Saving the Sharks

Hockey announcers are some of the best in the business. Jack Edwards just compared beating the Canadiens to beating the “red coats” on Patriots Day- got to love hockey announcers. Glad to also see the Capitals read my blog and finally started to work for their goals like Lindsay Lohan for alcohol. The Caps now have passed on the choke artist role to a team in the West, keep reading.

Off to my Tuesday segment called my Timeout! The San Jose Sharks won the Presidents’ Trophy. Usually that is not a recipe for success, but it also isn’t a recipe for losing your first two games at home. I give Jonas Hiller credit, a lot of it. He has been the hot goalie, saving 77 of 79 shots he has faced. I also don’t forget that this Ducks team has Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and a healthy Francois Beauchemin who leads the team with 8 blocked shots and defenseman with 5 credited hits. Sharks fans hate the Columbus Blue Jackets right now with a passion, the team that free-fell in the last week causing San Jose to clinch a date with the Ducks. Enough with all the blame. I feel like Kayne West blaming people for not winning awards, but the Sharks are where they are because of the way they have played. Now, they only have a 12.7 percent chance of coming back from two games down to win the series, and I doubt this will be the 2002 Red Wings who went down 0-2 in their first series and not only won but also took home the Stanley Cup. The Sharks need to get dirty like Cheechoo did on that second goal, not to mention 0-12 on the power play against a team that ranked 23rd in the regular season. I just don’t see this team coming back but would love to see them make a fight for it.

So will Jack Bauer now get with Agent Walker now that Larry Moss is out of the way? The other two big games Tuesday- because we all know the Canucks and Red Wings will win- are on the East Coast. The Devils finally won an OT playoff game in Raleigh (1-6 in career) when Travis Zajac scored on Cam Ward. This was a big win, for they did it without their leader Jamie Langenbrunner, who most likely will miss Game 4 with a “lower body injury.” I, like many, have enjoyed watching the goalies in this series and expect more of the same Tuesday night. Lastly, the series with all the punch: The Penguins are lucky to be up in this series 2-1, and the Flyers played an almost perfect game on Sunday. The Orange and Black still had 11 penalties in that game and have given their Keystone State rivals a total of 20 power plays; the Penguins have a power play goal in 5 straight playoff games. I was very disappointed to hear that Chris Kunitz had not been suspended for his leaping hit on Timonen, but I can’t argue with the Penguins’ game plan to punish the Flyers’ best defenseman; you can already see what a difference Timonen has made in this series from previous years. Most thought this series would go 7. Now it is time for the Fly Guys to even it up or for the Pens to take a stranglehold on it. Boy, it will be fun to watch.