DOH 193 – It’s Come Down To This
April 2nd, 2012, 10:21 pm
With only three games remaining in the season, the Sharks still can win the Pacific, or miss the playoffs entirely. It’s as tense a situation as there has been in San Jose for several years. The Dudes try and guess what might happen, revisit the Remenda-Ratto dustup, and identify other playoff matchups that will be fun to watch.
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I guess this is the page you were talking about in the podcast:
http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL/Western/Pacific/SanJose.html
Something that is intresting is that that page says that if we win in regulation against Dallas today we will have a 91.8% chanse of going to the playoffs, but if we lose in regulation the chanse goes down to 33% chanse after the game. So I really hope the sharks win against Dallas tonight!
Reading comment threads from other sources (FTF, WTC), I’m kind of at the end of my rope with Sharks fans collectively.
When they play a solid game but lose, there’s tons of “There are no moral victories! At this point all that matters are wins and losses.” Ok, fine. I can get on board with that. Then they beat Dallas (convincingly), and it’s a lot of “That 5-on-3 was sickening. They have no urgency. No heart. No killer instinct.”
And this annoying, super-negative attitude obviously is emblematic of a wider group of Sharks fans than just “jerkoffs or trolls on messageboards,” proven by the fact that the Tank was booing heartily during that 5-on-3.
The last four years they have an outstanding regular season, but everyone is lightning quick to remind you “The regular season doesn’t matter, it’s about what happens in the playoffs.” Now this year it’s “Oh my God this season is a catastrophe!”
I’m not quite as disgusted as you, but this is what happens when a team is disappointing. I personally never buy into the whole “no heart” thing, which I think is generally BS. It’s clear this team is missing something, but no one knows exactly what. I found the Bret Hedican interview (linked in the last post’s comments) to be really interesting. If only it were something as simple as “heart”.
That being said, that 5-on-3 did suck ass. I felt like booing. But I didn’t even think of it after the game, because a shutout of a team with playoff aspirations is cause for celebration.
I’d like to echo what Mike is saying here. It feels like every time in the past few months that when I started feeling high on this team like things were going to finally turn around they quickly regressed and took the wind out of our sails. Now that its down to the wire its hard to feel great about anything that happens when it does happen. I’m sure I’m not alone in this but some people generally handle these ups and downs better than others.
As for the 5 on 3 its funny because until now I had kind of forgotten about it for the same reasons Mike said, they won and on to the next one. That said in the moment I would have boo’d as well because at that point of the game they had their foot on the Stars throats and they frankly let it off. I’d have liked to see them drive another few nails into that coffin rather than ease up because we know this team is capable of that and frankly it would be nice if the Sharks were on the right side of a balls to the wall 6-0 victory once in a while. Again that’s in the moment.
I’ve already resigned to the fact that it’s going to end up Detroit vs San Jose in round 1. Damn you, hockey gods. Damn you.
Looking at the whole league, I did not expect Dallas and Winnipeg to basically bow out of the race. Really thought those teams keep keep the mojo going. Dallas just looked sick until they played Vancouver and the last home and home against us
The importance of tonight’s game can’t be overstated. To me it’s less about them making the playoffs (which isn’t as much of a lock as the numbers indicate) as them developing some solid momentum to roll into the playoffs with. If they back in with a something like 0-1-1 they will be bounced quickly by Vancouver or even St. Louis. If they can go 2-0-0 or even 1-0-1 they could given anyone hell. A win tonight makes the 82nd game epic. The one scenario no one is talking about is if we went 2-0-0 and PHX wins out to take the division. Ha! GO SHARKS!
To quote Mike from 15th March:
“To get to 94 points, the Sharks need to go 8-5-0, or 7-3-2. To get to 95 points, that’s 8-4-1 or 7-2-3. To get to 97, that’s 9-3-1 or 8-1-3.
The last time the Sharks got 16 points or more in a 13-game span was January 5th to February 2nd, which included 8 games against teams that are not currently in the playoffs. The final thirteen, the Sharks will have 6 games against such opponents, and three of them against the Kings, with whom the Sharks are tied.”
Well, in the end, 92 points were enough, but all credit the boys – they got to the 94 points with a game to spare. Taking a step back, it was a pretty impressive end to the season!
Good point Andy. There was a lot of grief after the Anaheim losses and especially the Phoenix loss. Would we feel better about the team if they had lost to Nashville and Boston but beat Anaheim twice? The only game that they have been run out of the barn was the last game in LA, when they were coming off a game the night before.
It’s certainly been an emotional ride, but I’m still holding on to my belief that this is a very good team that has been snakebit. The Sharks definitely got some fortunate calls (and non-calls) last night, so maybe a little regression to the mean is in store for the Sharks (or a run of good luck, which would be nice).
i have to agree. i really admire the grit and determination as of late.
they did what they needed to do….and i hope they’re not finished.
Ive been really down on this team lately, but i have to say I’m really proud of this team right now for the way they’re fighting. Coming back from down two goals last night in LA was huge. They came back back in Dallas too. That more than anything else seems what was missing all year – they just had no fight.
I’m not ready to call the parade route, I’m just saying what we’ve been seeing the last few games is what I feel like I’ve been waiting for all season.
Don’t break my heart Sharks.
P.S. – I got my playoff tickets in the mail today and they just looked different. Just sayin’…
I figured out why it will be better to be the lower seed in this playoff…
Since the average length of a 7 game series s 6… It just means we’ll be at HP when they finally win a cup.
????
Not trying to be a downer here, but average doesnt mean that its the most likley. if you have 10 series that goes to 5 games and 10 series that goes to 7 games, the average amount of games played in any series would be 6 games even if no series ever went to 6 games.
Also a no 7 seed have never won stanley cup. (That however doesnt mean anything, since previous outcomes doesnt determine outcomes in the future)
If the sharks win against St. Louis and LA win against Vancouver I think we have a chanse to go to the finals this year. Meeting the best teams the first round or the last round doesnt really matter in my opinion, they have to be beaten eventually anyway.
St. Louis are obviously the hardest team for SJ to beat (since they are 0-4 against them this season) so if they can beat them, I think they can do anything in this playoff race.
Go Sharks!
If anyone would like to join me, we did this last year and it was fun.
http://playoffschallenge.nhl.com/playoff_challenge/leagues/449?locale=en#.T4IgJFGVTtw.mailto
Password is: Boyle
Signed up 🙂