The Sharks third consecutive ouster in second round of the NHL playoffs despite having a team capable of challenging for the Stanley Cup has led to the firing of head coach Ron Wilson on Monday night. Ron Wilson is the franchise leader in coaching wins (206-134-45), and led the Sharks to an unprecedented period of regular season success over his five seasons with the franchise. This last year, the Sharks set franchise records in wins, consecutive wins, and consecutive points, won the Pacific division for the second time in franchise history, and improved their point total for the third season in a row. Their regular season dominance didn't translate into post-season success, however....

Let's check in with our local teams while the rest of the world is searching for Ronaldo......

Here's todays sports news...

hen we last wrote about the San Jose Sharks, we were wondering where the hell captain Patrick Marleau's game went. It looks like he found it around the trade deadline (more on that below), and has been on a pretty decent stretch since then. As have the Sharks....

Here's todays sports news...

We apologize for the scant hockey writing lately, but this Fishmonger has been stuck in the Bermuda Triangle that lurks in the background of San Jose's logo, on a futile quest to find Patrick Marleau's game. The Sharks captain's season of misery continues apace, and we're halfway through the 2007-2008 season....

There is actually one team in the area that is playing well and that is your San Jose Sharks. For that, we turn to Sharks' correspondant Ian to get the latest...

Our hockey correspondant Ian continues his look at the Sharks season with player reviews....

Our hockey correspondant, Ian, returns to discuss the slow starting Sharks After getting bounced last spring by the Detroit Red Wings for another second round playoff collapse, the refrain from the Sharks brass, coaches, and players during the off- and pre-season has been: consistency and resiliency. With twelve games under their belts in this young season, the San Jose Sharks currently sit atop the decidedly mediocre Pacific division, and unfortunately have shown many of the......

Here's todays sports stories...

Here's todays sports news...

Orange is the new black, apparently. During the off-season, the San Jose Sharks unveiled an updated logo, team colors, and new uniforms. The biggest change is the addition of orange to teal, black, and white, replacing silver as the highlight color. ...

The seaward stretch of Balboa between 37th and 38th Avenues conjures a variety of images, from some of the thickest summer fog around to the Balboa Theater’s weathered sign. The block’s numerous Asian restaurants also merit consideration. Add hockey to the list, sort of. More on that in a bit. Unless you’re an Outer Richmond local and buy your nuts and washers at Crown Hardware on Balboa’s south side, odds are strong that you know this block best for the Balboa Theater, where the scent of butter-slathered popcorn wafts outside day and night. The circa-1926, moving picture house endures as the only one of its kind remaining in this part of town, and it seems to do well showing new releases. One reason for its success may be the fact that, as its sidewalk sandwich board announces, No private picnics (are) allowed in the auditorium. Ask anyone on this side of town what killed the Alexandria or the Coronet in recent years, and they’ll surely tell you: private picnics in the auditorium....

We're going to do this a little differently this time around as we don't know who really cares that much about either team right now. Instead, we're going to point out why you should still care. So here’s our Top 5 Reasons to Still Watch the Giants. ...

Hey Shark fans, it looks like the Stanley Cup is pretty much guaranteed this year as the team made a big announcement that’ll put them over the top: new logos. The problem with the team wasn't a propensity to choke in the playoffs but the shark on the shirt wasn't mean looking enough. What better way to overcome a perception of softness? ...

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

The Sharks begin their Western Conference Semi-finals matchup with the Detroit Red Wings on the road at the Joe Lewis Arena tonight. The Wings played the Calgary Flames in Round 1. The series was tightly played, with the Wings ultimately prevailing over the Flames through their forward depth, better transition game, and (somewhat surprisingly) better team speed as the series went on. Mikka Kiprusoff, the Flames netminder, couldn't hold off the Wings offense forever, and Kipper was the only real hope the Flames had to take the series. ...

The Sharks dispatched the Mustard Men in 5 games, which makes the series seem a lot less close than it was. 3 of the games were decided by one goal, with Game 1 in double overtime. Even Game 2, the Predators 5-2 win, was not decided until late in the 3rd period. Nashville's undisciplined play (they led all playoff teams with almost 30 minutes of penalties per game) was their undoing, even though the Sharks power play was more or less ineffective, and often frankly ugly to watch. But it was one more way to wear down the Nashville defenders, and keep their skill players on the bench. Patrick Marleau again scored some big goals, and Joe Thornton took the first step toward erasing his playoff-choker reputation with dominating play and 6 points in the series. Nashville wasn't the only team to distinguish itself with dirty play in this year's playoffs. The Calgary Flames managed to steal the spotlight by having their backup goalie come in to play lumberjack to the Detroit Red Wings Johan Franzen's, umm, old growth redwood late in Game 5 of their series (Franzen, fittingly, scored the series winner in Game 6). Then the Flames' Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow got in the act late in the game (cross-checking plus slashing and sucker-punching, respectively). Classy. Brad May of the Anaheim Ducks got a 3 game suspension for sucker-punching the back of Minnesota Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson (who is both emphatically not a pugilist, and happened to be Minnesota's best D man), which then caused a multi-player dust-up between the Ducks and Wild during the *pre-game skate* of Game 5 in their series. ...

Sharks 3 Predators 2- SFist did something we haven't done in a long time-- watched a hockey game. Well, the last period at least. For those who've never watched playoff hockey, it's great fun. The sport is already pretty intense with it's speed and occasional bouts of violence and the intensity is turned up several notches during the playoffs. Especially when one is facing elimination. Other than a minute of action, when the Predators scored......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

The Pond's horrible ice and Teemu Selanne's illegal stick helped the Sharks avoid being down a man in overtime against the Ducks last night. Selanne was called for unsportsmanlike conduct at the beginning of overtime, negating a Craig Rivet penalty that was carrying over from the end of regulation, and San Jose went on to win the shootout for a 3-2 victory. The Sharks came back to even the score after being down by 2 goals in the first period, and both teams helped their playoff positioning against the Dallas Stars. ...

To paraphrase an old joke about hockey, we went to a Town Hall meeting last night and a protest broke out. Case in point, the above photo of an attendee making a calm and rational point about the meeting by first shouting at Gavin and then approaching him while Gavin filibustered. We'll let SFist Elaine describe the scene. If you want more eyewitness accounts, Fog City has a recap as well as official Editor in Emeritus, Jackson West. ABC 7 has a video of the scene ...

It's near the end of March Madness, which means casual sports fans across the North America, and in the Bay Area in particular, start caring about the National Hockey League. Well, maybe "caring" is too strong a word. Noticing? Glancing at the hockey scores and standings when they're done with the stories about minor NFL signings, and baseball spring training notes and box scores? Remembering that the NHL exists? The Stanley Cup playoffs are right around the corner, and they're what most of the non-die hard hockey fans really care about. The NHL regular season is mostly ignored by the sports-viewing public, a situation made worse by the fact that the NHL is no longer on ESPN (or rather, ESPN2 when they didn't have more important things to broadcast, like meaty, red-faced dudes named Magnus pushing Peugeot’s around a beach somewhere), but rather the Food Network. ...

Here's today's wrap up of sports news...

-Warriors road woes continue as they get rolled by the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-101. Are the nails being placed in the coffin? Tim Kawakami moves past the standard "will the Warriors make the playoffs" story to give the eulogy for another Warriors season that bites the dust. ...

This morning, ESPN's Len Pasquarelli is reporting that "sources" say that the 49ers' prized offensive coordinator Norv Turner will be the new coach of the San Diego Chargers, to which we say noooooo....

The Warriors' forward/Vice President Of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin is among the finalists for the NBA Hall Of Fame this year. Savor it, Warrior fans......

-The Warriors 2.0 won their first game of the season, beating the Nets on a last minute shot by Monta Ellis. They were actually down by about eleven with a little over four minutes to go and rallied to win. Nicely done. Was it the biggest win of the year?...

You heard it hear first-- it'll be an old school, Colts/Bears Superbowl -The analysis of Mully's big trade is still going on but the new guys are ready to roll. We have to say one thing for this trade-- it's one of the few times the Warriors have ever made all the ESPN gabfests....

-Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo will start in the NHL All Star game. -The Giants already start working on their tribute to the 2002 Giants by signing Russ Ortiz. Hey, what's Shawn Estes doing these days? ...