Last night's game wasn't bad. The Sharks hit like 5 freaking posts and Kipur made this ridiculous save to deny Nichol at one point. Many, many many close chances for the Sharks, but they just couldn't tie it.

There was a fight like 8 seconds in. 8 seconds. Who says these two teams don't have a bit of a rivalry?

There were a few fights, actually, though none were overly impressive. The good thing is the Sharks weren't letting the Flames throw them all over the ice, as they have in past years.

Iginla wanted Douglas Murray. Douglas Murray welcome the challenge. Both sides had their fair share of checking players who, like Murray, are brick walls on skates.

Ok, Bouwmeester pushed Nabby's net off the moorings and nooooooooo one said anything. No call, though it was quite obviously. I think he also shoved McGinn into Kipur. Ridiculous.

TONIGHT @ 7pm Toys for Tots night! Bring a new unwrapped toy!

Tonight marks Randy Hahn's 1000th game as the tv play by play man for the Sharks. I'm sort of sad I will be at the game and will be missing his calls, but I'm sure they'll do SOMETHING for him before the game. One of the trainers got a big ole bottle of wine and his very pregnant wife got flowers. Maybe Drew will give Randy flowers. That would be epic.

The first rule of disappoint game club is you don't talk about disappointing games. Not going to compare the last game to the Flames last game or talk about how both teams will be fired up because we all already know that and it's a tied line. No, instead I'd like to talk about how much games against the Flames annoy me.

It doesn't matter where they are, or where the Sharks are, in the standing, the Flames are like that petulant school yard bully who you now tower over but he still tries to pick on you anyway because he's a jerk and that what jerks do. The Flames always play hard, always play tough and always end up infuriating me with how good they are.

One can trace much of my remaining animosity towards the Flames back to the 2008 quarterfinals. That series nearly did me in. I think it nearly did both fan bases in. It was nuts. And then last year I think there was a game when the Sharks just totally embarrassed the Flames, only to go to the Saddledome and find themselves equally red-faced. Not really a fan of any team embarrassing the Sharks but for some reason it feels that much worse when it's the Flames.

And for some reason I can't quite discern, despite the Flames recent playoff record, they don't get the same crap the Sharks about the post season. This only adds to my consternation.

I often remind myself that if nothing else, at least we have this:

That call is legendary.

So I'd like to think the following conversation occurred on the ice in the last 30 seconds of the game:

"Hey, you know what would be good?"

"What?"

"Letting the Blues tie!"

"Really?!"

"Oh come on, it will add DRAMA! Get the fans all hyped. We can take them in OT."

"OK!"

To be fair, this did not take me as long as the opening night pictures (which never got a post here but can be found here) or the Nashville photos (which are still sitting in my Lightroom catalogue and may see the light of day sometime).  I was hoping to have them up the night of the game but Flickr was having none of that idea.  There are a lot more photos than the number I actually posted which prolly means I should pay more attention and take fewer pictures. In case this post isn't enough, the whole set can be found here.

Tonight @ 7:30. It's a Toy's For Tots night if you're going!

I bought a kick ass dinosaur toy for Saturday's game. I wanted at least one kid to have a super cool nerdy toy, and since the Mythbusters Science Kit was a bit outside my budget range, I opted for a dino. Who doesn't like dinosaurs?! We saw a dude at the game Tuesday in a Pterodactyl sweatshirt from like 1989. He inspired me. I used to have one with a Stegosaurus, or maybe a Brontosaur when they were still Brontosaurus. Bad ass. Dinosaurs rule. Also, Pluto is still a planet in my book.

I am so bitter with you Mr. deGrasseTyson. You have no idea.

I have a super awesome sports coat and a PhD in astrophysics. What do you have?

Only sadness, Mr. deGrasse Tyson. Only sadness.

I love Patrick Marleau. And even though half of them spent the past few summer's bitching about him, Sharks fans love Patrick Marleau. (The cool ones, anyway) Tonight was his 900th game, all of which have been for team Teal. And he goes out and scores two goals, one of which came while he was bleeding. Dude is leaking life onto the ice and he's like "'scuse me, watch this" and BLAMO, the puck is in the net.

Yeah.

Patrick Marleau is awesome.

Thomas Greiss still scares me. He's better, oh yes, he IS better. But his lateral movement is still slow as molasses and he looks surprised by the puck sometimes. (and at times when I wouldn't think he should look surprised) He did his job tonight and only let Milan get two past him, but...well, it was a little iffy at times.

It didn't help that the Sharks decided the ice was tilted towards whichever end would most benefit the Senators. This got to be rather annoying. The natives grew restless and grumblings were heard. Seriously, Sharks, OUT OF YOUR ZONE!

Some were worried Milan got booed when he scored. No. His goals were booed. He got cheers and claps from both Sens and Sharks fans alike. We loved him when he was here. Seeing him succeed elsewhere will be met with cheers, so long as his success doesn't lead to a Sharks loss.

Cheechoo was also received warmly and lots of CHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEECHHOOOOOOOOOOOsssss echoed throughout the Tank. They should him on the jumbo-tron at some point, and the whole crowd cheered like we did for him last season. he looked up, tried hard not to smile, and looked away. Mina thought he might cry. He didn't. Cheechoo train whistles were also in effect when he touched the puck. I wish I'd brought mine.

Jamie MCGINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN scored a goal. Love this kid. Keep him here Todd! No more woostah express for him. Please!

There was an early fight between Not Kyle and Carkner. It wasn't all that impressive.

Poor Dan Boyle was having a bad game. So was our fourth line.

Vlasic and Blake are not the dynamic defensive duo I was hoping for. This saddens me.

Our power play was stale tonight. It was like "Really, guys?" and the Sharks were like "Yep," and the whole Teal portion of the Tank went *SIGH*

"Train, train, Cheechoo Train, Sharks still went out and won this game. Cheechoo, oh yeah, Cheechoo."

I sang that song several time to Mina, while doing my impression of the dance. It was pretty epic.

The guys next to Mina were awesome as always. "Scoring of goals, destroyer of worlds." was how they described Milan.

The guys next to me where just fine, but one got really drunk and started telling the other about his sex life and how none of it would be possible without Viagra. I learned way too much about a 50ish year old male stranger's personal life tonight.

It was...enlightening.

Tonight @ 7:30

Tonight's rivals: Five for Smiting

Holy balls, it's December!

That's not really relevant but it is kind freaky, so I thought I'd mention it.

Speaking of things that are both barely relevant and freaky, in researching this piece I was pointed at this awesome, yet outdated video by a friend.

Which Mina discovered begat this video

We enjoy how the Cheechoo in this video looks confused. I know I would were I him.

Which in turn begat this video, but only after the trade. (Mild language, may be NSFW)

None these folks address the real issue here, which is whether or not anyone will even be focused on the frakking game, instead of Dany Heatley. Dany Heatly, Dany Heatley, Dany Heatley... We really don't care about Dany Heatley's past drama. We had our reservations, we did. But he's been quiet, good, and is scoring for us. That's all we were asking of him. So we just don't care.

We will be happy to see Milan and Cheech again. We loved them here and were sad to see them go. We knew Cheech was on his way out but still, when he was traded, it was a sad day. (despite what the third video might tell you)

Train train, Cheechoo train, don't put your feet into the boards again. Train, train... (The aliens will come!)

Isn't Fin terrifying? I swear he is one of the scariest mascots. Ever.

It's a well known fact that if you were send the Sedin twins to Mina, she would not want to see them dance. If you were to send them to her WITH Danny Miller, she'd take the twins and slam the door in Miller's face.

Fin would probably eat Danny Miller. I have no proof of this but there are enough pictures floating around the internet to know that he's likely to do something unexpected. Eating the in house announcer for the Sharks would be pretty unexpected. I don't think he'd eat Joe Ike. Joe Ike is too cool to eat.

So that game last night was one of those games that comes along every season and makes you shake your head. It's a game you know the Sharks SHOULD win, and should have an easy time winning, but for whatever reason they come out flat and barely eke out a win. Usually in the shoot out.

Last night's game? Decided in the shoot out.

It wasn't all flat cola though. Patty had a HATTY! Gotta love that.

JOEPA! won it in the SO with that fantastic goal of his.

Nabby made saves. In the SO. Booyah.

And the Sharks managed to tie with something like 30 seconds left in the game, all thanks to the magic that is (still my Captain) Patrick Marleau.

For a team that is supposed to have one of the best second periods of play this season, the second kinda sucked. I'd comment on the first but it was like watching a vintage game circa 1990. So fuzzy. Those were maybe skaters, but they also might have been blob monsters. I'm not entirely sure. And the picture kept cutting out. It was gloriously comcastic.

It looked like the Sharks were likely to drop another one after the now infamous performance on Wednesday, but somehow they pulled it together in the third and were able to get through a scary OT period without being scored on. Not the type of game you want to see after a really terrible game two days prior though. But hey, 2 points? I'll take'um!

Ok, we all know what the storyline of this game will be.

"DANY HEATLEY RETURNS!"

"DANY HEATLEY BACK IN THE CITY HE SCORNED!"

"DANY HEATLEY, BACK! TO FACE FANS FOR FIRST TIME WITH NEW TEAM!"