This must be backwards day, because I actually agree with Garner.  If this were a team that fought hard to the very end the last couple of years in the playoffs, only to come up a bit short, I wouldn’t be so fatalistic about the Sharks’ chances.  But the fact is, they folded like a cheap suit last year, and the year before that.  Now that they turtled up like a high school wrestler in a UFC fight, I have to think the outcome will be the same.

Technically, there are more games to play, and technically, it’s not over.  But for all intents and purposes, I think the season has about 20 minutes left.  The first period of game 4.  If the Sharks don’t show something different in the next 20 minutes of hockey, the playoffs are over for them.  Calgary did exactly what they needed to do when they fell behind 3-0: they started running people, and dished out as many borderline hits as they could muster.  Keenan’s bitching after Game 2 did its job- the refs looked the other way while the Flames created some momentum out of thin air.

Now it’s the Sharks’ turn.  They have to create something out of thin air.  Or else the postseason will go up in a puff of smoke and barely a whimper.