First things first.  We won.  I know it wasn't always pretty but it's 2 points and I'll take 'em.  I really liked the way the Sharks played for most parts of the game.  One of the things I didn't like - the penalties.  Is there something fun about going to the penalty box that we don't know about?  At least it wasn't as bad as last night where we were shafted by the refs.  We definitely earned the penalties tonight.  Blurgh.  Just because we can kill penalties doesn't mean we should....all the time.  Okay, rant over.  Some of my other thoughts... 

• Brian Burke was on hand to watch JoePa and some Chicago players for the US Olympic team.  He did an interesting interview with Jamie Baker in the 2nd intermission where he gave JoePa some nice compliments.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed for JoePa!
• Dan Boyle was an animal tonight.  He played the most out of all the Sharks (24 minutes), leads the NHL in ice time and is on a 7 game point streak.  Oh, and he makes it easier for our players to score.  Thank you sir.
• Ummm - not sure if the Sharks know this, but in order to score you kind of have to shoot the puck.  At the net.  Or even towards the net.  Our shot total was 14.  For the whole game.  Chicago had 19 shots in one period (47 total.)  None of our players had more than 2 SOG and some of their players had 6 or 8 shots.  Pretty sure this isn't a good thing.
• Is anyone else watching every game just waiting for Murray to crankshaft someone (sounds dirty, but it's not.)?  It reminds me of how I used to watch/wait for Kyle's butt hits (again sounds dirty, but it's not.)  Especially loved the hit on Hossa - Murray will hit anybody.
• Nab-by, Nab-by, Nab-by - obviously he got the first star and deserved every bit of it.  He was our best player on the penalty kill and for most of the darn game.  I know some people wanted Greiss in net tonight (since Nabby played last night), but this guy seems to be better the more he plays.  I know at some point we have to give Greiss more time, especially with Nabby probably getting a lot of playing time for Russia in the Olympics, but do you really want to take him out when he's playing so well?  Me neither.
• Finally, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Brodeur.  As a former goalie (okay, it was only two seasons in a women's rec league), I can not even imagine the mental, physical and emotional strength a person has to have to play that position with such success.  It took 45 years for someone to break the shut-out record - wonder how long it will take for someone to break Brodeurs new record?  Not to mention that it looks like he's not close to being done being awesome.

We have a bit of a break before the next game and then we play Anaheim on Saturday.  And is there any better way to celebrate Kwanzaa and Boxing Day than another Sharks win?  Mina will be at the game for the FTF Sharks party, while Gray and I will be crying about the fact that neither of us can be there. 

Go Sharks!

Sharks Holiday Fun Times With Slappy!

h/t to Idunno over that FTF for finding this. It's bizarre, to say the least. If I can find a version to embed, I'll edit that in.

Can this not go to a shoot out please? By which I mean Sharks win in regulation. Tonight. Don't want to be ambiguous.

I think this drawing might be cursed. I'm going to have to change it. I mean, it's the Stars, guys. They aren't as good as they've been in recent seasons...

*sigh*

That's really no excuse. Look, this is heated division rivalry. Maybe it doesn't have the same awesome chants the one against the Ducks does, but it's older, deeper, more ingrained in the fans psyche. Plus, Dallas has Ott. That dude's annoying. I mean like really really annoying. Here's hoping he gets "crankshafted."

Game starts tonight @ 5:30. CSN-CA and radio will have you covered.

Opposition coverage can be found at The Other 6 Seconds.

Tonight @ 7:30pm

Oddly enough it's taken to game 3 of this 6 game divisional series for me to actually be home and available to watch the Sharks play the bottom dwelling Ducks. I sincerely hope I won't be disappointed. The Sharks have had 5 days to dwell on their recent miscues, missed chances and, missed points. I'm no more eager to rehash those issues than they are. Everything currently plaguing the team is fixable. This is really all I need to know. They know what the issues are, they're addressing/have addresses/will address them. Good.

It's time to play.

Can the season begin again at 35 for the Sharks? I think it can!

Lately I've been thinking about former players of my favorite team (Sharks) and finding it amusing how I view them differently after they’re gone. It’s very similar to how I view my ex-boyfriends. From what I can discern, there appears to be 3 different categories - the ones that got away, the ones that I was glad to be rid of, and the ones that I despise/left me for someone else. Note: I realize that as a fan we get maybe 1/10th of the real information about trades, etc. but I'm just going to use the information that the internet has given me (wait - you mean that everything on the Internet isn't based on fact?)

I'd like to say that I'm a mature female hockey fan and that I wish all former Sharks good luck on their respective journeys but hey, let's be real here. I'm hoping that by writing this it will either a)help me deal with my relationship issues and/or b)justify my crazy emotions ( and isn't that what blogs are for anyways?)

The ones that got away
Ahhh - these are the guys that gave their all to me (& the Sharks) but things just didn't work out. Maybe they were ready to settle down and I wasn’t, maybe it was a salary cap thing, maybe it was location - I honestly don’t care. I will continue to cheer for these guys no matter who they play for or what they achieve and if the Sharks aren't in the playoffs, I will root for them.  Examples include Mike Grier, Craig Rivet, Steve Bernier, Brian Boucher, Jonathan Cheechoo

The ones I'm glad are gone
You know how sometimes when you're with someone they do douche-y things, but you don't realize that they're douches until after they're gone? Well, that's these guys. They didn't really harm the Sharks but they weren't that great either. They're like the guy you date senior of college before leaving school - you know he's not the one but.... Well, sometimes it's nice to have someone to snuggle with at night. Examples include Christian Ehrhoff, Marcel Goc, Vesa Toskala, Matt Carle, Scott Hannan

The ones that broke your heart...

Sigh...these are the guys that broke your heart and then hung out with the class slut the next day as if nothing ever happened (good thing I’m not bitter, right?) You really thought that they might just be the one and then for some reason (usually out of the blue) he broke your heart. These are players that I will boo forever - no matter how long it's been. Examples include Brian Campbell

In summary…

Yes, break-ups suck. They hurt your heart in ways that you never can imagine or prepare yourself for and can really debilitate you (i.e. you’re wearing your sweats all day long, eating ice cream out of the container & listening to “I Will Survive” on repeat), but just like in hockey, they sometimes lead to bigger and better things. Without losing Carle/Campbell, we never would’ve gotten Boyle. Without losing Cheechoo, we never would’ve gotten Heatley.

So maybe we need to treat our boyfriends like our favorite hockey players. Yes, cheer for them, but never get too attached ‘cause you never know who’s going to be around next season…

What's that stink wafting over us in Sharks land? Ah, yes, the sullen, stale stench of a five game losing streak. Every team goes through these, and none of them every look (or smell) pretty. We fans add to the cloud of wretchedness by spewing for vast amounts of bile, demanding trades, demotions, and new coaches. But the fact of the matter is, this is sports. When you get right down to it we are fans of a very well staged game of chance. You can run stats all you want, but once the puck is dropped, all bets are off. Sure the Sharks were better than MOST, (note that I did not say all), of the teams the faced over the last five games, but all that really means if that is their two rosters were to compete in some sort of paper based war, the Sharks one would win.

Be it due to injury, sickness, or a combination of both, the Sharks are in a mini slump. Feet aren't moving, no one's talking and goal scorers aren't scoring. Last season we hit this point in March. We may well be better off hitting it now. I'd love it if the Sharks would win all 82 regular season games and then breeze their way through the four rounds of playoffs to a Cup but it doesn't work like that. I don't really know if I buy that whole adversity thing, but my own experience has taught me that success tastes that much sweeter after a loss. Not that any of my sports related missteps went to the 11th round of a shoot out or were discussed at length by people afterwords, but parallels can still be drawn.

Last night's game was not pretty, but I'm more cocerned about the health of Dany Boyle than I am the lack of points. I don't think he meant to do it, maybe he did, but right at the end of the game Taylor Pyatt took a run at Boyle. Boyle went down hard and had to be helped off the ice. I was a little put out by the 'Yotes celebrating while a player was writhing in pain on the ice, but I don't think they realized Boyle was hurt. I mean, come on, it's Miller Time!It's just that when you know one of your guys is down and hurt, it kinda pisses you off to see a bunch of folks cheering and going crazy.

No word on how he's doing as of yet, aside from what Pollak has here. Going to keep my fingers crossed on that whole "not serious" bit. We need this man in games and not just because he seriously plays like 30 min a night. (He logged 29 minutes of ice time against the 'Yotes. Marleau hold second place with 23:41.)

Taylor Pyatt is now on notice.

Don't say we didn't warn you.