Releasing the Dragon

I think we take too much time sometimes focusing on what needs to be worked on, and never giving any real thought or full-breakdown analysis of what went right when our team(s) storm the competition and leave no survivors. That's just what happened last night, as the San Jose Sharks tore open the Calgary Flames in a 9-1 blowout that saw the Sharks' club set a record for number of goal scorers with 8, and put more past Miikka Kiprusoff than ever before.

Sometimes, it's too easy to be hyper-critical of a team that's underperforming, or even a team that's just performing below the levels we expect or hope for. When you look at the current Sharks roster, it appears that all the pieces are in place -- there's the talent-soaked top line of Dany Heatley - Joe Thornton - Patrick Marleau as well as some depth and grit down the lines. The last few weeks, though, have all been about that superstar trio leading the charge, with little to no contribution from most of the second- and third-line forwards in that span -- until last night,those when the boys in Teal rallied behind the comforting glow of Setoguchi's freshly-shaved head, and every single member of those lines notched a goal (linked in the order in which they scored)

The scary part of this, though, was that it was still not a perfect performance. It was a full 60-minute "all in" sort of play, to be sure, but after a pair of back-to-back penalty kills in the second period, the Sharks did end up back on their heels for a good part of the middle frame. There were some giveaways in the neutral zone that made sure Evgeni Nabokov had to show up and bring a solid performance as well, keeping it scoreless despite those penalties through the first 45 minutes of play before Robyn Regehr finally notched the Flames' first of the game, and his own first of the season, denying our beloved Russian diva his shot at a shutout to come off of his own schneid of sorts.

I really thought that the first period was about the best hockey the Sharks have put together all year. They were all over the Flames in every aspect, from puck control and laser-accurate passing to winning the battles in all corners of the rink, San Jose simply refused to let up. Some of that steam diminished in the second, but not enough for Calgary's tastes as the Sharks still pulled together for three goals in the last 8 minutes, including the first tick from the explosive top line coming from Heatley on the Power Play with just about five minutes left to close out the period.

Just about the only thing missing from the scoresheet was a goal from league leader Patrick Marleau, but any time a team sees contributions in the G column from eight personnel, the one-game "slump" is easy enough to overlook; perhaps the former captain knows a thing or two about letting the other guys shine from time to time. A second blast from Heatley in the 3rd, together with markers from defenseman/captain Rob Blake and recently rekindled (and bald-headed) Devin Setoguchi brought the final insult to the slamming of Calgary's defense and goaltending as the Sharks land three goals in each of the three periods despite head coach Brent Sutter's understandable decision to bring in backup Curtis McElhinney in a late-game bid to try and slow the bleeding.

The Sharks caught a plane to Los Angeles straightaway following the game; hopefully, they didn't pile all of their goals into one half of this back-to-back tilt, and we'll see them light the lamp in SoCal tonight.