Wrap it up tonight
March 28th, 2008, 1:46 pm
Last night’s game was a thriller at the Tank. The Sharks stood their ground and Dallas imploded in overtime, thanks to Turco’s four minute high sticking penalty. You could see this coming a mile away, as the Sharks were harassing Turco all night, crashing the crease. The crowd was all over Marty and he whined a few times to the refs – he really lost his composure after playing a great game. My gut tells me that last night was a first round playoff preview, #2 San Jose vs. #7 Dallas. The Stars have Phoenix twice, which is no cake walk as we saw on Tuesday, the Ducks, the Kings and us one more time. Last night’s demoralizing loss couldn’t have helped a dressing room that is dealing with a 2-8-0 slide.
Tonight is not a must win, but it sure would be nice. A win tonight and it’s all over – Sharks win the Pacific Division and could stand to rest a few veterans with bumps and bruises in the final games. A loss tonight and the Ducks still have a heartbeat, all-be-it a faint one, to get the #2 seed. This blog will be represented in person tonight at the Pond, for as I’m typing Mike is driving down to Anaheim for tonight’s game. I’m expecting he’ll see the Sharks lay it all on the line while hammering Kunitz every chance they get. I’m thinking there won’t be a blatant retaliation, the Sharks aren’t that type of team, even with Jody Shelley – San Jose can’t afford a five minute major or risk someone getting a suspension. David Pollack of the San Jose Mercury News has hinted that Ron Wilson is going with Brian Boucher tonight. I don’t think that would be a bad move, the Sharks have worked their asses off whenever Boucher has been in net and The Waterboy has looked strong. I think San Jose wins 3-2 tonight. Bring home a “W” Mikey and don’t wear the Matt Carle jersey!!
As for the Next Great Hockeyblogger contest we are entered in, it appears that the public isn’t allowed to vote but you are welcome to post comments to sway the judges. Who the judges are – I don’t know – but it appears that Eklund is one of them. My first entry is a revised version of who I want the Sharks to face in the playoffs. Check it out and thanks for supporting us! The matchups can be found on The Fan Blog.
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Good job by the Sharks last night, although not enough hits on Kunitz for my liking. Shelley, did have a blatant slash to the back of Kunitz’ legs after CuBro’s third goal (you can see it on TSN’s highlights of the game). It wasn’t as bad as the hit on Cheechoo, but it was some form of retaliation.
The win streak has been impressive, but I’m still ambivalent about the playoffs. I may be having a bit of selective memory, but I don’t recall the Sharks really dominating the most recent games. The highly anticipated matchups were won, but it was vs. a slumping Dallas team and an Anaheim team missing some pretty key players. On the other hand, the Sharks are coming up with wins no matter how close the games are and they’ve showed resilience when teams get the lead first. They’ve definitely shown more character and determination. That’s probably more important for this team that’s never lacked for talent in their recent playoff exits, but lacked the heart to carry them through to the Stanley Cup finals.
-b
Funny, but I had a conversation about this with my Ducks fan friend last night. We agreed that the Phoenix game was actually quite pivotal. The Sharks are losing to a last-place team, didn’t really need the win that bad, but still manage to put up 4 3rd-period goals to send it into OT. That’s a sign of an experienced, patient team that doesn’t panic. I’m not too worried about the Sharks not blowing people out. Many of those games the Sharks had an obvious possession and shot advantage.