith n. “unquestioning
belief that does not require proof or evidence;
complete trust, confidence or reliance”.
And who would know better about that than a
Sharks fan? The fact that the Sharks have at
least made it to the playoffs 10 times in their
15 year franchise history is nothing to sneeze
at. Each season they seem to set new records
for themselves and the franchise, never going
backwards, but ever onwards and upwards. It
is proof that they are on the right path, they
just haven’t found that elusive “something”
that it takes to make it all the way. Is luck
the missing piece to the puzzle? Very possibly,
who can say for sure? Because goodness knows
that it is not a lack of talent or depth. The
Sharks organization is uncanny in its ability
to select and develop a high caliber of talented
young hockey players.
So it comes down to a question of faith. It
remains for true Sharks fans to keep the flame
burning, to have faith when it seems that nothing
is going right. To support and cheer on our
boys, to keep them buoyed up with our energy.
Things change every season, new faces will come
in, and familiar, dear ones will go, but the
one thing that should always remain constant
is our faith in them.
For those of us who stand true and remain faithful,
someday our Cup WILL come, and we will be there
to celebrate that awe-inspiring moment right
along side our boys.
Heartbroken though I may be at the moment, my
faith remains strong, and I look forward to
next season, and all the thrills, chills and
excitement that the Sharks bring.
One final note to my Sharkies: Thank you boys
for an awesome season! And from the bottom of
my heart, thank you for the salute you gave
us at the end of Game 6. That bittersweet moment
will remain forever etched in my heart.
That’s all for now, hockey fans!
============
5/04/2007
Love Letter to the Sharks
Okay, so tomorrow is Game 5 and you’re
headed back to Detroit. This in itself isn’t
so scary, you’ve already proven you can
win in their house, and anyone else’s
for that matter. What’s scary is that
it seems to me that you have forgotten just
how good you are. Letting Detroit win in OUR
house was a shock, I’ll admit it, right
along with 17,495 other Sharks fans. But, what’s
done is done, and each game now is a new chapter,
and a new chance to remember just how good you
are. And you ARE good; you wouldn’t be
where you are right now if you weren’t.
We know it, and you know it. You can be scary
as hell when you want to be. Let’s see
it in Game 5! Let’s see that physicality
come back to the fore. Let’s put the body,
let’s have the Red Wings looking over
their shoulders every time they have the puck.
And when you come home on Monday, don’t
squeeze the stick when we start cheering, we
want you to feel our energy, our love for the
game, use that to your advantage, let us feed
your energy. Don’t think that all we want
is a perfect game, a perfect pass, a perfect
anything. Don’t play to please us, we
love you no matter what, and we’re not
going anywhere. Play to please yourselves as
a team, to take satisfaction in knowing you
played your best game ever. An ugly goal is
still a goal, and who cares how it gets in the
net, as long as it gets in the net! Ugly is
a-ok with us! We don’t care! You have
worked so incredibly hard this season, setting
franchise records, battling thru injuries and
questionable hits, and the loss of loved ones,
to come to this point, right here, right now.
There is no way you don’t deserve to bring
home the Stanley Cup. I’m sure every fan
of every other team playing right now thinks
the same about their team, but we know better
don’t we! We do have high expectations
of you, because we know just how good you can
be, and maybe it takes a gentle reminder from
a fan for you remember that, but, win or lose,
good or bad, come hell or high water, we love
you, you are OUR boys, OUR Sharks, and that
will NEVER change!
Bring the Cup home boys, bring it home and share
the joy with your family, friends, and always,
your fans!
Remember these two things: “WPE!!!!!”
And to always, “FEEL THE TEAL!!!”
I believe, do you?
By Heidi P. Ehrich
May 4, 2007
=============
Sharks Bite ‘hawks, or, the Night They
Did It All…
By Heidi P. Ehrich
Okay, so imagine you haven’t been to a
hockey game in oh, say, 10 to 12 years, and
say you grew up in Chicago and the last game
you did see was a Blackhawks’ game. Now
imagine yourself at the Tank on Tuesday March
13, 2007 to watch the San Jose Sharks play the
‘hawks. What exactly are you expecting?
Well, for starters, it is no longer an option
for players to wear their helmets during a game,
and most fights last only about 1 minute or
so, or even less these days….that being
said, you might not be expecting the Sharks,
an “upstart” West Coast hockey club,
to beat a fabled Original Six team, but that,
my friends, is exactly what the Sharks did that
night, as well as a few things that don’t
happen on a very regular basis for any hockey
team. Here’s how it played out….
At 7:04 into the first period, Bill Guerin (#13
RW), snapped a six-game scoreless streak since
becoming a Shark at the trade deadline and buried
one in the net. This in itself was cause for
celebration by Sharks fans, as it seemed that
Billy was finally getting the feel for the teal,
so much so that he even hugged the ref! But
wait folks, it only gets better. Another goal
by Mark Bell (#7 LW) at 10:42, was another cause
for celebration, as Bellzy was experiencing
a bit of a scoring drought himself. The rest
of the first period remained 2-0, but that’s
all it took to put the Sharks on a tear. Goals
by Milan Michalek (#9 RW) in the second, and
then Joe Thornton (#19 C), Mike Grier (#25 RW),
and another by Bill Guerin in the third put
the Sharks up 6-0 by 13:05 into the third. It
seemed that Evgeni Nabokov (#20 G) was well
on his way to his fourth shutout in five games,
but alas it was not to be. Martin LaPointe (#22
RW) found a way thru Nabby’s stellar netminding,
and put the Blackhawks on the board at long
last.
But Billy wasn’t done yet, and at 19:47
into the third period scored on the penalty
shot resulting in his eighth career hat trick,
and his first as a Shark. A scuffle ensued as
the horn sounded to end the third period, but
not too much came of it.
And so the Sharks took a huge bite out of the
Blackhawks, and put on quite a show for my friend
Naomi who hadn’t been to a hockey game
in over 10 years! Let’s see, a penalty
shot, a hat trick, a few scrums, and let’s
not forget the rarest of them all, a player
hugging a ref. The only thing we didn’t
see was a Gordie Howe hat trick! So even though
fights don’t last for 5 minutes anymore,
and players are required to wear their helmets
during the game, hockey is still as exciting
as it ever was.
That’s all for now hockey fans!
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