The Good, The Bad and the Uglies

The Good: 49ers win! 49ers win! 49ers win!

I had to write it 3 times before it looked right, it's been so rare this year.

Shaun Hill, where have you been? Frank Gore, we always knew these games were in you if you got some decent QB play to take some of the defensive heat off you. The Defense...just looking for a little support from the offense, you've been playing your heart out all year.

Yeah it was against the Bungles. Yeah it was a meaningless December game in a lost season in front of an embarrassingly empty stadium.

But it was a win. We'll take it.

The Bad: The Sharks, playing with the kind of passion we've been expecting from them all year, play a mostly great game against their longtime division rival, yet lose and drop out of first place.

For the most part no complaints - although wait for The Uglies - though the results aren't there and that's a discouraging game to drop, particularly when faced with another game tonight on the road against a now fully Niedermayered Anaheim team.

But another great game for Bernier, who is on quite the roll with his physical play, Marleau, despite an unfortunate penalty also played another solid game, and what more can you say about the two rocks of the team - Joe Thornton, as usual the best player on the ice, and Craig Rivet, taking 19 penalty minutes sticking up for his teammates and establishing the physical tone of the Sharks.

Nice game, fun to watch, not too much to complain about, too bad it wasn't a win.

The Uglies - Mike Nolan and Matt Carle, you guys get to share this award.

Nolan - it's easy to pile on Nolan for not having started Shaun Hill sooner. Keep in mind, though, the old saying about the backup being the most popular guy on the team. It's much easier for Hill to come in, no pressure, with the season already lost - and put up numbers against one of the worst D's in the league.

Normally I wouldn't blame Nolan for waiting too long to go to Hill, but in this case I do believe he has some culpability, only because Trent Dilfer was SO awful in pretty much every game he started this year. There were times when I thought to myself 'I know Shaun Hill is probably going to suck, but could he really be any worse than Dilfer? Isn't it worth a shot simply on the logic that no matter how bad he is he couldn't play any worse than the QB play they're getting now??'

So thanks Mike, for waiting until the season had slipped through your fingers to make the QB move that could have made a difference. You don't even get credit for making the move, Dilfer's concussion left you with no choice.

Also, special mention to going for it on 4th and 2 with a chance to put the Niners up by 2 scores with a FG. Instead they failed and the Bungles had a very good chance to tie late in the game. That's just awful game management, through and through, capped by a very perplexing Nolan quote after the game:

"And when we go for it - whether we convert it or not, it's not significant - we typically have won the game."

Okey dokey Mike, I guess that means you should just cut the punter because apparently the team tends to win games in which you go for it on 4th down, whether you make it or not.

Riiiiiight.

Matt Carle - I know he's very young, and could still grow in to the player the team thinks he can be. In fact, he probably will. But right now he is just killing them with tentative play on the ice. Bad turnovers, poor keep-ins at the blue line, and then that horrible horrible unforced penalty yesterday that completely changed the course of the game.

This is a game the Sharks were controlling - they scored the first goal, got the lead back within a minute after a fluky goal tied it, killed a 4 minute penalty with energy to spare after Craig Rivet took 19 minutes in penalties sticking up for the team and taking on Steve Ott...Bernier and Grier were throwing their bodies around, the crowd was going nuts, the ice was tilted the Sharks way.

Until an inexplicably jittery Carle, who had been a healthy scratch during most of the Sharks recent run of great play, threw the puck over the boards for a delay of game penalty.

At that point the momentum turned, the Stars were given new life, and the Sharks never recovered.

Yes you can say one of the top teams in the league should be able to overcome a mistake like that. But keep in mind they were playing another top team. Every play, every penalty was crucial. To have an unforced error like that is inexcusable. For good measure Carle followed up by sending 2 more pucks over the boards later in the game.

Please Ron Wilson, put Carle back in the press box till he straightens himself out! I'd rather see Rob Davison in there...he may be less talented, but at this point in their respective careers he's the more mentally tough player.