The Sky Hasn't Fallen, That's Just Rain
Written by Gray   
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 11:54

Whoo, never have I been so happy to have decided to stop watching a Sharks game before it got really bad.

I was a little torn about switching after the first because it'd been going so well and it looked like the game was going to be action packed until the very end. Then the second came and so did the Red Wing goals. Hmm, maybe Lost will be the right choice after all. I switched over before the second finished and proceeded to spend the next two hours picking my jaw up off the floor so I could read the gameday thread during commercials.

Sound like not watching the third was one of the best decisions I made in relation to a televised game this season.

Yes, I am disappointing and occasionally angry when the Sharks lose. I let that go on for maybe 15 minutes at the most, and then I move on. Usually it's closer to 5. I'm not willing to waste my time being angry over something I'm watching for entertainment. I want the Sharks to win every game, but they can't. I'd really love for them to not imploded on the ice, but that's not going to stop happening either. Every team implodes a few times a season. Every team loses more than a few times a season. I am unwilling to let this fact effect my blood pressure in a negative way. It's just not worth it.

What usually gets me more than poor play is bad attitudes of the fans around me. Now in this case "around me" means "on the same message board I am on right now, " because I'm not at a game and therefore not being influenced by thousands of booing, possibly drunk, people. Since I was only checking stuff during commercials, I could z though the comments without ire when I saw those same old arguments surface once again. Oddly enough, usually during a loss to one of handful of teams who represent "statement games." And these games only seem to matter when the Sharks lose them. No one craps themselves when they win. Hell, no one even seems to remember when the Sharks win those games unless they absolutely trample the other team. (how you doin' Calgary?)

It irks me that no one's come up with any new arguments. I have seen pretty much the same thing written over and over for several years now, and all it tells me is that other people aren't watching the Sharks and only pay attention to them when the headline is bad. I also get a sense of this feeling that the team owes us. They owe us these wins, they owe us a trip to the final round. They owe us big.

If that's the case I don't even want to think what the Leafs owe Toronto at this point.

Do fans of other teams trot out similar old tired line when they lose? Like if the Flames go down, do they get similar treatment? The Canucks? Washington actually might, though I don't see it written about very often. What about the Sens? Anyone? or is it just that as a skilled Pacific Division team that maybe hasn't quite lived up to its potential is easy pickings? Does the fact that the Sharks themselves pushed the Cup= Success, everything else is failure part of their playoff past figure larger into the equation than it gets credit for? Did a marketing ploy to get fans really into the game and team push us all over the edge?

I consider it lucky to get to the playoffs as many years in a row as the Sharks have. I know they've only gotten to the Conference Finals once, but dude, they are have a record for worst season ever on the books not all that long ago. It's not like they never improved. And why are we talking about the post season in February? We're not even there yet! Don't count your sharklings before they hatch!

For the love of crap people, don't start trying to kill each other when the Sharks lose. The only people who need to feel the loss with that much zeal are the guys who were on the ice. The rest of us need to chill the eff out.

Comments (4)Add Comment
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written by vancitycanuck, February 03, 2010
Omigod rain! Luckily in Vancouver we are used to both rain and mediocrity. But I don't think the Canucks have had a team in the last few years that are as good as the Sharks have been/and are now, but the pressure is still there. Every time we lose a 'statement game' against the Sharks or whoever, half the city is ready to throw the team under the bus. Those fans are irritating.
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written by ZeroIndulgence, February 04, 2010
There's a reason teams like Detroit and (at least last season) Chicago have success in playoff games. They are able to dictate the flow of the game. That's why its so frusterating to see a team of the Sharks' calibur get manhandled by good teams like that. If the Sharks truly want to take it to the next level, they need to start imposing their will on the opposition...something I have yet to see happen against quality competition (and as happy as I was about the Calgary game, seeing what they were doing coming into the game, and how poorly they continued to play afterwards, its not the same as if we had done that to Detroit or Chicago. Beating Washington was a good, quality win.).

Is the sky falling? No, absolutely not. Is it ok to point out some of these issues we see and even, gasp, express concern over them? Absolutely. It's the nature of analysis...
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written by CTGray, February 04, 2010
I don't mind expressing concern, but concern often seems to devolve rather quickly into a pity party where all people do it whine about how the Sharks can't get it done. That's what bugs me.

I've been reading the same damn arguments for several years now. At this point I think we could ship all our players our, get a whole new team and as long as someone in the building is the same, we'd get all the same complaints. Give me something new. Obviously, whatever the problem is, both we the fans and the management haven't found it yet because it's still happening. So really, why do we keep kicking that dead horse? It's not the right one to be beating and I suspect it's starting to smell pretty damn bad at this point.

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