Because You Asked (A Rant)
I am a homer.
I have a Sharks blog. I should hope I kinda strongly favor the team I write about. So it's reasonable to assume that when one (or more) of the players I spend all year cheering on is heavily criticized in a way that I see as not representative of the whole picture, I get kinda pissed off.
Yes. I realize Nabby had a bad game. I was here, on my couch, watching with everyone else. It was pretty hard to miss.
I also realize that Russia's D was beyond weak and that they spent more time watching the game than playing it. They hung Nabby out to dry and Edzo sat there bashing JUST Nabokov for the rest of the game. As if it was all on him and everyone else was playing a great game. What? Did you watch the same game Edzo? Did you see Russia's total lack of this thing called "defense?"
Know what your defense shouldn't be doing? Watching the guys on the opposing team skate around with the puck! They're suppose to be defending not sitting in the stands eating popcorn. Hell, they might have bene more effective in the stands. Only after Byrz came in in the second did anyone giving commentary seem to notice the horrible defense. I don't even know how anyone could miss it for that long. It was pretty damn bad in the first. It was also a known factor/problem/issue before the Games even started and they just NOW act like it was a problem. Really?
Did Nabby let some softies? Yeah. He let one in that for sure should have never gone in. But several of those other goals that ended up behind him were solely on his forwards and defense forgetting they were there to PLAY THE GAME. They didn't invite you all here just to stand and watch the puck fly by.
Surely someone else noticed that this match up was like two All-Star teams. Canada wasn't always solid in their zone either, they just happened to be much better than Russia. It would have been hard to be worse.
Was it Nabby's best game? Hell no! Was it all on him? HELL NO.
Would everyone have turned on Bryzgalov if he'd started? Thrown him under the bus so quickly? I'm not so sure. I realize Nabby has a better billing than Bryz, and that he plays on a better team than Byrz does, (sorry Odin), but if you're going to call a guy out for bad play, call the ALL out. Oh, but Bryz hasn't lost in the second round of the playoffs a bunch. I guess Ovie hasn't either. And it doesn't matter that Crosby was a non factor because, well, he's Crosby! What about Malkin? He did jack all game. I didn't even know Semin was IN the game until Boyle slew footed him. That's not a good sign. How come no one spent half the game calling those guys out on their non performance? And while were on the subject, why are people blaming Joe Thornton for stuff? Canada won, guys. It's things like that that makes me, and other Sharks fans, feel like the media are just picking on the Sharks because they can. I mean, did they just pick team names out of a hat and decide to bash only those guys? I have to wonder sometimes.
So, don't ask me if I still feel confident with Nabokov in goal. Don't ask me if his performance worries me in the playoffs. I'm not even worried about the damn playoffs. We're not there yet. I don't let bad games decide the fate of the players during the regular season so why on earth would I do it now? It was a bad game. It was a bad game for ALL of the Russian players on the bench. It was a bad game for their coaching staff. It was a bad game for Russia. Stop trying to pin it on one guy.
