Beggars can’t be choosers, can they?  And the Sharks have been begging for points lo these last couple of weeks, so even a shootout victory over the 13th seeded Los Angeles Kings is still an occasion for mild rejoicing.  They sure started well; I think grier and I both thought that the first period was one of the best periods the Sharks have played in the last month or so.  But the Kings came out and scored on the first shift of the 2nd period, and some of that wind left the Sharks’ sails.  The Kings ended up out-shooting the Sharks in that period 12-10, but the Sharks came back again with a very good third period.  Still, they couldn’t get any past Erik Ersberg, who was fantastic.  And in a nice surprise, Nabokov came up big in the shootout, and the still-struggling Cheechoo managed to pot one in the 7th round to give the Sharks the win.

Even with a much-needed win, there’s some things about last night that are still cause for concern.  One, it seems Brad Lukowich is still trying to find his game again, he seemed to be fighting the puck a little bit, and he ended up playing exactly the same number of minutes as Alexei Semenov.  Two, with the close game and limited time for Luko, Murray, and Semenov, as well as the 4th forward line, this means the Sharks best players were leaned on, and leaned on hard.  Vlasic, Boyle, Thornton, Marleau, and Blake all played more than 24 minutes, including overtime.

So the Sharks roll into Anaheim today for an afternoon game to play the Ducks, who are very well rested; they haven’t played since Wednesday at home against Vancouver.  With less than 24 hours since the last game, I’m not having a good feeling about tonight.  I’m hoping the Ducks are a little rusty after their break.  Watch for Eric Christensen, you may remember he was one of the players Pittsburgh traded to Atlanta in the Marian Hossa deal, and the Ducks traded for him at the deadline.  He’s now on the top line in the old Kunitz slot.  The other big difference will be the lack of the Ducks’ shutdown line, which used to be Pahlsson, Moen, and Rob Niedermayer.  I’d have to guess now it’s Nokelainan (another traded deadline pickup), Niedermayer and maybe Todd Marchant.  Certainly not as scary as before.

I think we’re looking at another hard-fought game that will be very close, and I’m guessing overtime again.  The Ducks are even closer to a playoff seed than the Kings were, and they will be even more motivated to earn a point.  Look for the 1-4 or 0-5 if the game is tied, or the Ducks are ahead.