The San Jose Sharks mascot S.J. Sharkie had one of his wildest dreams come true Sunday February 19^th.

Sharkie will be on the second annual Hall of Game awards airing tonight February 20^th on Cartoon Network. What is making this night so special for Sharkie is that he won the Most Awesome Mascot award.

Sharkie’s response showed good sportsmanship and pride in what he represents with his organization. “To be selected as one of the four best was amazing, and to win was the icing on the cake. I couldn’t have done it without all you who voted for me.”

S.J. was also the first mascot from a hockey organization ever to be selected in this category.

Sharkie beat out the Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL) mascot Jaxson, the Sacramento Kings (NBA) Slamson and the Cleveland Indians (MLB) Slider.

Sharkie enjoys the game of hockey, but he also loves to help put a smile on a person’s face and he stays involved in his community.

He’s attended birthday parties, charity skates, meet and greets, prize deliveries, the Reading is Cool school read in and many other events.

So congratulations to Sharkie and the San Jose Sharks organization for this award. Now Sharkie hopes for his other dream to come true as the regular season is coming closer to an end and the Sharks look to win their first ever Stanley Cup.

It isn’t hard to see that who rules the pacific in the National Hockey League.

The San Jose Sharks have 31 wins, 68 points and are three points ahead of division rival Los Angeles Kings who have 27 wins and are three games deeper into the season.

The bigger question is who is more effective for the Sharks so far?

Couture has played all 54 games this season plus the 2012 NHL All-Star Game. For San Jose he has put in the most goals (23,) and is second in points with 46. He has won 51 percent of his face-offs, is in the top three in shots taken (167) and has the highest shooting percentage with 13.8 percent.

The fact that Couture takes that many shots shows that he loves to keep hammering away at goalies. This is beneficial because shots can be stressful and tiring for a goalie to keep up with throughout a game. Former ECHL goaltender Tim Picco explained, “more shots are more work for any goaltender. The greater the amount of shots you face in a game tests your mental and physical capacity.”

Picco also explained that if the goalie is becoming emotional, frustrated, is lacking confidence or is losing energy from shots taken that it can lead to higher scoring game. Couture has done more though than pepper his opponents with shots. He has been very beneficial to San Jose on the special teams lines.

In 54 games this season Couture only has 10 penalty minutes, in which he can be blamed for putting his team out for an unsuccessful penalty-kill. San Jose is ranked 26^th in the penalty-kill and is only three percent ahead of last place in this category. So this is a situation that the Sharks want to avoid getting into more than most. Not only is Couture one of the players least responsible for putting his team in a killing situation but he also leads the team in shorthanded goals (2.)

Now on the opposite end San Jose is fourth on the power play and not far out of first. One of the Sharks most effective players in this category is Couture. He has five goals and 16 points on the power play this season making him very effective in big game situations for the Sharks.

Couture is in his third career season and is proving to be the Sharks most effective forward for San Jose as of right now. He had two assists in the Sharks last game against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in a 5-3 victory. Couture and the San Jose Sharks will be in Tampa Bay to face the Lightning Thursday, February 16^th.

The San Jose Sharks are on a two-game losing streak and have only won four of their last 10, but they are still looking better than Chicago.

The Blackhawks have won only three of their last 10 including a six game winless streak. What looks even tastier to the blood hungry Sharks is the Blackhawks most recent road record.

The Blackhawks have lost all eight-road games since December 20^th, 2011 when they lost to the injured Pittsburgh Penguins.

While the Blackhawks are struggling to keep the puck out of their own net, San Jose has a few Sharks that are having no problem putting them in.

Sharks center Logan Couture has taken advantage of every bite come his away. He has seven points in his last five games including a two-game goal streak that he looks to continue.

Fellow Shark right-winger Joe Pavelski has three goals and five points in his last four games.

Then there is team captain Joe Thornton. Since January strong defense and low scoring has been key to San Jose’s success, but Thornton’s three goals, five assists and eight points in his last five games have also taken a large bite of satisfaction out of their opponents.

Thornton who is scoreless against Chicago this season will be looking to prove that his current four-game point streak is no fluke. He has one assist against the Blackhawks this season in a 3-4 loss in Chicago.

The Sharks have lost to the Blackhawks two out of three games but have all been close one-goal endings. With Chicago on a steep downward spiral and San Jose’s offense stepping up their game San Jose is looking to snap their two-game losing streak.

Though it was not your typical Irish goodbye Owen Nolan’s speech was short but sweet.

After 18 seasons in the NHL Nolan announced that he is officially retiring. It is something that many fans knew was soon coming, but many were not looking forward to. This couldn’t be truer than to those in San Jose, California.

In the 1995 season the Northern Ireland born Nolan found a new place to call home. In 568 games he scored 206 goals and 451 points with San Jose. Nolan upped the level of two-way hockey in San Jose. His ability to score, pass, and hit raised the bar for hockey in the 90s. Then in 1998 he became the captain.

Before Nolan the Sharks had talented players such as goaltender Ed Belfour and forward Igor Larionov but there was still something missing.

Nolan brought chemistry and the right leadership to help San Jose play to their full potential. Nolan was one of the best players in Sharks history. They way he changed how the Sharks played raised the talent bar for this franchise and brought them more successful seasons.

After Nolan arrived bigger name players would jump at the chance to play for a young winning organization like the Sharks. Ever since Nolan came to San Jose the Sharks have missed the playoffs once in 2002. San Jose has made the playoffs 13 out of the last 14 seasons. Before Nolan the Sharks reached the post-season two out of six times.

“To play with the heart and passion he had people didn’t want to cross him, but he also had the talent to win games for you and score all the goals that he did,” said Sharks GM Doug Wilson.

Nolan is tied for 100^th in the NHL’s all-time point list with former teammate Peter Forsberg. Nolan had 885 career points in 1,200 games, and more than half of those points came in San Jose.

He played longer with San Jose than any other team in his career. It is where he chose to settle down and watch his family grow.

His impact in the National Hockey League was not seen by too many in his position. Nolan was an aggressive power forward who also had class and respect for those around him.

Nolan scored 422 goals, was a five-time all star, won an olympic gold medal and was so tough that “players would skate to the bench when Nolan was on the ice” as Wilson mentioned.

Trying to hold back sad emotions and go on with his speech Nolan showed what being an athlete is truly about.

“To all the fans, without you guys there are no sports and I thank you for that. To my teammates you guys are one of the main reason why this game is so much fun.”

Playing for the fans, the fun, and love of the game is something Nolan didn’t forget. He was an outstanding player, but he also had respect and showed it for those in the stands or who may be at home watching him play.

This is someone fans can expect to see in the Hall of Fame soon enough.

Couture was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after this season. He is in the final year of a three year entry-level deal with a cap hit of $1,241,667. His original deal was for three years and $2.45M with a performance bonus of $425K per season, signed before the 2009-10 season.

Couture played 25 games in the NHL during the 2009-10 season while moving back and forth between San Jose and Worcester. He scored five goals and had four assists, serving mostly as a bottom six forward. He played in all 15 playoff games as well, scoring four goals. The 25 games played during the regular season preserved his rookie eligibility for the 2010-11 season, and he had a season that even the most optimistic Sharks fans couldn’t have seen coming. He (inexplicably) finished second in the Calder Trophy voting to Carolina’s Jeff Skinner. In 79 games, he had 32 goals and 24 assists with a plus-22 rating. His eight game-winning goals was among the league leaders. He had seven goals and seven assists in 18 playoff games as well. Couture got a lot of important minutes while playing in all three situations.

Re-signing Couture before the season started was very important, as he was scheduled to be a restricted free agent. The Sharks had some cap room to work with, and Couture is one of their most important players. A reasonable guess would be $6M over two years ($3M cap hit). As good as he is, this will be his first non-entry level contract.

When the NHL schedule first came out, it was safe to assume that the Sharks would be on NBC once. They have a game on February 19th (a Sunday) at 12:30pm eastern at Detroit. That day happens to be Hockey Day in America. Like Game 2 of the playoffs this past season, the game in Detroit will start at 9:30am in San Jose. Sharks fans are obviously not happy about this, but this is clearly a move to cater the Red Wings fans, which is not surprising considering it’s NBC. This game may be picked up by TSN2 in Canada.

The Sharks are on Versus (soon to be the NBC Sports Network) five times, and all of them are road games. The Sharks play the Rangers in NYC on Halloween. On December 13th, the Sharks go to Colorado to face the rebuilding Avalanche. The Canucks host the Sharks on January 2nd in a “rematch” of the Western Conference Finals from a year ago. Brent Burns and Martin Havlat will face their former team on January 10th in Minnesota. And on February 13th, two teams known as chokers to the media face off in the nation’s capital as the Sharks face the Capitals. Versus tends to add games towards the end of the season, so the Sharks may have a few more nationally televised games.

Finally, the Sharks have three games on the NHL Network in the United States. All three are against teams that are expected to be near the top of the standings in the Western Conference. The Sharks face the Red Wings in Detroit on October 28th. The Sharks face the Canucks on January 21st in Vancouver, the site of their season-ending loss in May. Finally, the Kings come to the Shark Tank on April 7th in a game that could very well decide the Pacific Division.

In Canada, the Sharks are on TSN six times, all against Canadian teams. Excluding the game against Vancouver, all of their Versus games are on TSN2 in Canada. They are on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada twice, and both games are in San Jose.

San Jose is not a big hockey market, so it isn’t surprising to see that they only have nine nationally televised games in the United States. Still, for a team that is expected to contend for the Stanley Cup, only nine appearances is disappointing.

The Sharks acquired White and defenseman Daniel Rahimi from the Canucks for defensemen Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich. White was going into his junior season at the University of Minnesota. In his final two seasons with the Golden Gophers, he had 14 goals and 13 assists in 66 games.

Since White was taken with the 25th overall pick (in 2007), the Sharks get the 25th pick of the second round as compensation. The pick is not affected by how the Canucks do this season. The Sharks now have their first round pick and two second round picks in next year’s draft, which is supposed to be a deep draft. They acquired their other second round pick in the Brent Burns trade. They traded their original second round pick for Ian White in February.

According to an interview with the Duluth News Tribune (Stalock is from Minnesota and played his college hockey at Minnesota-Duluth), he’s been told that he won’t be able to start on-ice training until next February, a year since he suffered his nerve injury. And that’s only training that he could start.

The best-case scenario is that he plays about 15 games for Worcester this season. Next season, he’ll play full-time in the AHL once Antero Niittymaki’s contract is up. Thomas Greiss, who signed a two-year contract last month, would then go to the NHL to back up Antti Niemi. Greiss is projected to start for Worcester this season until Stalock is ready to get back between the pipes. But with Niittymaki’s very shaky injury history, Greiss may be forced into NHL backup duty.

The Sharks have a very good group of goaltending prospects in a rather weak farm system. Stalock was probably the best of the bunch, and this really hurts not only his development, but the Sharks’ goaltending depth as well. Had Stalock stayed healthy, the Sharks probably wouldn’t have re-signed Greiss.

Their actual salary cap for the Sharks is about $63.75M because of bonus overages, according to David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News. According to Pollak, the Sharks paid approximately $545K in bonuses to Logan Couture and Jamie McGinn. The Sharks were already pinned against the salary cap to end last season, and the bonuses pushed them over.

According to CapGeek, the Sharks have $3.98M left in cap space this season. The roster includes 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders. The Sharks may still make another move, but that’s for another post.

Pelech spent the past four seasons with the Flames organization. They took him 26th overall in the 2005 draft, ahead of defensemen like Kris Letang and Keith Yandle. He is a stay at home defenseman that has no offensive ability and is willing to fight. In 59 games last season with Abbotsford of the AHL, he had three goals, two assists, 198 penalty minutes and a minus-9 rating. He also fought 17 times.

Pelech played five NHL games in 2008-09. He had three assists and nine penalty minutes, but he has not played in the NHL since then. He’s still very young (he’ll be 24 in September).

He’ll most likely start the season in the AHL, but if a few injuries strike. he’ll be one of the first players called up.