Just going to hit on a few quick points before launching into some essays below.

First, the Sharks needed this win and it was great to see them get it. Having already beat the Ducks twice this season, it would have been a massive embarrassment to continue the 5 game losing streak against them. Not to mention losing another game on home ice. That would have made for a long 4 days between games for both fans and players if that had happened.

I believe I coined the term "Boozalf" last night. Use it with zeal.

I didn't get to watch all of the first, but I was listening to it. The Sharks didn't start out strong, but the definitely picked up by the second half of the 1st period. I'm a little mixed on this because Anaheim played in Vancouver the night before, and you'd think the Sharks, knowing this, would come out strong against them, but it didn't quite happen that way.

By the second, however, the Sharks were dictating the play. The Ducks started to throw their bodies around, trying to out muscle the Sharks because it was becoming obvious that they couldn't out hustle them. Unlike in years past, however, the Sharks kept control of the game, and their emotions for the large part, to take a 2 goal lead.

Perry and Murray had a few run ins. Some more heated and out of hand than others. You may be a goalie seeking missile, Corey Perry, but Douglas Murray eats men like you for breakfast.

Anaheim came back to absolutely dominate the beginning of the third. It was painful to watch as all the energy and zest the Sharks had in the 2nd fell to the ice and stayed there as Boozalf scored an early goal on Nabby. It was a helluva shot too.

The Sharks spent most of the first 3 minutes of the third stuck in their own zone. They looked terrible. It was absolutely ridiculous.

That's been one of the problems the Sharks have had all season. They can't reliably clear the puck out of their zone, and it's lead to some nasty consequences. Forget the fancy passing and pretty looking plays, just get the puck the hell out of your zone, and try to do it while avoiding icing. The Sharks burned their timeout after being stuck on the ice for way to long because they're efforts to clear the zone, and clear it well, were less than successful. Icing, icing, icing, icing, and oh look, icing. Ugh.

At some point the Sharks realized that this would be a stupid way to lose a game, and they put their collective feet back down on the gas, and once again started controlling the play. After that, what had been a surprising 2-1 game quickly became a 4-1 beauty.

Have to give major props to Jiggy. He kept the Sharks scoreless in the first and did everything he could to keep his boys in the game after the went down by two. He played out of his mind. Thankfully for us, so did Nabby. Giguere looked really good though and I spent the better part of the first wondering if this was going to be another one of those games where the opposing goaltender throws up his force field and gives us absolutely nothing but amazing saves all night.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, click read more below to read more. You will be glad that you did.

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…

Looking for something to do between now and the next round of Sharks hockey? We have a few suggestions:

CSN-BA has the Caps Avs game on tonight at 6:30. Yay for out of market hockey!

Versus has the Flyers and Pens tonight at 4pm Sharks time, 7pm Eastern. Double yay for out of market hockey!

Manny Malhotra is doing a meet and greet at the Sharks Store today at 4:30. Bring something to sign and void your bladders before getting in line.

In the East Bay? So is Torrey Mitchell! Bring a toy!

GuysGirl takes on pink jerseys. What sayith you, dear readers?

Exercise is always good. No really. It is. Get out there before it rains again. Or jog in the rain. Just be visible.

For those amongst us who like dancing, SYTYCD is having part one of it's fall season finale tonight. Results tomorrow. Personally I think this season was a bit lack luster. It should probably stick to being a summer show. Getting scheduled oddly due to the World Series and now the end of the fall season, it's had a harder time flowing that it has in the past. But that dancing was still good, so, can't complain too much.

I'll be painting. You could be Christmas shopping on Etsy. I have a store there. Just saying. More stuff to be added after I finish this piece I am working on. Every toon I have drawn for a gameday this season  is for sale. Feel free to convo me on Etsy if you don't see your team. I haven't had the chance to list them all yet.

Get to it!

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.

Maybe a new alignment will help. I don't know. What I do know is that today's game is a 5pm. Be there. If you're late it may go to a shoot out. No one wants that.

Last night was all bad. he first was muy excellente. Leach looked good on his first night as a Shark and Randy and Drew were in fine form. (Randy Hahn, "the ultimate delay of game") Then, at some point in the second, Drew asked who stole the hockey game. It had gone from rough back and forth wow zing boom action in the first to slow grind with really only one team doing the skating and it wasn't the Sharks.

Nabby and Turco had a hell of a goaltending duel going all night though. It was amazing. Just amazing.

That save Turco made on McGinn? Unbelievable. ( looked, and NHL.com doesn't have it in the game highlights. Real shame)

The game really shouldn't have gone to the shootout, but it did. I hate the shootout, but not for the reasons you might think. Yeah, it kinda sucks that a skills comp gets to decide the end of a (hopefully) hard fought 65 minutes of hockey, but what really annoys me about it is that stress. Last night I had to sit through 11 rounds of anticipated heart break, waiting for the moment when I could either be filled with sweet relief or collapse, sad and drained, into the floor in front of my television. My better half sat watching me, with hint of sardonic glee in his eyes, as I cheered for my team and chanted Nabby's name over and over in the hopes it's help him make a save. He's not a sports fan, so to him, the shootout is a humorous look at how people react to chance in sports. For me, it's a chance to find out what hypertension feels like.

No sir, I don't like it.

What to expect tonight then? I don't know. It's the second night of back to back games, with travel having been involved for one team and not the other. The Sharks are coming of a series of home losses. The 'Yotes are also coming off a loss, but word yesterday that Ice Edge issued a letter of intent to buy the club and keeping them in the desert has to be helping morale big time. (If it needed any help to begin with. The 'Yotes have been playing inspired this season)

Perhaps I should have suggested the Sharks win it for the mammoths instead of Randy Hahn last night, since it didn't seem to do much to inspire them.

Do it for the mammoths Joe. Do it for the mammoths.

Tonight @ 7pm! Half an hour earlier than normal. Synchronize your Swatches!

Some times there are no words to express who one feels. At these time we turn to cartoons (and the words inside them, because those words are different.)

I suppose I should mention that the game against the Flames was Randy Hahn's 1000th as the play by play tv guy and the Sharks lost that game. They still need to win for him to properly celebrate.

Go Sharks.

That title could refer to many points in last night's game, but I am specifically referring to, and making a joke about, the decision to wave off Patty's goal late in the third.Another instance of  the intent to blow rule causing what was an otherwise reviewable, (and good), goal to be left high and dry. That goal could have won the game in regulation for the Sharks, assuming that the Kings didn't tie things up in the few minutes left following it. It wouldn't have been a good win by any means, but it would have been a win nonetheless.

The ref assured us that Patty had pushed Ersberg into the net, and he had intended to blow the whistle before the puck crossed the line. Whatever. I'm really beginning to hate that rule.

The replays showed that not only did Patty NOT push Ersberg back into his net, (Ersberg fell back himself, likely in an effort to stop the puck) the puck crossed the line before the whistle blew. But, again, intent is more important than actual actions on the ice. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there needs to be some level of fudging allowed because the refs are human, and can only react so quickly, but on plays like that, where it isn't clear, I'd rather they just review it. If you review that and say "nope, I made the right call." then fine. Just look at it, is all I am asking.

Click read more to read more.

I sort of hate doing this again, but to be honest, I really want to drag some more eyeballs to this blog, and this might be a way to do it.

A week or two ago, we mentioned we were in a blog off on an NHL board. Well, thanks to you all, we made it to round 2. We need your help to make it to round 3!

We're not FTF, we know this. We don't provided the wit and info FAS does, and we can't beat Plank and TCY (and K), which is probably why we're friends with the lot of them. And while I feel bad asking for you to vote for us over PJ...uhm...well, that's business. So if you get a moment, stroll on over to the round 2 thread and give us some love. In the not creepy way.

And hey, if you have some constructive criticsm, don't be scared to post it there. Gray's reading what's being said, and taking into account all possible improvements. (including to her spelling/proofreading skills)

Ah, the Kings. Why do you have to be so good this season? Why? We need an easy win at home, and you, good sirs, will not provide us with that. No, no, what you will do is cause us an insane amount of trouble. That is what you DO.

The Sharks will be facing the King's backup, Esberg, not Quick, but we have seen backups become brick walls against the Sharks before. I swear they all have some goalie force field hidden in the away locker room. They send each other texts so they can find it. This is the only sane explanation I can think of.

I don't usually do predictions but I think this game will make me roll my eyes and sigh at some point. You can put a crisp, new Washington on that call.

Solid as Ms. Cleo.