Nabokov saves for the Sharks; Sharks find some Grit

It's funny how all the Nabby-bashers on various chatboards have declined to post in a while. After the Calgary game, so many were lamenting the loss of Schaefer and moaning about putting up with Nabby's huge salary, hampering our salary cap, and calling for the quick return of Toskala (name, usually mispelled by many of these same posters, but we'll save that for another rant). However, Nabokov looked pretty good in Anaheim, and posted back-to-back shutouts in Dallas and Minnesota. Since then, mostly all you read about is the lamenting about his huge salary and how he is not worth the huge contract.

Maybe he's not worth the $5 million a year (is anyone really?), and he has not had a stellar season, but he has done pretty well. Playing back-to-back games has brought back some consistency and he has looked much sharper in the net. He looks like he wants to be the playoff goalie this year...and is playing that way. We still have a few weeks, but if Nabokov keeps playing this way, he may have won it.

Finally, it's about time, but the Sharks have finally started to show some grit again. Big Joe Thornton has played with a chip on his shoulder and put a little "nasty" back into his game. The addition of Rivet to the blue line has appeared to clean up a few things and strengthened the play in front of Nabokov (and helped preserve his shutouts). Too bad the Sharks didn't play this way for the past few months...they probably could have overtaken Anaheim for the lead. Alright, I know, injuries hampered us too, but the team is getting back together and is almost intact. Now they just need to get Marleau back to 100% (didn't look like it in Minnesota) so he can play without some of the tentativeness he's shown. The Sharks need him healthy (and all the rest of the players) if they want to even think about going far into the playoffs.

Just my thoughts and opinions.