The Tank was, as I predicted, decidedly quieter than game 7, but that’s to be expected.  And it didn’t help that we played the Stars, a teams who plays a smothering 1-4 scheme that produces about a thousand neutral ice turnovers.  Dallas got two shots in the first, and one was a 85-footer by Steve Ott with 2 seconds left.  Not exactly a offensive fireworks show.

Good news is, even after the Sharks fell behind, they did not panic, and kept the pressure up.  I get extraordinarily frustrated and annoyed when the Sharks play prevent defense; I can only imagine how Stars fans felt in the 3rd.  Dallas didn’t even try to get any offense going- they just clamped down and chipped pucks out until the Sharks finally scored.  They registered a shot at 1:55, 9:13, and 16:18.  Not a lot of offense.  And the Sharks just wore them out.  I felt at that time it was more or less inevitable the Sharks would score, and they did.  I knew that OT was a crapshoot, and the Sharks just came up short.

Is is just me, or did Nabby not look good?  I thought the first goal was sort of weak- a shot from the point along the ice, and it’s the goalie’s job to cover the bottom of the net.  The puck didn’t sneak in by the post- it just went in.  The fact that he gave up 2 goals on seven shots is a tad misleading, but Nabby needs to make those saves the way Turco did in the first.

Game 2 will be another battle, but I’m not nearly as scared as I was against Calgary, which had an obvious matchup advantage in certain areas.  Maybe that’s why Dallas is so dangerous- they lull you to sleep and then take a picture of themselves teabagging you with a Sharpie-drawn mustache.

I look forward to doing that tonight.  And it better not be that saxophone player, although he’s good.  I’d much rather have the cracking tenor opera singer we had last round, so we can laugh and boo at the same time.

I’m hoping the Sharks can do a little role reversal against the Stars, playing a bit more of Calgary’s style since the Stars’ D are so banged up.  Somehow, it has to be done without the dump and chase.  Turco is a little bastard wizard out there when the puck comes his way.  If anything, a soft dump to the goal line, and start the grind in the corners.

I’m not too worried about the PK coming back- Dallas doesn’t have the same type of PP.  I am a little worried about the games being mind-crushingly dull though- Dallas has a way of slowing everything down.  Even though it’s the playoffs, I have a feeling after the pumped up game 7 we witnessed, we might get a fairly subdued crowd tonight.  But it’s Friday night at least.  Drink 8 beers and get rowdy.  See y’all there.

Good to see Mikey admitted that I got more right than him. How could you pick the Devils after what Sweet Lou did to them in the offseason? They are one more bad offseason away from being the Sabres – replacing Gomez and Rafalski with Zubrus and Vishnevski don’t cut it.

PITTSBURGH vs. RANGERS
Should be fun to watch and it will be a true test to see if the Penguins young players are ready to battle with the big boys, who are battle tested and have been on long cup runs before. Will Avery be able to get under the Pens skin like he did with the Devils? I would love to see a Pittsburgh/Sharks Stanley Cup finals, but I still think the Penguins are one year away from making major noise and might take their lumps from the Rangers in this series. RANGERS IN SIX.

MONTREAL vs. PHILLY
Were the Habs exposed in Round One or was Boston underestimated? I think it is the former and with the Flyers being on a roll, this is not a good match up for the Habs. Philly is more physical and has a good mix of vets and young players firing all at once – if Montreal comes out slow, they won’t be able to recover against the Flyers. Biron hasn’t been the liability people predicted and Price might not be ready for this much primetime this fast. FLYERS IN SIX.

DETROIT vs. COLORADO
It’s like a time warp and the bad blood surely hasn’t been forgotten. Colorado is physical enough to make this really difficult on the Wings and some have called Theodore’s performance in Round One the best in the playoffs thus far with a .940 save percentage and a 1.88 GAA – but now he has to face a team with a real offense, not a team that is really offensive (The Wild shouldn’t be allowed to make the playoffs in the future – I can’t bear to watch them stink up the joint again. What a terrible #3 seed). The Wings will be battered and bruised, but they should make the Conf. Finals. WINGS IN SEVEN.

SAN JOSE vs. DALLAS
If bad blood is the theme of the Western Conf. playoffs, then look no further than the final game of the season when the Stars and Sharks engaged in a old fashioned Battle Royale. I agree that the Sharks will have more room to operate and I’m not buying that Dallas is the potent offensive force some experts are making them out to be. I would like to think that Round One got the Sharks attention, and we know they will have mental lapses during the series – but my gut says this won’t last as long as Round One and the Sharks will solve early and get in his head. Dallas will win Game Three and that’s it. SHARKS IN FIVE.

Round Two – Are You Ready?

Time for some reckoning. First round over, 2nd round begins tonight, so it’s time for a report card on our picks, and predictions for the next round.

The way I’m going to score this is one point for each game off. For instance, I picked Devils in 5, easily my worst pick, and that’s 5 games away from the actual result(Devils in 6, Devils in 7, Rangers in 7, Rangers in 6, Rangers in 5), so I get 5 points.

Here’s my post, and here’s grier’s. I scored 16 games off, and grier scored 12. I really screwed the pooch on that Devils-Rangers series, which grier picked perfectly. But I did pick both upsets, and got the Sharks’ series perfect. Here I go for round 2:

Pittsburgh-New York Rangers: Pittsburgh is on a roll, but so are the Rangers. The fact that the Pens can almost score at will will carry the series, but the Pens’ relatively weak blueline and young goalie will make this awesome to watch. Pens in six.

Montreal-Philadelphia: Montreal almost choked on a major… well, you get the idea. If they can keep their head out, they should roll the way they rolled against Boston in the first four. Philly is playing a very balanced game, but I don’t think they have enough firepower to keep up. Habs in six.

Detroit-Colorado: With Theodore playing all-world right now, the Avs are a very scary opponent. And that’s precisely the unknown quantity with the ever-talented Wings. I think Osgood, despite being labeled a backup most of his career, has starter skills, and will surprise people in this series. I’ll go a little out on a limb and say Wings in five.

Dallas-San Jose: The Sharks got past an opponent that pretty much had kryptonite for every aspect of the Sharks’ game, and they still got through it. If Zubov comes back, this series gets even tougher, but the Jumbo-Robidas/Daley matchup is less scary than Jumbo-Regehr/Sarich. Sharks in six.

Update:  For those that didn’t hear me on the Teal Spiel last Sunday, the mp3 is now available.  Give it a listen if you are so inclined.

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People were jumping left and right off the Sharks playoff gravy train on Monday. “Michaek is no good”, “JR is old and can’t contribute”, “Thornton isn’t a big game player”, “Nabby isn’t playing like a Veizena nominee”, “Sharks have no heart”….blah, blah, blah. To these people, I want to say.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong and Really Wrong.

This team has answered the bell. Sure, Calgary was a seven seed, but they aren’t your ordinary seven seed. The Flames have an all world goalie and two superstars that no one seems to be able to contain. It was a supreme challenge, an amazing series – and the Sharks won the big game that has been their achilles for the last four years.

What does all this mean? This is the year.

Yes. This is the year the Sharks will go all the way and us fans here in San Jose will witness a Stanley Cup Final at the Tank. Will they sweep the Stars? No, they will stumble, they will make bad plays, they will probably lay a giant turd at some point like they did in Calgary during Game Six – but in the end, the Sharks are better and a date with Detroit is a fitting obstacle before getting their shot at the Big Prize.

I’ll give my thoughts on the series in more detail tomorrow. For now, let’s enjoy the moment.

The Sharks played in game 6 like they didn’t really want to win that bad, and they did a full 180 degree turn tonight.  The first few shifts were well-contested, but slowly, inexorably, it became clear the Sharks expected to win, and were willing to do what it took to win.  JR had four points, and provided all the emotion that the team was lacking on Sunday.  I don’t buy that crap that Ron Wilson sat JR because he was tired.  I hope Wilson doesn’t make that mistake again.  JR is incalcuably more valuable than Jody Shelley, although I do like Shelley very much.

The two obvious areas that the Sharks improved on were faceoffs and special teams, but I don’t think I’ll tackle that discussion just yet.  It’s time to pop a brew and enjoy it.

Cheers.

First of all – Kudos to Mike for a great showing on Teal Spiel tonight. It was awesome and nice to get a few shout outs for the blog from some callers. Thanks guys.

Listening to Chetan on the show and preparing myself to face the sea of Sharks fans tomorrow at work who are ready to throw themselves overboard makes me wonder what people’s expectations were of this series. We have been saying it from day one, this was the toughest possible match-up for the Sharks. The team I didn’t want them to face – yet here they are. Some guys haven’t played great (Michalek, Cheech, Grier, JR), some of the other players (Seto, Pavs, Vlasic,Clowe) have really stepped up – but in the end the reality is this series is all knotted up at 3-3. So my question is – why is everyone acting like the season is over? Talking about firing Ron Wilson, not resigning Brian Campbell – I admit, I had my doubts after the disappointing Game Three loss earlier in the series, when the Sharks blew a huge lead and appeared to be headed for an epic meltdown…but the boys responded. They have responded every time when faced with a challenge this series.

1) Lost Game One – The Sharks won Game Two in convincing fashion.
2) Total Meltdown in Game Three – Sharks showed guts and heart by coming back and stunning the Flames in Game Four.
3) Pivotal Game Five victory at home when the series was reset to a best of three.

While I agree, if the Sharks do lose on Tuesday night – changes are in store for San Jose – this season IS NOT OVER. Not yet. The “Stars” have alligend, no pun intended, for the Sharks to advance from this difficult series and battle with Dallas, a much better draw than ‘Da Ducks, who got their just desserts with an early exit. Peace out Selanne and Scotty N – too bad you wasted all that “retirement” time. The winner of the Avs/Wings is going to be so beat up – the Sharks have as good a path to the Cup as you could hope for at this stage. A win on Tuesday could mean the world. Let’s be positive – Let’s will them to victory.

On a side note, hearing Sharks Hockeybuzz columnist Danielle Marchell interviewed left me perplexed. She suggested that Michalek should be scratched? This isn’t the time to send a message. Who do you dress? Plihal? Goc? Why not throw in Frankenstein again. BRAINS!!! As for our entry in The Great Hockeyblogger on Hockeybuzz, the contest appears to have no end in sight…we are still waiting for our first blog to be published, by the way.

As for the scratching of JR tonight, I agree with Mike – this was a coaching decision and not an injury – and, in the end, it could end up being brilliant. JR must have been fuming – and he is a lock in my mind to play on Tuesday. A pissed off JR with a bruised ego and the best chance to win a Cup in his sights could be the Ultimate JR to have on the ice. Look for him to score a big goal and be involved all night. Come on big boy, bring home a win.

Sharks 3 Flames 2 (in OT)

Now that Colorado has won, the rest of the Western Conference first round could end tonight if the Sharks, Stars, and Wings all win.  Let’s hope the former happens.  I love game sevens.  But in round one, when the Sharks ‘should’ win, I don’t like to entertain the thought that they may not get out of it.  Stanley Cup Final?  A game seven would be awesome.  And don’t forget the game is on a bit earlier tonight- 5pm PDT.

After the game, be sure to tune into the Teal Spiel on 1220AM.  I will be guest hosting, and we will be talking to callers all night.  Or if you go their website, you can stream it over the internets.   And if you miss it, just go to the first link a day or so after and get it as a podcast (fancy term for mp3).  If there’s a game 7, we’ll talk about that, and if all the teams above win, we’ll be talking about the upcoming series with Dallas.

For the third game in a row, the team that scored first lost. But like game 4, the Sharks’ steady pressure seemed to cause cracks in Calgary’s facade. And now, most of the Sharks’ best players are playing very well. Michalek would be the exception, but he did seem to a make a strong move or two last night that neither grier nor I had seen in a while. Nothing really panned out, but at least he’s starting to realize that 12 five-foot passes isn’t going to work.

In a series that’s been as tough and hard-fought as this one, there were a hell of a lot of pretty goals last night. Pav’s goal was just good positioning, but Marleau’s goal and Cheech’s first were of real highlight-reel quality. Both were lasers to the top corner, over the glove. And Cheech’s was on a 2-on-1, a recipient of a beautiful pass. You might say those Sharks had frickin’ laser beams on their sticks (sorry, couldn’t resist). The third was Calgary’s tic-tac-toe PP goal to make it 4-2. You just had to shake your head at that one. It was only about a 5 milliseconds into the Flames’ power play.

If Sharks fans are thinking the Sharks are in the driver’s seat, they’re right. But if they’re thinking San Jose just needs to keep the pressure up, and watch Calgary fold, they ain’t. This team demands respect- they do not quit, ever. Sure, they have their breakdowns and lapses like any team, but as last night’s bowel-clenching comeback indicates (thanks, El Burro!), they never stop. They will fight to the last whistle. And oftentimes past it.

McLaren only played 5:15 last night, Carle only 7:53, and Shelley only 1:35. The McLaren thing I guess makes sense; he’s obviously hurt. Maybe Carle’s on RW’s bad side again, but he’s been playing well. But Shelley only two shifts all game? It’s a waste of a roster spot. Unless Shelley is throwing out some Frederick Douglass type speeches on the bench (I’d buy that CD in a heartbeat), either play Jody more or get Curtis Brown out there. Essentially the Sharks were running 4 D and 3 centers. Not the best playoff strategy. You need a steady stream of fresh legs, and essentially running 15 skaters isn’t the way to stay healthy and jumping.

In other news, I’ll actually be in the booth for The Teal Spiel show this Sunday night at 10pm. It’ll be Chetan and myself, waxing poetic about the Sharks for an hour and a half. Please call in with your comments. I have a decent Sharks trivia question ready too, if I’m allowed. Either way it should be a blast, and there will be lots to talk about. At least after last night, we can be sure the Sharks will still be playing.

And stop caring about the Sharks so much… nah. While this time of year may be psychologically damaging in terms of the highs and lows, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Luckily, I have just enough perspective (barely) to see that this is one helluva series so far. If I weren’t a Sharks fan, I’d want it to go seven for sure. As a Sharks fan, I don’t know if I could take it.

After a meltdown for the ages (or, as the Calgary papers put it, the Flames had a comeback for the ages) in game three, the Sharks post a comeback for the ages (or, as the Calgary papers put it, the Flames did a meltdown). And now, when I had the Sharks all but buried, they show some chutzpah. Although the game might not have been as dominating as the 22 shot differential indicates, the Sharks did control play. As much as I hate the cliche, “your best players have to be your best players”, Calgary have given themselves the best chance to win by living exactly that. Kipper is amazing, Iginla is dangerous every shift, and between big hits, every Phaneuf shot seems to have eyes for the net. It was the Sharks’ best players that came out in the last five minutes of the game, and that made the difference.

What can you say about game 5? Don’t miss it. Without question, the Sharks need to make quicker decisions in their own zone to neutralize the gutsy forecheck. I know this isn’t the Sharks’ system, but I’d want to see a winger out in the neutral zone for a stretch pass- hopefully that would keep the D from jumping up to the red line, or sometimes, even the blue line.