Postgame: Salting the Buffaslug

For last night's game, we bought 5 pounds of party wings, which were then cooked into Buffalo wings for us to consume during the game. We were a little bit off on the timing, so we didn't dig in until just before the second period; the Sharks were down 1-0 courtesy of the Buffalo Sabres' Tim Connolly's first period goal. From then on, though, the game took on a look that's becoming more and more familiar, as San Jose stormed back through the last two frames, scoring a goal for each pound of wings we devoured. Joe Pavelski opened the gates just over two minutes in to the second period, his first of two on the night; Dany Heatley joined the 30-goal club later that period to give the Sharks the edge going in to the last twenty minutes.

Just 18 seconds in to the final frame, though, something happened that my vodka-addled brain wasn't prepared for; not the power play goal from Jason Pominville, mind you, but the strange, "Buffalo fans, this is for you..." sound bite from the television announcers. It sounded something like a poorly-executed Bill Cosby imitation; "You can add one to the population of Pominville!" Quite simply, I didn't recover from that incident until six minutes later, when Pavelski's second tick gave the edge back to San Jose and brought comfort back into my world of confusion.

Jed Ortmeyer netted two of his own as the period progressed, the second being an empty netter as the Sabres vied for some form of vengeance to pull themselves back in to the game, much like they did during their recent game at the Anaheim Ducks. Unfortunately for them, Ryan Miller had been the only piece holding off the final blow that sent the Sharks to another decisive victory, and a positively fantastic goal differential over the last several matchups. Now, though, San Jose takes a four-day mini-vacation, giving Evgeni Nabokov a chance to wind down after his 38-save performance, and Dan Boyle a bit to recover from his undisclosed upper body injury and (because that's not enough) the flu. Looking at the distant but approaching game against Chicago, though, I can only hope that four days between games doesn't result in some rust on the legs of our Sharks, as they'll certainly need to be firing on all cylinders when the Blackhawks arrive, probably intent on "re-enacting" a game which I maintain never occurred.

Whatever the case, though, seeing the surge continue and the Sharks rack up wins makes it pretty easy to be a San Jose fan right now. I think, after the last five games, I'm willing to forego any of the trepidations about the future and let lie my concerns about the team, just for a little while. I'm certainly not about to give my team a free pass, or stop analyzing things that I think they need to work on, but that can wait for a few days as they get some time off; I'll rescind those stateements (or come back and edit them out) if the Blackhawks take them to task, but for the moment I'm willing to take part in the extended break and just bask in the warmth of recent successes and answers to questions that had been raised.

In the meantime, I think I should gather ingredients for a ten-pound Chicago-style pizza ...