Sharka v Oilers, Last, Best Hope for Elimination Edition

Tonight @ 6:30pm. Radio, TV, Tied House with Sharkie and some suds.

Last night while slowly weaving our way around the rink at Sharks Ice (yeah, we have ink rinks in California. Weird, I know) Lurker Shark of FTF fame pointed out to me that if the Sharks win tonight, it will pretty much signal the end of the Oilers post season chances. After spending several minutes making excited faces and verbally exploding with ideas of payback and sweet sports justice, I came to the following conclusion: "You realize this means the Sharks are going to lose, right?"

Pessimism, thy name is Gray.

It just feels like the Sharks are the team to give you chances or records, not take them away. We're givers. Perhaps a tad too generous, but what can we say, we're nice guys.

If the Sharks do defy my pessimistic odds and win tonight, a feat they are entirely capable of, they will have 51 wins. 51. That would tie the franchise best finish of 51 wins back on 06-07.

Here's a to win. Go Sharks!

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Only a few Couch Tarts items left! Get'um before they're gone!

Post Game Recap:

First off, I am amazed the Shark won. not because they aren't capable, nay, but because the Sharks don't get to do things like win in both Edmonton and Calgary. Or win 51 games, (well, ok, they did get to do that before but let me have my moment), or be able to basically eliminate a team two weeks before the playoffs start. In past seasons things have never quite seemed to roll that way for us. Huzzah for change.

Also, a quick huzzah and thank you to the Blues who beat Detroit today, allowing the Sharks to gain 6 points on the Wings with tonight's win. w00t!

So we have to ask. What does Cvik have against Joe Pa? Cvik, if you recall, is the guy who made the phantom headbutt call on Joe Pa a few games back. Tonight he calls Joe Pa for diving after he's hit in the face by a high stick. Now look, I know he's a tough hockey player and all but I think anyone who suddenly loses forward momentum do to a stick up the nose is going to succumb to gravity shortly there after.It seems to be one of those "givens" in life. Stick to face, in pain you writhe, to the ground you fall. Kotalik should have gotten 2 for tripping (the initial call) and 2 for the high stick. It didn't work out that way. I guess this dude really didn't want Joe Pa to get the Lady Byng.

**An astute reader points out that Cvik is a linesman and Ref Lee made the call against Joe Pa. That said, it's a good rant so yo can replace "cvik" with "lee" in your minds. Thanks!

Joe Pa called shenanigans, which least to a few non calls later on. He was high sticked again and it was ignored. Seriously guys, it's Joe Pa! If he's calling you out it's not because he feels like whining. (that is the blogger's job, obviously)

Roloson also got away with several things. He shoved his net off it's moorings and messed around with JR, which drew an interference call...on JR. Roloson feel over on his own, but no, seriously, JR, we know you touched him. JR was not a happy camper.

That said, Roloson did have a ridiculous call go against him for delay of game early on. It was a bad call and Roloson looked about ready to pounce and attack the refs. Seriously, he was shooting daggers with his eyes. It was creepy.

Did you know he's 39? I had no idea.

Nabby did well tonight, though none of his saves needed to be stellar. He just had to be the normal solid goalie he is and he did that. Thank you Nabby.

The post was spectacular tonight and made a total 5 or 6 saves. Several against each team. Uh, go post? Someone assign that lifeless red pipe a star.

The Sharks came out with some pretty solid energy in the first and held that until the bogus diving call on Joe pa in the second. Cheechoo got his groove back and scored 52 seconds in to put the Sharks up. Yay Cheech! Dan Boyle had the other goal, in some weird cosmic reversal of goals scored in Calgary. No one seemed to mind.

The Oilers one and only goal came after the Joe Pa call. Now I'm not saying it would have been 2-0 if Joe Pa hadn't been sent to the box, but it did annoy me to see the Oilers score after that.

JR nearly put a goal in behind Roloson several times, but nothing ever quite made it. Next time, sir, next time.

Your three stars: (3) Dan Boyle (yay Dan Boyle!), (2) Gagner (who got the Oiler's goal), and (1) Nabby.

Sharks now have 113 points and as mentioned earlier, tied a franchise record for wins with 51.

Mina informs me that the Sharks magic number is 5.

Hang on to your hats everybody. It's going to be a crazy final few games!

2/17/09 Post Game Review

Sorry this is running a tad late, folks. Duty called.

Anyway, last night saw the Sharks play the ever scrappy Oilers at home, after having been on the road for what seemed like an eternity filled with 4 o'clock games. As fate would have it, I had a few things to do away from my TV starting around 6 pm. This meant that I was likely to miss part of the game. Being the fan I am, I brought a mini radio with me, so I could listen to the game whilst taking care of business. Indeed, I was that jerk in the store listening to their headphones while you're trying to shop. I felt silly, but when the Sharks play the Oilers, I feel my attention in necessary.

I was thankfully in the safe recesses of my car when Edmonton went up by on towards the end of the period. I was in public, however, for Joe Pavelski's goal, and the later by Edmonton that bounced oddly off the glass and to an Oiler sitting in front of an open net. That was a bummer, but I managed to keep myself to just a loud sigh and a dramatic backwards sag. I can't say I wasn't being stared at, but I would have been staring too if I had seen me celebrating Joe Pa's goal in the middle of a near empty warehouse store.



Of course, if I had seen me, that would have brought about some weird temporal flux, so it's best that I wasn't actually watching myself from afar.

I caught part of the second on the radio, including Jamie Baker being quite annoyed that there was no call after Milan Michalek got punched int he face. Rusanowsky was floored they didn't call it. I think we all had flashbacks to the semi final series against the Oilers. Randy and Drew were in full force by the time I got to a TV. I don't think I missed too much since the first was described as somewhat flat for the Sharks.

What I did see of the second and third was insanely chippy. Talk about two teams who don't get along! Edmonton has a bit of a rep in these parts for playing dirty. Deserved or not, they are certainly a psychical team who doesn't shy away from the rough stuff. The second period reads like a primer on how to get PIMs.

Marc Pouliot : Tripping - 2 min
Patrick Marleau : Tripping - 2 min
Marc-Edouard Vlasic : Tripping - 2 min
Alexei Semenov : Roughing - 2 min
Jason Strudwick : Roughing - 2 min
Claude Lemieux : Fighting (maj) - 5 min
Theo Peckham : Fighting (maj) - 5 min
Claude Lemieux : Misconduct (10 min) - 0 min
Steve Staios : Roughing - 2 min
Ethan Moreau : Cross checking - 2 min
Ryane Clowe : Roughing - 2 min
Shawn Horcoff : Hi-sticking - 2 min
Ethan Moreau : Roughing - 2 min
Ethan Moreau : Roughing - 2 min
Brad Staubitz : Roughing - 2 min
Brad Staubitz : Roughing - 2 min
Alexei Semenov : Fighting (maj) - 5 min
Zack Stortini : Fighting (maj) - 5 min

Yeah.

I won't get into the way the game was called in detail. It's enough to say it was weird, and leave it at that. (How is a punch to the face not a penalty?!)

The Oilers were relentless. One of the Sharks failings is that they tend to ease up after scoring. The first shift after a goal is always kind of sketchy for them. The Oilers were solid after allowing goals. Aggressive and aware. Hopefully the Sharks were paying attention to that.

Your three stars of the game were as follows:
(3) Cheechoo, (2) Grier, (1) Mr. Patty Marleau, who scored points 600 and 601 respectively last night, on two goals. That includes a lovely short handed goal assisted by Grier which had awesome written all over it.

If you missed the game, I highly suggest you watch the highlights on your preferred highlighting website. Good times.

Shark V Oilers

Tonight @ 7:30 Radio, TV, Tank, Interwebs

Was it fortuitous that the first team to pop up when I started to type the title was the Oilers?

Many teams have or ire, it's true. Many teams also preform well at the Tank, defying the odds year after year, no matter where they sit in the standings. Much like when the Sharks head to Phoenix, I cringe when the Oilers are mentioned. Much of these leads back to the semi finals of the 2005-2006 season, when the Oilers muscled their way into the conference finals after a promising start by the Sharks. Some of it, though, is based on fact. The fact that Roloson turns into some sort of goalie god when he's in the Tank. Nothing gets by him, no one can beat him. It borders on ridiculous. Taking this fact and combining it with the Sharks recent play on the road makes me a tad wary. If there was ever a night to start a new win streak for the Sharks, this is it.

Go Sharks!

Post Game Recap:

Full recap to come tomorrow, along with a cartoon. Congrats to Patty on points number 600 and 601. Whooooooo! Great win!

Sharks V Oilers

Tonight at 6pm radio, tv, interwebs

Wondering why there's no game day preview post?

I was nearly carried off by ginormous butterflies today. Fending them off seriously cut into my writing time.

For real.

true story

Post Game Recap:

That's more like it! A full 60 minutes, minus a few sloppy penalties and the Sharks get the win over the dreaded Oilers 4-1.

Other cool things that happened:

Blake got his 500th assist. Way to go Blake!

Staubitz got his first NHL goal! Way to go, kid!

Nabby made some HUGE saves. HUGE.

Todd McLellan became the second rookie coach in NHL history to become the head coach for the All-Star Game.

Patty had two goals.

Semenov and Strudwick had one the slowest fights ever. They actually got five for fighting this time, instead of two for roughing. No joke call this time.

Two PP and two even strength goals for the Sharks.

I can't believe I nearly forgot this but Douglas Murray got his first assist of the season tonight putting him on pace for two points. Congrats on getting that first assist, Douglas!

Other Things:

There were a lot of "what huh?" moments in this game.

The Oilers got hit by the injury bug during the game, which was unfortunate.

Stortini hit his head but hurt his knee fighting with Staubitz.

Speaking of Staubitz, kid had some penalty minutes tonight.

Roloson was chased after the 1st. The Sharks managed 3 goals on 10 shots. Big difference from the last time the Sharks saw him, when he had his magic force field up and could have potentially stopped the Hockey Gods themselves.

Garon let in 1 on 21 shots.

The Sharks overall looked better and played better than they have tin the past few games. It was a marked improvement from the downright embarrassing performance in Calgary earlier this week. Let's hope they can keep the improvement streak rolling tomorow night in Vancouver and beyond.

Sharks goals by: seto, Staubitz, Marleau, Marleau

Oilers goal by: Grebeshkov

3 Stars: (1) Marleau (2) Seto (3) Nabby

Seto was named to the Young Stars team today. The vote for Seto campaign didn't fully succeed, but it got him this far. I'd say that's mostly a success.

Go Sharks!

Shark V Oilers

see what we did there?

7:30pm tonight, Radio, CSN+, Tank, or interwebs. (Our friends at Fear the Fin usually have the link)

Post Game:

Sharks lose 3-2 in OT. I'm not doing much of a recap for this one as I was either out or working for most of the game.

Roloson was the deciding factor in this game. He kept his team in it and helped them get the win. Shades of Ellis keeping the Preds to win in OT in it a few weeks back. The Sharks win streak ends at nine, but they have still yet to lose at home in regulation.