DOH 336 – Catharsis
May 14th, 2016, 8:57 pm
The Sharks, after a disappointing effort in Game 6, roar back at home to win Game 7 in a dominating fashion. The Dudes recap, and look forward to the Blues series.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
“They have a real shot. And this is the first time in the history of the franchise where I think that’s true. They’ve been big underdogs.” Not true at all. In ’04, SJ won the Pacific and were favored over the Flames. In ’10 SJ finished 1st in the conference and had home ice vs the Hawks. In ’11 they won their 4th straight Pacific division title. Always a great regular season, good 1st 2 rounds, then a poor WCF where they are 3-12. They were never “big underdogs.” This is an important point because it’s the origin of the “chokers” label on the Sharks. This Blues series is the ultimate opportunity for the Sharks to show this team is different.
I always thought it was their playoff performances between 2005-2008 (loss to Edmonton in 2nd round, loss to Red Wings in 2nd round, loss to Dallas in 2nd round, loss to Anaheim 1st round) that really created the “choker” label.
Calgary beat the #1, #2, and #3 seeds in 2004. My recollection was not being particularly disappointed after the sweep to Chicago in 2010 (other than it being a sweep) as they were clearly the best team in the league that year, and the Sharks were the #2 seed playing the #1 seed against Vancouver (also clearly the best team, and lost G3 on a terrible icing call, lost G4 when the Canucks scored 3 5v3 goals, and lost G5 on the “stanchion” goal in double OT). I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been nice to win one of those, but this is the first year since perhaps 2004 where I would say I feel good about the team’s chances.
Still, would be nice to get going in a WCF, though funny how us fans are starting to get greedy
All those losses definitely contributed to the choker label. My point was, the Sharks were never “big underdogs” and this is not the first time “in the history of the franchise” the Sharks have had a chance to go to the Cup. That’s absurd.
Elliott huge advantage over Jones.
Game 1 just ended. My first takeaway was, My God Ken Hitchcock’s brand of hockey is so boring. My second takeaway was, that’s Jones’ 3rd softie by my count, and a game winner at that.
Seriously, another non-goal? This has become absolutely ridiculous.
Blues played bad in Game 1 and still won. I like St. Louis to win the series, but lose to the ECF winner.
Any of the remaining teams can win it all, including the Sharks!
All eyes are on Jones now.
Dudes. I hate the show. I want my comment on the air. j/k I listen to all of them (that’s just what your host voice asks at the end of episodes, in case you’d forgotten).
I too am super excited about a WCF appearance. However, you two spent most of the episode talking about the Stanley Cup and forgetting that this WCF is going to be a heated cage match. The Blues are a worthy opponent and Elliot will be hard to beat. Historically, the Sharks have run into “hot” goalies and are doomed by lack of scoring. With the benefit of hindsight, that is what partially happened in game 1. If the power play doesn’t come through, it will be hard to win this series.
Question for you Dudes – Should Marleau stay at 2nd line wing or 3rd line center?
Can you get Doug’s daughter to yell “Beat the Blues!”?
Agree completely. And tonight’s game 2 is a must win. You’re not going to beat Elliott and the Blues 4 out of 5.
Honestly, I’m trying to hard to stay positive. This just feels way too much like 2011 all over again. It wasn’t clear until after the fact how much better Vancouver was than us, at least to me. And I remember all the talk after losing game one in a similar fashion. “oh it’s only one game!”
And even the way we got beat in game one … a one goal game, their goalie out dueled ours…. and we just seemed less urgent and more tired.
I know this team has been different but the one thing I think seems the same was taking too many games, yet again, to defeat an inferior 2nd round opponent. In 2011 the Wings should have been done in 5 or 6, but it went 7. And I’m not going to let this go – we won that last series vs Nashville in 5 games. No game 6, no game 7… extra rest and I think SJ wins that game one of the WFC and NOT STL.
I dunno, I know STL has played two 7 game series but I just see too many parallels.
The Blues pair of game 7’s is less important than the extra 48 hours of rest they got prior to game 1. The Sharks played a day later and had a travel day. SJ would have been wise to win in 6 and rest up.
The Sharks dominated Game 2. That was so impressive. P.S. Milbury should be immediately fired.
Interesting article about sleep and travel for NHL games. Made me think about the Sharks playoffs this year. They won all the road games in LA, which is in their own time zone. Then they dropped all the road games in Nashville, 2 time zones away. They played well in Game 4 against Nashville and against the Blues, when they had adjusted to the time. Of course, just one possible theory.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/15512685/nhl-2016-stanley-cup-playoffs-boston-bruins-vancouver-canucks-learned-key-winning-stanley-cup-finals-simple-prioritizing-pregame-naps
The Sharks in the Conference Finals! I’m cup crazy! Ahhhh! Go Sharks!!!!
Cracks me up every time I hear the local media rally fans to buy tix. They should be urging the Sharks to lower prices. Absolute cheapest seat left for Game 4 is $165. Way too high.
There’s a long way to go in this series still. Even though the Sharks have thoroughly outplayed the Blues, a win on Saturday evens the series. Meanwhile, we should be rooting for the Bolts to pull off a miracle tonight. Otherwise the Pens could finish that series Sunday.