The Sharks aren’t playing exactly like the Sharks of early in the season; it was bound to happen sometime.  Seto’s out of the lineup, Michalek is just coming back, JR is out, and Ehrhoff was scratched in favor of Semenov.  I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn’t April 1.  No such luck.

Nabby managed to pull his head out and have a fantastic game, stoning all of the Stars’ best chances.  The only one that went in was off the aforementioned Semenov’s big mitt.  Bastard can’t get a break, can he?  He did have a nice laydown block late in the game, but that unfortunately doesn’t make up for the several times he watched a guy go around him.

In the second period or so, I was really expecting the patented Turco standing on his head show, and he almost pulled it off.  If not for a Michalek circus goal from his knees, it might have been a different story.  Plus, I thought the Marleau penalty shot attempt was pretty weak sauce.  Barely a move, then a pretty low percentage shot.  Patty, you got better than that.

There’s no doubt that right now, Dallas is playing much better than their record.  If they keep playing this way, they will scratch themselves back into the playoff hunt in a month or so, and who knows, we might have seen a preview of a first-round matchup last night.  Please God, no.