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....

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, 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......

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. ...

Here's todays wrap up of the sports news...

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 todays sports wrap up...

-The Sharkies lost to the Dallas Stars, 4-3. It's the second consecutive loss against the Stars this week and who does the NHL scheduling anyways? It's also the Sharks third consecutive home loss. Their main culprit? Lousy power plays. So, does all this mean the Sharks need to bring in some more veteran guys? ...

So imagine you have a job. And imagine you're really good at your job. You know it, your coworkers know it, and your bosses know it. Now imagine that there's a management position that opens up which would be a great promotion for you. So you apply for it. You think you would be great at the job, your coworkers think you would be great at the job and your friends think you would be great at the job. Now imagine that instead of you getting the job, the head of the company give it to some snot nosed punk straight out of school with no experience. Welcome to Rob Ryan's world...

So the Raiders hired somebody, baby-faced Lane Kiffin, a 31-year old coach with no head coaching experience. Nice. When we were 31, we could barely hold down a job, let alone coach a professional football team. Football Chris will give the analysis in a bit, but we heard Al was so into the idea of hiring somebody young that he posted a job listing in the local college paper. Have fun, Raiders fans. -The new......

Last night, we went to last night's Warriors/Cavs game, a game the Warriors lost in overtime. Now, we'll let Basketball Chris do the analysis and post-game wrap up, but we wanted to make an observation of our own. Mainly, that we went to see Lebron and we were disappointed. But not surprised. ...

-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? ...

-The Rai-duhs are going to take their time looking for a new coach which is code for "find somebody desperate enough to take the job." The Betting Fool wallows in the Raiders' misery. ...

We can't say this was one of the worst years in Bay Area sports but it has to be up there. One only has to look at the early part of this decade to see how far we've fallen. The A's and Giants were both perennial contenders and the Raiders were playoff bound. Only the 49ers and Warriors were woeful but well, beggars can't be choosers. We did get one Super Bowl appearance and one World Series out of our teams. ...

-We pick up today's "Morning After" column looking at the aftermath of the 49ers loss to the Cardinals on Sunday. The game knocked the 49ers out of the playoff hunt, probably as it should be as the game proved the Niners just aren't ready for playoff time yet (Niners Nation calls them the "Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda 49ers"). The loss has the team looking at next year even if there's still one game left in the season....

If you’re hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs “so are you nakie” to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

-Gavin's staff and political team sure thinks he's running. -Al goes to Berkeley to campaign for proposition 87, the tax the gas prop. ...

We sort of knew this was going to happen, but here it is: after officially jumping on the Sharks bandwagon last week, they have now lost three in a row to the Edmonton Oilers, a losing streak that started after the Sharks lost an epic, three OT Game 3. We would take some responsibility for causing the Bad Mojo, but after last night's game, Sharks fans only have themselves to blame for any sort of Bad Mojo, something that will happen when fans of a team boo another country's national anthem. ...

We're going to talk about something we rarely talk about-- hockey. Why? Because the San Jose Sharks are now up 2-0 against the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs, after winning last night 2-1. The Sharks, who have won six playoff games in a row, won on a game winning goal by MVP candidate Joe Thorton (check out the great video of it from a fan in the stands). Then there's how they did it, winning last night's game despite, incredibly, being down two players in a 5-3 matchup, only to have two of those players lose their sticks, and still-- somehow, inexplicably-- kept the Oilers from scoring for over a minute. That's studly. Even better is the fact that in describing the whole thing, Sharks coach Brian Wilson referenced the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. How can you not give some props to a Monty Python quoting coach? ...