It looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

They couldn’t get it going on the powerplay. Michalek took the laziest penalty shot in recent memory. The refs F’d the Sharks on two calls, Corey Perry’s crashing of the Sharks bench and Travis Moan’s third man in.

But….

But….

This team stuck together and Joe Thornton put it past J.S.G in round six of the shootout to give the Sharks their biggest win of the season.

Kyle McLaren was so physical, dishing out hit after hit, it has been so great to see the old Kyle back. We missed you Big Mac. The Davison-Pavelski-Brown line was extremely pesky and aggressive. Torrey Mitchell could have quit on that breakaway when he got hooked, but he made an amazing play and brought the Sharks back to life in the 2nd period. The Sharks outshot the Ducks, won more facoffs and matched their physical play. As Randy Hahn said after the game, this Ducks team plays with so much arrogance against the Sharks – they play as if they don’t believe San Jose can’t beat them. Well tonight might have taken them down a peg.

I hate to see Matt Carle in the press box, but adding Rob Davison to the line up tonight was a great call by Ron Wilson and the staff. I think we can expect to see this same line up the rest of the week and poor Mikey has to put his Carle jersey back in the closet…for now. As I said this morning, this team was either going to answer the bell or turtle up. This was a gut check and the importance of this win should carry over to Tuesday night with Team Teal brimming with confidence. They got it done without Cheech, without JR, without Clowe and without Semenov…..well, I guess they didn’t miss Frankenstein out there. PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ!!!

So the question is out there if you are Doug Wilson. If these Marleau rumors are true, and Dougie has been listening to offers, what do you do? You let these guys stick it out. We’ve been waiting all year for this team to click and now, DW’s patience is paying off. Don’t make the big splash Doug. Keep the Captain. Keep the boys together for now and tinker down the road. The ship has been righted. Abort Operation Major Shake-up….if there ever was one.

Looking forward to Tuesday night. It’s going to be a live one at the Tank.