So I was going to do a comic about yesterday's abysmal performance by the Sharks but I'm currently dealing with a flare up of the tendinitis I have in my drawing arm. (Remarkably, not originally caused by drawing) So I decided against doodling. Sorry.

The Sharks basically mailed that in last night. Sadly they mailed it in with less postage than necessary, and got stuck en route for awhile while Buffalo decided to go out and score some goals. I was figuring that might be the case with this game, considering over half the team has vacation on their mind, and the rest have the Olympics. Nabby played well, which is a good sign for Team Russia, and he likely kept the Sharks from getting totally blown out. I'm not really sure anyone else in teal was on the ice with him.

I sorta felt like "why did we bother with this game?" We all pretty much knew no one's head would be in it, that everyone would have been up the night before watching the Opening Ceremonies (live. Unlike those back home), and that at least some of the team would have checked out already. I can't blame them. The Olympics have everyone distracted. I've spent most of yesterday and today watching them, and aside from Women's Hockey, I don't even really care about most of the sports they've been showing. (I am more of a summer games person) Speed skating and moguls were cool though. Of course, NBC delays the games for those of us on the West coast, which means I catch medal news via twitter and just watch the events later. It takes a bit of the suspense out of things, but at least hockey has been live. I really enjoyed watching the US women play today, even if they did skate circles around China.

So pumped for the Men's competition to start. So pumped.

Today @ 4pm

CSN-CA

I'm sure it competes with some winter games stuff, but I live in tape delay land, so who knows.

Being that the Sharks are back east, if they watched any of the opening ceremonies last night, they saw them before I did. That's right, I'm on the same coast as the games are and NBC tape delayed them 3 hours for us. Thanks NBC. You know, Canada was smart and aired them live. Probably without the 90 minutes of talky talky before hand too. They for sure didn't get they "Hey America, Canada is North of us!" video, which I felt was rather unnecessary. Then I remembered that I paid attention in history/geography class, and not everyone did.

Once we finally got to the Openig Ceremonies, the effects were pretty damn cool. There was, as there always is, too much unnecessary singing of amazingly unoffensive songs. I'm not really sure why we had Gandalf and Satan in a canoe, but ice wizards are FTW and Satan was fiddling, so, it seemed somehow appropriate. I made the required "Devil Went Down to Georgia" reference. I think one person got it. The slam poetry guy should have been William Shatner. Just saying. For once I was not extraordinarily bored by the Parade of Nations. Well done.

Four people lighting the torch was nice. The technical difficulties suck. You spend so much time and money on this stuff and something goes wrong in front of everyone and it just makes me feel really bad for them. The torch bearers, after spending two minutes looking very nervous, (or in Gretzky's case, like he was about to kill someone), played off the lack of the fourth, um, icicle(?) well. Good recovery.

The Sharks play today at 4pm. Odds are good they won't be sitting around in major winter gear in a 70+ degree stadium. Mostly because that would melt the ice. Bermuda was sooo the only one who prepapred properly. But guys, socks AND shorts. You were just missing the sandals. Seriously, not a good look.

Patty Marleau will snowboard through time and score like 50 goals tonight, just you wait and see.

I waited until noon hit before heading out today, and despite that, I still managed to miss the moment we traded Jody Shelley way to the Rangers for a 6th rounder.

They have been time when I've been annoyed that Shelley just glared at guys instead of punching them, but he's been a fan favoriet since right after he got here and we all loved the guy. He may punch faces in as part of his job but he was a super nice guy. You could tell he liked playing here too.

We'll miss you Jody. We'll miss your hilarious blog too. Good luck in NY.

So, after the game went into the shootout, I had this post all worked out for today. It was going to be titled "Ten Things I Hate More Than A Loss To The Wings." The shootout is such a crap shoot and based on this season's record against the Wings, I wasn't sure it was going to go the Sharks way. But it did. I cheered so loudly, I'm pretty sure the next zip code heard me. Patty Marleau is a beast and a god.

So, because of that glorious, fantastic, amazing shoot out win, I now present to you "Ten Thins I Hate More Than a Loss To The Columbus Blue Jackets"

Today @ 4pm

Ah, "East Coast" Games. Being unemployed has few benefits, but being able to watch games at 4pm is one of them.

CSN-CA and Jamie & Dan on KFOX

Since firing Ken Hitchcock the Blue Jackets are 2 and 0. Since before that, they've won 4 of 5 at home. The Sharks, meanwhile, have eked out their wins in Nashville and Toronto, after a decently convincing win in St. Louis at the start their current road trip. As we saw against the Leafs, things get iffy when room temperature Sharks face a hot team.

The Leafs had a lot of sustained pressure in the Sharks zone all game, and it's only by the grace of the Hockey Gods that they managed to keep the lead and win the game. The pressure on Nabby those last few minutes was intense. You could smell the scent of impending overtime on the wind. The Sharks came out flatter than yesterday's soda in the 1st. Even the players said it was an unacceptable way to start the game, which, while it doesn't change the start, at least shows that the team knows they should be playing better than they were. No way this year's Sharks should be letting the Leafs walk all over them. As I said last preview, that game had potential upset written all over it. It's a safe bet to assume this one does too.

Add to that the fact that the Sharks play in Detroit tomorrow and you can see how the pressure to win Thursday might leak into today's game and distract the guys from their main goal, winning today. I'm hoping to see the Sharks come out stronger and faster than they did against Toronto and hopefully sustain that tempo throughout the rest of the game. I'll be really happy if they an keep the puck out of their zone for more than 30 seconds. Or clear the puck regularly. Something. That whole puck spending way too much time in our zone thing is getting ridiculous.

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