San Jose, CA

From the glory of a Game Three OT win in sackin up fashion, to a heartbreaking loss in Game 4 to …. this?  On a day and time more suited to going to church than playing a Game 5 momentum shifter, San Jose came out with a stinker.  St Louis 5 San Jose 0.

All hands on deck, the San Jose fan base called out, here we go! Unable to contain the Blues 4th line again, Oscar Sundquist scored the game’s first goal.  I know what you’re thinkin, what kinda hockey name is Oscar?  Evidently a pretty good one because the bastard scored again in the 1st period.  That being said, the Sharks were down by one goal, not an insurmountable task..

The 2nd period bugaboo struck again, as the Blues ramped up the physicality and punched the Sharks in the face repeatedly.  The officiating was a challenge for San Jose as the Blues were given two 5 on 3 power plays, scoring on one of them. That, coupled with Vladimir Tarasenko’s, penalty shot on a very egregious takedown, put the Blues up 3-0.

There was still half of a game left, plenty of time for our heroes to rise to the occasion once again to battle back.  But it was not meant to be as one star after another was crushed and injured by the Blues punishing style.  Down goes Pavelski, out for the game.  Down goes Tomas Hertl on a hit that was by the very definition, a 5 minute major penalty.

A minor was called, San Jose lost one of its best players for the game.  The Blues killed it.  Joonas Donskoi took a stick in the face, bleeding profusely and left the game.  Erik Karlsson was a non factor as his cranky groin acted up again, rendering him little better than a pylon.

St Louis played a game reminiscent of their coach, Craig Berube’s Flyer roots.  In homage to the days of yore when the Legion of Doom was at their peak, when no quarter was given on either side, San Jose hung their collective heads and went out into the night, losers in the game of attrition.

Game 6 Tuesday.  Do or die.  Show me what ya got.  Not an irrational hope to win 2 games in a row.  Depending on the wounded, we’ll see if San Jose can rise from the blood and gore to reign triumphant another time.  Remember Game 7 against Vegas? Did we quit when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor?

Calling all Sharks, it’s time to Sackup.  Game On Fuckers!

St Louis, MO

Good Mornin St Louie!  Please stop whining and breaking sticks over your obvious meltdown.  What a game last night.  You had San Jose right where you wanted em. 4-3, you were controlling the play in the 3rd.  Martin Jones was standing on his head.  You were winning with about a minute left.

Then, who else but Logan Couture, scores the tying goal to send the crowd cryin into their cryin towels.  From Pavelski and Thornton, so calm and collected at the end.  Sure of their mission.  Knowing they are the better team.

But wait, there would be more drama in the OT period as each team traded quality chances.  As the Sharks drove the play deep into the Blues offensive zone, there was a scramble in front of the net.

Timo Meier with the puck, is knocked down.  As he falls, he hits the puck with his glove.  It then caroms off D man Jay Bouwmeester, directly to Gus Nyquist, who passes to Erik Karlsson, who rips it passed Blues goalie Jordan Binnington.  Game over!!!

As the Sharks celebrated, the Blues continued lobbying for the refs to call a hand pass on Timo.  After numerous replays, one can see the puck bounce off of Bouwmeester’s leg.  The rule is that for a hand pass to be called, the puck must go directly to a teammate from the hand of the offending player.

It did not.  It bounced off the opposing player to Nyquist.  Yeah, I get it St Louis, you feel robbed, jobbed  and otherwise screwed.  The hockey gods deemed that the Sharks should win and they seized the day.

In an official statement, the NHL said: “Plays of this nature are not reviewable. A hand pass that goes into the net can be reviewed, but a hand pass between teammates cannot be reviewed.”

A pool reporter caught up with Kay Whitmore, the NHL’s supervisor of officials for the series, and asked whether any of the officials saw the hand pass.

“What [did they tell] me? It’s a non-reviewable play. You can read between the lines. You can figure out what you want. You watched the video. But it’s just non-reviewable. I know that sounds like a cop-out answer, but that’s the truth,” Whitmore said.

Could the NHL’s “War Room” in Toronto have stepped in on a critical goal such as this?

“The way the rules are written, any chance there is to review, everything is reviewed that’s reviewable,” Whitmore said. “But as the rules currently stand, the play is non-reviewable.

“Carpe diem bitches!!

EK’s biggest goal ever!

Sweet victory!

Reilly the Hockey Dog sees another Sharks road win!

Denver, CO

Hey Sharks fans, its a glorious morning to wake up to, and a victory in Game 3 last night makes it even better.  Logan Couture, the Sharks version of Captain Clutch delivered in the 3rd period last night, just when the Sharks seemed to be sliding to a loss.

With San Jose firmly in control, leading 2-0 in the 2nd period the Avalanche began their familiar push to come back. Like most scoring for Colorado, it began with Nathan MacKinnon on one of his patented bursts of speed, he blew by Brent Burns and the defense to score the first goal.

An old friend came back to haunt the Sharks, scoring their second goal, former Shark Matt Nieto, on a deflection from in front to tie the game.  At this point, one can see the need for a hero and Couture did not disappoint as he faked Grubauer out of his jock strap with a nifty short side, well placed forehand shot, off the post and in to regain the lead.

The drama wasn’t over as Couture took a penalty with 3:30 to go in the game, but the PK was up to the task as San Jose weathered the onslaught of the Av power play. As is fitting when a guy has two goals, the Sharks got it to Couture to score into the empty net to complete the Hat Trick!

There were so many post shots for both teams, the Sharks with at least 5 and the Avs with 3, these guys are so amazing.  Martin Jones was solid and has really stabilized his game. Gus Nyquist was also driving the Sharks offense, he’s a keeper.

Paste the link below for a really nice highlight montage from NHL.com.

https://www.nhl.com/video/t-306627776

Shark Head

San Jose,CA

The San Jose Sharks are on an improbable journey, culminating in a Game 7 Victory in Round 1.  As the series unfolded against the VegAss Golden Showers, it became apparent that the Knights were younger, faster, and did I mention younger faster and supremely skilled?  They also have a goalie with three rings.

After Game 4, where they completely dismantled Los Tiburones, the faithful were understandable concerned.  Depressed even.  Outmanned, outgunned and the Knights brand of hockey was punching the Sharks in the face repeatedly. San Jose didn’t have an answer for the Mark Stone Line as they pummeled the Sharks relentlessly, seemingly scoring at will.

On to Game 5, back at home, San Jose scored first, and then kept scoring.  Playing perhaps their most complete game, they won 5-2.  Back to VegAss (smells like Ass in here), the Sharks scored first again, only to have the Knights tie it and there it stayed.  1-1 for all of regulation as the Golden Showers threw everything they had at the tired and beat up San Jose team.

Amazingly, the Sharks prevailed in the 2nd OT, 2-1 on a shorty by Tomas Hertl the Ninja Turtle.  Martin Jones was playing like another Marty from years past, as in Marty Brodeur the Hall of Fame goalie.  58 saves on 59 shots to lead the Sharks back to the Tank for the deciding Game 7.

So Game 7 begins with about a 10 minute push by San Ho, three power plays and nothing on the scoreboard.  The Knights scored first, ending the 1st period leading 1-0.  On to the second, where Cody (I’m fearing for my life!) Eakins scored to make it 2-0.  In spite of many high danger chances (the new term for scoring opportunities), San Jose headed to the 3rd period down by two, and Marc Andre Fleury was playing out of his mind.

The Shirts:  everyone brought a lucky shirt but inexplicably we weren’t wearing them because it was so hot.  As I realized I needed to do something fast to help my team, it occurred to me to say, PUT THEM ON! We did!!  Then this happened…..

The faces of my friends and I grew longer with each passing minute as VegAss continued to pour it on, with no hope as Flower completely stymied San Jose.  Then at the 10 minute mark, the unthinkable happened.  An innocent looking faceoff, a couple of cross checks from Eakins and Paul Stastny, and down went Capn America, Joe Pavelski.  A hush fell over the crowd as he lay on the ice, not moving.

The Sharks players stood around angry and helplessly as The Big Pavelski was helped to his feet by 4 players and the training staff, and headed to the locker room.  The refs huddled, and handed out a 5 minute major penalty to Cody (I’m in fear for my life!) Eakins.  For the uninitiated, that means the team with the power play can score as many as they can for 5 minutes.

What happened next was truly Karmic in nature and awesome for Sharks fans.  They scored their 1st goal in 49 seconds to cut the deficit to 3-1.  They scored again to make it 3-2.  Logan Couture scored to tie the game and bedlam ensued.  But wait, they still had 2 more minutes!  Kevin Labanc drove the net and scored from the slot to bring down the house and give San Jose the lead.

There was still almost 6 minutes still left in the game, yet the Sharks had scored FOUR GOALS in 4 minutes to take the lead.  VegAss came back with a vengeance.  For the next 5 minutes the Sharks were unable to clear the puck from their zone and with 47 seconds left the Golden Showers tied the game, knotting the score at 4.

On to OT, with most players out of gas, leaden legs and burning lungs, the Sharks put on career 4th liner Barclay Goodrow.  A good player, but he only had one shift in the overtime period.  Erik Karlsson hit him with a nice pass, he dangled around the D man with a power move and slipped it passed Fleury to win the game and cement his place in Sharks history.

What more can I say? Bring on the Avalanche, thats what!!

Barclay Goodrow scores the biggest goal of his career to win the game in OT!

The Tank, San Jose, CA

Wow. Underwhelming. Unlucky. Unconsistent.  Yes I know that isn’t a word.  The Vegas Golden Showers came to town last night on the back end of a back to back and smoked the Fish 6-3.  Martin Jones was very bad when they needed very good.  Clutch even.  Did not happen as the Sharks fell for the third straight home game after ripping off 6 straight wins and in general dominating opponents.

The tilt started promisingly as San Jose scored 30 seconds in to take the lead.  It wouldn’t last three minutes as Vegass scored twice in a couple of minutes.  To their credit, the Sharks responded with a clutch goal by Jumbo Joe to tie it again.  After that, San Jose chased the play for the rest of the night as the Goldens just physically beat the Sharks into submission.

Jonathan Marchessault scored on a sharp angle shot that had Jones flailing and whiffing on the puck to give Vegass the lead for good.  Jones’s night ended as Pete DeBoer had seen too much of not good enough.  Once the Sharks got behind, Vegass bent them over, smacked em around and in general got under their skin.  It isn’t in San Jose’s DNA to play smash mouth hockey and The Golden Showers made them pay on the power play, scoring three times.

Ryan Reaves was particularly effective in the physical play department, (yes they have one of those), as he used his linebacker like frame to intimidate the smaller Sharks, laughing all the way to victory. San Jose was missing key personnel as EK65 missed his umpteenth game and Captain America was out nursing the effect of a devastating body check laid on him by Filip Forsberg of Smashville in the previous game.

Another reason San Jose lost was trying to play their skill game when entering the O zone.  I know that sounds ignorant because that IS their game, but when an opponent is on you tight, you have to play the dreaded chip and chase style to create mayhem instead of searching for the perfect pass.  Over and over on the power play, San Jose passed up numerous good looks on shots to force a pass in where there was no space.

Where do they go from here you ask?  On the road, thats where as they visit the dreadful LA Kings and equally dreadful Anahymen Ducks to hopefully clinch a playoff spot.  They are still hoping to stay close enough to Calgary to wrest the top spot in the Pacific away from the Flamers, but its looking less likely.

As we enter the last 10 games of the season, San Jose is looking banged up.  They’re missing tip plays, the puck isn’t staying on their tape and opponents are going the other way and scoring. Justin Braun looked particularly bad on Reilly Smith’s goal a few seconds into the third as he fumbled a perfect clearing pass, which went directly to a Knight who played tic tac toe and put the dagger into the Sharks heart, scoring to make it 5-2.

I know that their unskilled play isn’t likely to continue, but it makes for a frustrating fan experience to watch a hated rival come into your barn on the second night of a back to back, dominate and win going away.  As the Sharks/Showers 1st round match up continues to look more likely every day, San Jose needs to reach deep down and find their game.  Again.

Reilly wonders about the phrase “Intent to Blow.”

A titillating phrase to be sure, “Intent to Blow”, meaning of course the ref meant to blow the whistle when he lost sight of the puck.  This occurred in Fridaze game against the Dallas Stars, when an apparent goal was waved off because the ref “intended to blow the whistle” as he lost sight of the puck under G Big Ben Bishop.

On the play, Bishop made the initial save and the play continued with a swarm of attacking Sharks around the net.  A second later, the puck was behind Bishop and San Jose began to celebrate.  However, the ref emphatically waved off the goal, indicating his “Intent to Blow” the whistle to stop play.

Upon review, the play stood as it was called, no goal.  Frustrating to say the least as the Sharks lost a tough game 3-2.  Lots of hitting by both sides, but ultimately the Stars would prevail as Bishop stopped a shitload of shot shots with his gigantic frame, 41 to be exact.  Martin Jones was almost as good stopping 27, and deserved a better fate.

“We have a 2-on-0 and the disallowed goal at one end, and they get a breakaway at the other end and we leave the period 1-1 instead of going up 2-0,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “It’s that simple. It’s a small margin right now.”

For those that watch the Sharks right now, there are no gimmies, all teams play hard against San Jose, causing many to question how good they really are.  Preseason pundits have them in the Stanley Cup Finals, but right now they aren’t even in the top ten of the Power Rankings.

On Saturday night, playing the Coyotes, the phrase Intent to Blow took on a new meaning as Arizona celebrated what they considered to be the go ahead goal, yet Aaron Dell stopped it just before it crossed the line.  Thank God for “Intent to Blow” in this case because the Sharks would go on to win the game 5-3.

We won’t talk about how they blew a 3-0 lead, because well, it my blog and we know how schizzy Team Teal is.  I’ll let Pete DeBoer tell you.

“We found a way to win,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “We were a little fragile, but at the same time, I didn’t think we gave them a whole lot. It seems like right now the chances we give end up in the net. I think there’s a lot more good than bad, but we still have some work to do.”

It’s a long season, yes, and we do have a lot to like about San Jose’s game.  Incredibly skilled on offense, Brent Burns is horrible on defense.  HORRIBLE.  Stalwart D man Marc Eduard Vlasic looks tired or injured as really fast guys go around him.  Brendon Dillon and Evander Kane are the only two Sharks I can see willing to hit anyone.  Honorable mention to Radim Simek, San Jose’s newest D call up for leveling some devastating hits recently.

Logan Couture on a sweet breakaway puts it through the 5 hole on Aiden Hill.

Me and the Boys out for a skate.

Great stuff goin on across the league, Hockey fights Cancer, Mustaches grown by teenagers to draw attention to the fight and some great games in the last couple of days.  While in a turkey induced haze, I watched a few games yesterday including the Flyers/Rangers, Hawks/Lightning and the Nucks/Tiburones.

Flyers game was close and well played by Philadelphia and Henrik Lundquist.  The King stopped 39 shots and generally stood on his head to keep the BlueShirts in the game but Philly and G Calvin Pickard were too strong.  The game was 1-0 for most of it with the Flyers breaking it open near the end with 3 unanswered goals to win going away 4-0.

The trouble in Second City continues for Patrick Kane and Johnny T as the Lightning defeated them at home 4-2.  Tampa was seemingly scoring at will early in the game leading 3-0 and 4-1 before the Hawks found their game to score a couple of goals.  Louis Domingue played very well in a backup role to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is out with a broken ankle.

Sharks and Canucks was competitive but San Jose won going away 4-0.  Eric Karlsson had a three point game including a power play goal and the primary assist on his brother from another mother Melker Karlsson.

However, the dark side of the Sharks reared its ugly head the next night in Vegas, as San Jose was pummeled, rolled, kicked to the curb and not even given taxi fare home as the Golden Showers beat em up 6-0.  Inexplicable to me how a team could dominate one night, travel 300 miles and get their teeth kicked in.

Vegas is still a formidable team evidently, as the Sharks continue to have trouble with their neighbors in the Pacific Division. They have never beaten Knights in the regular season over 1+ years except for an OT win in San Jose last year. Thats 0-4-1.  Next up, the redhot Beefalo Sabres in B town.  Good luck Team Inconsistent!

The Tank, San Jose, CA

Captain America saves the day.

The Nashville Predators come to town with a gaudy won loss record, best in the NHL and leave with a stunning loss to the San Jose Sharks.  Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski put the dagger in Nashville’s heart and twisted it for good measure by tying the game late in the third and then scoring the winning goal 13 seconds later to win 5-4.

Nashville was coming off of an OT loss to the hated Anahymen Ducks on Monday, and looked out of sorts in the first period as San Jose put up a three spot on the Preds.  Nashville looked slow and was trying to “get their legs” as the Captain, Marcus Sorensen and the new Anntii in town, Anntii Suomela scored to give the Sharks a commanding 3-0 lead.

3-0 lead is nothing against the Predators as they stormed back with 2 goals in less than 4 minutes and pinned the Sharks in their own zone for the rest of the second. They scored the tying goal with about 2 minutes left in the second period and then took the lead to open the 3rd period as San Jose was looking up at the Preds, as they took a 4-3 lead.

Nashville continued to frustrate the Sharks as they controlled the play and almost scored again with about 10 minutes left in the game, but Martin Jones made the save of the year on Filip Forsberg. Jones was hugging the far right post, and then as Forsberg chose the top left corner, performed a Jackie Chan kung fu maneuver by launching himself back to the left, flying across to save the day, snaring a certain goal as Forsberg stared in disbelief.

A few minutes later, Joe Pavelski scored from his office in the slot to tie the game at 4-4.  On the ensuing face off, Joe Thornton won it and sped down the half wall, took a pass from Sorensen and scored the 400th goal of his illustrious career over the glove hand of Jussi Saros to win it for the Home team.

Nashville has only lost 3 games in regulation and 4 overall, all to teams from the Pacific Division and two to San Jose.  Both Sharks wins were of the dramatic come from behind variety and particularly galling to the Preds because they had come back from a 3-0 deficit and were poised to send the home crowd home with long faces.

It was not to be as Joe Thornton joined a select group of players with 1500 games, 400 goals and 1000 assists.  Only 6 others had done this, including the Great Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, Jaromir Jagr and Ray Bourque.  No, not even Wayne Gretzky did it.  Damn, he’s good and a certain Hall of Famer on the first ballot.

Joe Thornton scores his 400th as teammates mob him.

Joe Thornton scores the tying goal in the Flyers game. Classic form!

11/3/18 San Jose, Land of Tesla

Your intrepid reporter was there ensconced in a corner seat in section 110

Big game last night for San Jose as they took on the Philadelphia Flyers.  It was Star Wars night at the Tank and the place was rockin. We got free Star Wars shirts, mine says Obi Wan Kaneobi.  Philly was in town and the Sharks historically have owned them, 20+ wins over the last 25 games.

The contest was a see saw affair with the Flyers scoring first, and jumping back ahead as the Sharks would tie.  G Calvin Pickard was playing well and denying most of the San Jose forays into the O zone.  It was Timo Time Again! when he tied the game on a beauty of a touch play from Tomas Hertl.

Joe Thornton was a force in the game as he scored the tying goal with a few minutes left in regulation.  He continues to make strides returning from an infection in his surgically repaired knee that sidelined him for nine games.  Regulation ended with the game tied at three.

Thirteen seconds into OT Timo Time reared its ugly head for Philly, when Meier got loose and scored on a sweet feed from Logan Couture.  Damn that dude can play, 11 goals in 14 GP setting a Sharks team record, passing Patrick Marleau.

This game was played fast and furious as these two teams don’t like each other.  The Sharks made numerous bad passes with Erik Karlsson leading the way. But he also made some great plays, Deep penetration into the O zone almost at will.  Throwing it right to a Flyer to foil a great entry into the zone.  In a word, inconsistent which has been a theme all season in my columns. and in Erik Karlsson’s play.

The Flyers committed to a more East/West style of zone entry as they played cautiously with the lead, This allowed them to pounce on mistakes and score twice at the end of the first two periods, once with 30 seconds left and once with less than a minute remaining.

Erik, RELAX, we know you’re great.

To wrap it all up, the Sharks got a win and the fans (or most of them) went home happy.  The drunk Flyer fans were pretty funny but went home sullen and silent, while exultant strangers high 5 ed each other in the hallways.  Its why we go….

Face off at the Good Ole Hockey game.  Did I mention I was there?

San Jose, CA

Reilly T. the Hockey Dog

With the return of Joe Thornton to the lineup, the Sharks are looking to establish the defensive consistency they are known for playing, because is has been lacking.  They are scoring.  Timo Time is my favorite time now, with the emergence of Timo Meier, the Swiss born forward.  Dude can play.  But their woes would continue on Tuesday against a rebuilding Rangers team as they fell in a shootout 4-3.

To their credit Tomas Hertl scored with 1.3 seconds left to tie the game and salvage a point from an otherwise rather drowsy game.  Martin Jones hasn’t gotten into his normal rhythm of facing a good number of shots to to stay focused and has given up goals at very inopportune times to snatch defeat from the grip of victory.

The Erik Karlsson era is a mixed bag by the eye test, if not by the analytics test.  I only watched him sporadically when he played with the Ottawa Senators, but what I saw impressed me.  Two years ago, he played in the Eastern Conference Finals with broken bones in his heel, and almost singlehandedly willed the Senators to the Stanley Cup.  He won two Norris trophies for for best D man in the league.  He can dangle through three or four guys and put sick shots on goal.

But…, he’s still learning how to play with his new team.  He has on several occasions given the puck directly to the other team and the turnover has led to goals for the other side.  His penchant for pinching up has given Karlsson some trouble with the transition game.  There is no question he is fast enough to “Play Fast” in today’s NHL, but again, I’m waiting for consistency.  From him and all the rest of the Sharks.

With a lot of San Jose’s players over thirty, one might try to say that they need to get younger.  I disagree and can articulate it this way: playing fast requires lightning reflexes, touch passes, stretch passes, Straight up North/South speed and incredible stickhandling.  The Sharks have all that and more, clutch scoring and even some snarl from Brendon “Dilly” Dillon and Evander Kane. Good balance across the board.   But something still needs some tweaking.

I miss Chris Tierney, he was in the Karlsson trade.

While it is debatable that I have an articulate thought, I’ll leave you with this one.  San Jose is supremely talented and might win the Cup.  Now wouldn’t that be nice!

Most games leave me hanging by a thread!