No one has said this yet. But we could be ISLANDERS fans. Only thing that consoles me now. That and beer. Hope to see some great offseason pieces, Plank and crew.

This is the precise reason I will never make a recommendation on who should be awarded the “C”- it’s a facet of this team I’m not qualified to pass judgment on.

TatS so EZ!! dan boil iz lik teh best sHark! mak him kaptain!

-sHaRksfannn4eva

(quote in quote by design)

That is exactly why I haven’t been saying “FIRE PATRICK MARLEAU”. I just couldn’t have put it into words.

And that quote by sHaRksfannn4eva is all over Faceook.

Fear The Fin: Where Everyone Is Dying Alive

I had one hell of a time this season…the wins..the records…the camaraderie of FTF…

And to say I’m disappointed, devastated even, doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Still, I’ll take this season forward as one of the most fun I’ve had in many years. For 6 months I rode the wave and had a great time. Sure, I want more. But that’s what being a fan is all about (at least in my fandom experience) since I’ve never made it to the top. I’m not quitting on ‘em. I’m gonna just recharge and then anxiously await next season. My love for the Sharks won’t diminish, only grow stronger.

because I found a bar with $1 beers and the hockey playoffs in HD just in time for the last two games.

quick response to plank:

100% with you on Thornton. seriously, who friggin cares. he’s got nothing to offer up that we don’t already know, and anything he does say will just get picked apart by the media vultures.
And sure we should be happy with the Pres. Trophy, but all it serves as now is a chilling reminder of this playoff series loss.
Overrall, I’m right there with you about how this team is worth every minute. At least the city gets playoff games, it could be much, much worse.
The NHL playoffs are, and always will be, a crapshoot. About all you can do is get there every year and hope for the best. all these losses will just make it all the more sweeter when they do break through.

I may watch more hockey next season.

Emotions are high right now and people are having the knee-jerk reactions you’d expect them to. Getting bounced this early sucks balls, yes. It was still one hell of a season. We’ve still got a damned good team. I believe in Doug Wilson. He will bring Lord Stanley’s Cup home.

waiting for 101 years and counting.

But I cant.

I’ve tried to dig deep and tried to break it down. But I cant.

I’ve tried not to think about it all day, but inevitably in doing so, I’ve thought about it all day.

I can only be optimistic for the future, and hope that we can all make better sense of this when the dust settles.

Part of me would take quotes here and there of your post and insert my thoughts. But I’ve had a lousy day. Nearly everyone at work has come up to me to say “I’m sorry bout your Sharks” and all I could respond with was “I don’t want to talk about it”. Just wanted a day to let it seep in before I deal with it. I’m bitchy and it shows today.

Your other post showed that we would be damn lucky if TM was able to get the team a Cup this year. Being a first year coach and all. And I held back at the time of replying that he may be a first year coach, but they sure the hell aren’t first year players. Not the ones you come to depend on to make the big plays. They have the talent. It just didn’t work out.

I asked a friend of mine who has been following hockey alot longer than me, and has even played, “how is it possible that a team with this much talent can have this happen”. I’m still waiting on the answer. Guess I’m just depressed, and confused.

Kinda like having a genius child who chooses to not do anything with his brain but instead fuck around playing games. Just floors me.

Well … next year. Always next year. ugh!

This sums up almost exactly what I’m feeling and thinking. Yeah, I’ve been posting pretty positive stuff yesterday and today, but looking on the bright side only puts a band-aid on the pain, it doesn’t do anything to make it hurt less. Like today in school we received a paper that listed all the graduation/promotion dates and places for the middle and high schools in the district (Rose Garden for us, how original). A few of the middle schools do it at the Tank, and so there’s a little note at the bottom stating “Dates/times may change pending availability of HP Pavilion/Sharks playoffs.” I almost cried.

But still, that doesn’t mean that I can’t recognize how hard the Sharks played for a large majority of the series (one game excluded), and just how much Hiller stood on his head. The Sharks played their asses off, playing through all sorts of injuries (I bet a large sum of money that I don’t have that there will be multiple guys getting surgery this off-season, and that Marleau will reveal a rather large and painful injury that he was playing through). For that, I can’t be mad at them. Disappointed in yet another early exit? Yes, but not all the blame can be placed on the play of the Sharks.

At least you’re going to get to focus on the next three rounds of the playoffs without anxiety. I sat through game 2 and that was enough for me this playoff year.

I may be upset now, but I’ll find a way to get excited about every single move that happens this summer – who stays? who retires? who goes and who comes up from Worcester?

I don’t see fault in what DW has done, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. If we have the same roster next year, he will have done his homework and talked to all the right people. The Sharks’ problems at the end didn’t start in game 1 and probably won’t be finished by October. Be realistic!

to me choking is more about having something in your grasp and crumbling under the pressure. You could pretty well say the sharks did that against detroit and edmonton. But I think you’re right ,Plank, this is something else. They might not have shown up in a couple of the games this series, but sometimes you just lose. Unfortunately, as Gray points out, Sharks will be called chokers until they win 10 in a row, so let’s just move on with our lives

Red Wings are pretty good about shutting down one-line teams and deflecting garbage past super-human goalies. If the Duckies can beat them then we should all reconsider the depth of our disappointment.

Ducks are hot, match up well against the Sharks, and were pretty much the worst possible draw. How I curse the preds and wild for not winning just a couple more games! Hatred and fear toward the Ducks.

I know it’s a homer thing, but all the breaks bounced to the Ducks in this series. My ears still ring with the clanging posts and deflections hissing past the Ducks net.

I can’t, and therefore won’t try, to add anything else. Well put.

But man, I could use a little good fan karma lately. I tuned into the A’s game today to see if maybe the A’s could win and help me feel a little better…but they lost 4 people to injury in one game and lost on an error in the 8th. Ugh. I wonder what I did to anger the sports gods :-P

Take care of yourselves fellow Sharks fans. We’ll all pull through this together. :)

Plank, you’re right on. And to further elaborate on what joe579 said, I think writers are pissed he didn’t talk to the media after game 6 because it made their job harder. Waaaah.

And this applies to both Joe and Patty: the skillset you need to be an engaging, thoughful interview doesn’t remotely overlap with the skillset you need to be a world-class hockey player. Lack of the former sheds no light on the latter.

Except that I don’t honestly have a problem with the choke label. This is no disrespect to the Ducks, who we knew were going to be tough. I think it’s choking or not-justifying-their-seeding or not playing up to expectations (same thing, IMO) because they basically squandered all the hard work that brought them the #1 seed.

If you’re going up against a hot goalie and a tough, physical team, then you have to match them. Nabby didn’t match Hiller, at all. In the playoffs, Nabby has never just shut the door and outplayed the other goalie when it was clear the team needed it.

Our top line was outplayed by Getlaf/Perry/Ryan. Our second and third lines were outplayed by the Ducks, despite our better secondary scoring and depth. Our entire D was outplayed by the Ducks top-4. We couldn’t match the physicality of the Ducks, we couldn’t match the speed of the Ducks, and we couldn’t crash the net like the Ducks to get the kind of deflections that beat us.

The final outcome, 4-2, was no fluke, then. The Ducks played better individually and collectively. If we had completely outplayed them, but Hiller was out of his mind and stole 4 games, that’d be one thing. But it wasn’t. We spotted them two games, played a good game to get the first win, and then handed them the series with game 4. That’s a choke job. Being the top seeded team in the NHL and never being in the drivers seat of the series is choking.

The day after the Sharks loss, I go to work and the first thing I smell is the OVERWHELMING smell of burnt (pop)corn emanating from the break room….

Someone was rubbing it in, I swear….

Fate, you’re a cruel bitch.

I’ve gone from swearing off hockey to peeking at last night’s games to looking forward to the inevitable off-season moves by Wilson. I’m glad the Sharks take a measured approach to things, becuase reacting emotionally to this situation could be a disaster.

The Ducks are a very talented 8 seed, and I do think they will give Detroit fits. That’s a 7 game series all the way. If Hiller plays out of his mind again (and there is no reason to think he won’t), it really doesn’t matter what the Wings throw his way.

Yes Sharks, I’ll be back next year. And do me a favor: play mediocre hockey until the last 10-15 games of the season. Surge to a 4 or 5 seed and then kick ass and take names.