Short Update and Musings

As you can see, I've fallen a bit behind in my postings. Too much travel time between SoCal and NorCal. In between, the Sharks have played some decent games and then, as evidence by their pummeling by the Ducks on the 21st, failed to show up except in body only. They recovered the next night to beat up on the Kings, but boy, did they miss out on an opportunity to show what they could really do. (Note: The Kings played well when they met SJ for the second time in four days, winning that game; the Sharks returned home to play PHI and played a fun-to-watch game (and win) against a not-so-great team).
It's frustrating, but how can you really gripe a lot about their play when you look at the standings and see we are still only 4 points behind Anaheim right now. The Sharks are still one of the top 5 clubs points-wise. Of course, its obvious that some change is needed, even if only mental, because most believe the Sharks can play better than they are. (I agree).

Sharks chew up the Kings

A bit of a delay, but finally a post. I watched the game the other night on Fox. It was funny to listen to the LA announcers talk about the Sharks doing things the "right" way as opposed to the Kings. I was afraid the Sharks might come out flat, but apparently, even if they did, the play of the Kings was worse. (No offense Kings fans, but they made the Sharks look great). And for once, I did not really notice the refs at all...McGeough and all! Anyway, great to see Marleau's hat trick and Cheechoo's two goals (ok, I was hoping to see him get a hat trick too, but we'll take what we can get). Rissmiller and Michalek looked great too. That was worth not doing some school work.

Sharks take 2 of 3 at home

Well, the last two games were much more entertaining than the NY game. The Sharks just didn't have it when they played NY and it showed. That was a very disappointing game.

The Pittsburgh game though, wow! I was at the game and it was fun. The Cheechoo misconduct wasn't though - they didn't call anything until they realized Eaton was down for a while. Then changing it to the game misconduct. I understand it was a bad deal for Eaton, but it was not a malicious hit. Oh well. Cheechoo is just not having a good year so far. The rest of the game was fun - quick, big hits, and some scoring. (Well, once we got out of the penalty-filled first period). Toskala played great and the outcome was a win.

I was worried about the Wild, but liked the energy the Sharks brought to the rink last night. Cheechoo had another bad incident resulting in stitches thanks to the errant deflected puck into the head, but came back to make some decent shots on goal. One hit the cross bar - getting closer to the net. Nabokov was sharp when he had to be and made some great saves to preserve the win. Much different outcome than the last game against Minnesota. It was good to see Parker out on the ice again and he almost scored - not bad for an enforcer-type. Clowe also got robbed by Fernandez who had some great saves to keep the game close throughout the night. I was not comfortable until the final buzzer rang out.

Next up - LA Kings. The Sharks better come into LA with the energy they showed last night - they can't afford to let their guard down just because they are playing a losing team.