We have a few days before the next game, against the surprisingly good Kings of 2009 (or maybe not so surprising. This has been building up for a few years), so I figured I'd do a post about some of the goofy stuff I was chatting about on Twitter last night.

It's odd, so if you're saying to yourself, "I'm certainly not opposed to such flights of fancy, but dear me, how does this relate to the Sharks?" I have an answer for you; Joe Thornton likes woolly mammoths.

While I know mammoths and dinos weren't neighbors, it doesn't matter. As you can clearly see in the article, Joe refers to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum as "the one with all the dinosaurs and mammoths." And, as we all know, no man who likes woolly mammoths can be hating on dinos. The two just go hand in hand.

See? Totally relates.

Last night's game wasn't bad. The Sharks hit like 5 freaking posts and Kipur made this ridiculous save to deny Nichol at one point. Many, many many close chances for the Sharks, but they just couldn't tie it.

There was a fight like 8 seconds in. 8 seconds. Who says these two teams don't have a bit of a rivalry?

There were a few fights, actually, though none were overly impressive. The good thing is the Sharks weren't letting the Flames throw them all over the ice, as they have in past years.

Iginla wanted Douglas Murray. Douglas Murray welcome the challenge. Both sides had their fair share of checking players who, like Murray, are brick walls on skates.

Ok, Bouwmeester pushed Nabby's net off the moorings and nooooooooo one said anything. No call, though it was quite obviously. I think he also shoved McGinn into Kipur. Ridiculous.

TONIGHT @ 7pm Toys for Tots night! Bring a new unwrapped toy!

Tonight marks Randy Hahn's 1000th game as the tv play by play man for the Sharks. I'm sort of sad I will be at the game and will be missing his calls, but I'm sure they'll do SOMETHING for him before the game. One of the trainers got a big ole bottle of wine and his very pregnant wife got flowers. Maybe Drew will give Randy flowers. That would be epic.

The first rule of disappoint game club is you don't talk about disappointing games. Not going to compare the last game to the Flames last game or talk about how both teams will be fired up because we all already know that and it's a tied line. No, instead I'd like to talk about how much games against the Flames annoy me.

It doesn't matter where they are, or where the Sharks are, in the standing, the Flames are like that petulant school yard bully who you now tower over but he still tries to pick on you anyway because he's a jerk and that what jerks do. The Flames always play hard, always play tough and always end up infuriating me with how good they are.

One can trace much of my remaining animosity towards the Flames back to the 2008 quarterfinals. That series nearly did me in. I think it nearly did both fan bases in. It was nuts. And then last year I think there was a game when the Sharks just totally embarrassed the Flames, only to go to the Saddledome and find themselves equally red-faced. Not really a fan of any team embarrassing the Sharks but for some reason it feels that much worse when it's the Flames.

And for some reason I can't quite discern, despite the Flames recent playoff record, they don't get the same crap the Sharks about the post season. This only adds to my consternation.

I often remind myself that if nothing else, at least we have this:

That call is legendary.

So I'd like to think the following conversation occurred on the ice in the last 30 seconds of the game:

"Hey, you know what would be good?"

"What?"

"Letting the Blues tie!"

"Really?!"

"Oh come on, it will add DRAMA! Get the fans all hyped. We can take them in OT."

"OK!"

To be fair, this did not take me as long as the opening night pictures (which never got a post here but can be found here) or the Nashville photos (which are still sitting in my Lightroom catalogue and may see the light of day sometime).  I was hoping to have them up the night of the game but Flickr was having none of that idea.  There are a lot more photos than the number I actually posted which prolly means I should pay more attention and take fewer pictures. In case this post isn't enough, the whole set can be found here.

Tonight @ 7:30. It's a Toy's For Tots night if you're going!

I bought a kick ass dinosaur toy for Saturday's game. I wanted at least one kid to have a super cool nerdy toy, and since the Mythbusters Science Kit was a bit outside my budget range, I opted for a dino. Who doesn't like dinosaurs?! We saw a dude at the game Tuesday in a Pterodactyl sweatshirt from like 1989. He inspired me. I used to have one with a Stegosaurus, or maybe a Brontosaur when they were still Brontosaurus. Bad ass. Dinosaurs rule. Also, Pluto is still a planet in my book.

I am so bitter with you Mr. deGrasseTyson. You have no idea.

I have a super awesome sports coat and a PhD in astrophysics. What do you have?

Only sadness, Mr. deGrasse Tyson. Only sadness.

I love Patrick Marleau. And even though half of them spent the past few summer's bitching about him, Sharks fans love Patrick Marleau. (The cool ones, anyway) Tonight was his 900th game, all of which have been for team Teal. And he goes out and scores two goals, one of which came while he was bleeding. Dude is leaking life onto the ice and he's like "'scuse me, watch this" and BLAMO, the puck is in the net.

Yeah.

Patrick Marleau is awesome.

Thomas Greiss still scares me. He's better, oh yes, he IS better. But his lateral movement is still slow as molasses and he looks surprised by the puck sometimes. (and at times when I wouldn't think he should look surprised) He did his job tonight and only let Milan get two past him, but...well, it was a little iffy at times.

It didn't help that the Sharks decided the ice was tilted towards whichever end would most benefit the Senators. This got to be rather annoying. The natives grew restless and grumblings were heard. Seriously, Sharks, OUT OF YOUR ZONE!

Some were worried Milan got booed when he scored. No. His goals were booed. He got cheers and claps from both Sens and Sharks fans alike. We loved him when he was here. Seeing him succeed elsewhere will be met with cheers, so long as his success doesn't lead to a Sharks loss.

Cheechoo was also received warmly and lots of CHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEECHHOOOOOOOOOOOsssss echoed throughout the Tank. They should him on the jumbo-tron at some point, and the whole crowd cheered like we did for him last season. he looked up, tried hard not to smile, and looked away. Mina thought he might cry. He didn't. Cheechoo train whistles were also in effect when he touched the puck. I wish I'd brought mine.

Jamie MCGINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN scored a goal. Love this kid. Keep him here Todd! No more woostah express for him. Please!

There was an early fight between Not Kyle and Carkner. It wasn't all that impressive.

Poor Dan Boyle was having a bad game. So was our fourth line.

Vlasic and Blake are not the dynamic defensive duo I was hoping for. This saddens me.

Our power play was stale tonight. It was like "Really, guys?" and the Sharks were like "Yep," and the whole Teal portion of the Tank went *SIGH*

"Train, train, Cheechoo Train, Sharks still went out and won this game. Cheechoo, oh yeah, Cheechoo."

I sang that song several time to Mina, while doing my impression of the dance. It was pretty epic.

The guys next to Mina were awesome as always. "Scoring of goals, destroyer of worlds." was how they described Milan.

The guys next to me where just fine, but one got really drunk and started telling the other about his sex life and how none of it would be possible without Viagra. I learned way too much about a 50ish year old male stranger's personal life tonight.

It was...enlightening.