Postgame: Half is Good

Assuming nobody minds, I plan to prattle mindlessly as a wrap-up to each game from here on out. I'm not really much of a sports writer, as this marks my second-ever attempt following the recap of the Sharks-Flames game, but I figure it may as well be done. I enjoy writing for the sake of writing, and this is a good way to have material that I'm interested in to write about. If I'm stepping on any toes, stop me; if anyone has advice, criticism, or whatever else, throw it at me in the comments.

Heading into last night's game against the Los Angeles Kings, I quipped to my wife, "I'd be happy to see just half the effort they put up last night in this game." If you round up, that's exactly what the San Jose Sharks delivered in their 5-1 handling of their division rivals, who had been a foil for the boys in teal earlier in the season. As their last meeting, this is the one that will be freshest in the minds of Kings fans should these two clubs clash in the postseason later this year; I imagine, though, that Sharks fans will keep in mind the heavy-handed defeat that LA brought to HP Pavilion on January 2nd as part of a jam-packed end to the regular season series between the two.

Looking at the scores for each game, one might assume that the Sharks have been wholly dominant over the last six periods of play, but after watching the last two periods of Staples Center action last night, I can say that simply wasn't true. As I mentioned in my previous post, Evgeni Nabokov had to face a good effort at certain points of the Calgary game, but none of them were like the peppering he was forced to face last night. I really think that the Kings spent a lot of time working in the offensive zone, and Nabokov robbed them of a few very good chances to bring themselves closer to the bar set in the first period as the Sharks continued their three-points-per-period firestorm from the previous night going for one last hurrah.

Again, though, we saw a well-rounded effort from San Jose that's been lacking recently. I even felt that Blake, as was pointed out by Randy and Drew in the game commentary, was really stepping up and showing some of his old form, though he still took the obligatory third-period stinker of a penalty, just to make sure that the Kings had one last breath of hope before the Teal Tide closed in on them for good. Speaking of penalties, I was really impressed with the officiating last night. There were, of course, a few slip-ups, calls that didn't get made, but I felt they were pretty even between the two clubs, and the calls that were made were, in my opinion, spot on and made with an eye to balance. The double-offsetting-minor SNAFU on the roughing calls between Dan Boyle and Dustin Brown was the cap on that one, as the referees and linesman refused to let tempers boil over into a fight throughout 60 minutes. I don't think I want to see zebras that quick to jump on any potential scrum, because I do like to see a good fight, but at least they were consistent and clear in the message they were sending.

Getting back to it, though. We saw Patrick Marleau bust through his one-game-long goal-scoring schneid (that's for you, Gaetz) by putting two pucks to the back of the net, securing his position as the league-leading goal scorer after being tied for that spot by Sidney Crosby, who netted a pair of his own to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders elsewhere in the NHL. Ryane Clowe met that with a couple of ticks of his own, keeping the secondary scoring going, while Dan Boyle notched the game winner in fantastic goal-scoring-defenseman form. Wayne Simmonds had the only marker for Los Angeles, cleanly beating Nabokov (and the Sharks defense) in the first minute of the second.

Now that there have been two of these "blowout"-style games, I can really say that I'm impressed with what I'm seeing. As I mentioned, it seems that Rob Blake is really returning to form, and with Jay Leach really shaping up lately, that means good things defensively for the Sharks. I'm still not sold on Kent Huskins and his value to the team, but while the opponents are being held to low scoring -- even on so many shots -- it's hard to get too riled up over the known defensive lapses that exist in the organization. I'd echo all the calls for something to happen at/before the trade deadline to fix it, but that's said enough here, and I don't think I've got anything unique to add to the mix right now.

All told, I'm very pleased with the Sharks in their last five games, where they come out 4-0-1 with victories over some key conference/division matchups and a pair of sound thrashings of the same. The one OT loss at the hands of the Boston Bruins was, I think, a good game, even if they didn't net a win; there was effort there, and they haven't taken the foot off of the gas in the last two weeks, even through their struggles to get the guys on the second and third lines potting some pucks. I'm leery about going forward, because I know this kind of smash-up can't continue forever, but with the Anaheim Ducks next on the plate, I'm definitely looking forward to see the effort the Sharks bring with them on Thursday, and really, I can't wait to see how they handle the Buffalo Sabres in their upcoming visit.