Considering how things have been going lately for the Sharks, they could have benefited from some luck of the Irish.

Eibhlin Byrne, the mayor of Dublin, Ireland, was on hand tonight at the HP Pavilion, celebrating some 20-odd years of sister-city status with San Jose in a pregame ceremony, during which she gave Greg Jamison a hurling stick.

Oh, but wait just a moment here - former Sharks captain Owen Nolan was in town tonight with his Minnesota Wild.  He too is Irish - from the Northern part.  Last I checked they don't look too kindly on the folks down there in Dublin...

Damn counteracting Irish mojos.... who would tip the mystic scales of Irish luck?  Well, let's just say that Owen Nolan knows something about scoring from the red line....

Conclusion - the luck of the Irish is with Nolan's team as the Sharks blow a three goal lead to lose to the Wild 3-4 in O.T... thanks in no small part to this little moment in time, coming nightly to a St. Paul Jumbotron near you.

There - tonight's debacle all makes sense now, doesn't it?

And if it doesn't (of course it damn well does not) - there's this explanation from the Sharks.... as for me, it's late, the post-game beer took root pretty well, I have a conference tomorrow, and I'm pretty effin' depressed that the Sharks are 1-3-1 in their last 5 games, even if the sympathy point puts them back in first in the NHL - where they don't currently belong. 

In other words, a spiffy game wrap is yet to come (in this here post, after the jump) sometime tomorrow - er, make that later today.

Sneak preview = "Without doing anything that would show up on the scoreboard or even his stat sheet, Dan Fritsche singlehandedly scared the crap out of me last night." 

See?  Didn't expect that angle, did ya?  Check back here later to see why a fourth line winger makes me considering owning stock in Depends... even in this economic downturn.