The first game of any season is bound to have problems as players get used to everyone else and the pace of play picks up considerably from the exhibition season. But negatives outweighed positives in tonight's shellacking of the Sharks courtesy of the Detroit Red Wings.

Yes, the Sharks were short-handed. Thornton's out with a shoulder injury. Nabokov and Stuart are holding out for more money. But tonight's effort was, well, what effort? Right off the bat, the Sharks got 4 straight power plays, including a 5 on 3. What was the score? Detroit 2, San Jose 1 courtesy of Kirk Maltby's two shorthanded goals. Every positive action by the Sharks was countered by an equal or greater reaction by the Red Wings. With Friends and CSI on, the remote was working hard. Every switch of the channels seemingly led to another goal. Positively, they did turn in a much better effort in the 3rd period by scoring a goal in the first minute and keeping up the pressure on Detroit goalie Curtis Joseph. San Jose backup goalie Vesa Toskala made some good saves, including a great sequence in the last minute, giving hope to the masses that the Sharks just needed some time to gel. Hopefully, this will be proven true in the next game.

In summary, Sharks starter Kiprusoff is a solid goalie, but this performance tonight proves he's not No. 1 just yet. The top line of Harvey, Damphousse, and Nolan did their job by scoring goals but Sturm, Marleau, and Selanne was DOA. Luckily, there are 81 more games to go, Thornton should be back in a couple of weeks and the holdouts should be back soon. Final score: Detroit 6, San Jose 3.