Now, on to the comments… because I actually have, ahem, work to attend to at 11:30pm.

Dude, sweet recap. I actually wouldn’t be adverse to doing this more often. And good luck, er, attending to business.

Everyone layed out a some solid points (Error-Hoff, losing puck battles etc.), so I thought I’d touch upon something that wasn’t thrown out around here.

I thought Boyle had a pretty poor performance tonight, and hasn’t been playing that well defensively for the last couple games. He would get outmuscled for pucks in the corners, had a terrible clear that directly led to the Phaneuf goal, and didn’t activate as much as he should have (especially with Calgary loading three players down low fishing out pucks in our attacking zone). With a team like Calgary, who’s extremely aggressive when pursuing the puck, a better performance needs to be seen from our defensemen in general, and Boyle in particular.

The loss of Blake for most of the game was unfortunate (anytime you skate 5 D-Men against a physical team you’re going to run into trouble), but that’s no excuse

Also (and this is just a minor caveat), the breakaway with about two and a half minutes left was due to his blown coverage. I understand he’s looking to push the play and try and make something happen late in the game down a goal, but getting caught out of position and giving up a great chance isn’t going to do us any favors.

• Cheers to Grier, Thornton (he’s finally shooting the puck!), Vlasic once again, and Nabby in particular. Other include Joslin who played well and saw a lot of ice time relative to my current expectations, Goc was decent, and Milan produced some decent chances.

Go Sharks.

I’m going to say the quality of my spelling of his name reflects the quality of Fraser’s work on the ice last night. Yeah… that’s it exactly. If the man did his job, I wouldn’t know who he is.

On a lighter note. I noticed Nabby was sporting a new mask last night. How long as he had that? It’s his usual design, just black instead of teal. Looked pretty sweet.

And now the bruins have claimed #1 in the NHL and rightfully so. they’ve been playing like champions all season and have been greatly underreported (just like hockey in general)

Those of us here who watched the game, either on TV or at the Tank, all seem to be less than enthusiastic about the effort of the Sharks last night.

Yet, Thornton and Coach both said it was great game, and extolled the virtues of the team.

Are we missing something?

I truly did not see it as a great game. I saw a couple of players (Thornton, Nabby) have great games, but sheesh, the rest of the guys were pretty hit and miss (mostly miss) at shots (or lack of them) passes, and hits.

The Sharks played hard, but the Flames played harder. They were aggressive on the forecheck, aggressive on the PK, quick on the transition and looking to hit, shove, push anyone in a dark sweater.

On paper it looks like the Sharks would have the edge in talent, but on the ice the Flames can roll four strong lines, which may have something to do with age and experience (aren’t the Flames one of the older teams in the League?)

I also found it unfortunate that Kerry Fraser didn’t set the tone early, and more or less ‘let them play’ – which in my opinion, provided an edge to the Flames and their style. Fraser’s M.O. is to even up calls and more often than not his games end up with each team awarded the same amount of power plays. I might venture to say this also helped the Flames who have a history of being ‘PIM happy’ whereas the Sharks tend to be far more disciplined. But in the end, SJ couldn’t convert on an abbreviated 5-on-3 & subsequent man-advantage op, so…..drats I say!

is that I have friends that are Flames fan. And they are doing nothing but giving me shit today. Shoot me someone!

from the worcestershire sharks site:
“In what has become an intense AHL rivalry, the Sharks used goals from Torrey Mitchell and Matt Fornataro to force overtime, while Fornataro added the game-winning goal in round seven of the shootout to spring Worcester to a 3-2 win over the Norfolk Admirals on Friday evening.”

so mitchell makes in impact in his first game back on the ice. oh well. yawn. no big deal.