Joe Pavelski does it again, leading the Sharks to a 3-2 overtime victory over the Kings

Article concerning the Ian White injury will be up in AM.

Prediction: Kings scare the Sharks.

is awesome

My first time attending a Sharks Playoff game, in fact. Amazing atmosphere, great game, Pavs was excellent, as was Clowe.

The closest game that I remember to this one (playoffs wise) was Game 1 against St Louis in ‘04. The game was pretty slow and the Sharks ended up winning 1-0 in OT on a Niko Dimitrakos?!? goal. Since that was the best playoff season the team ever had, maybe that’s a good omen.

Game 1 winners take the series 70% percent of the time, or something close to that, but I think the series winning percentage for Game 1 OT winners is like 95%.

As per the Kings, they added a new wrinkle that I caught onto in the third. There was a lot of talk about Colorado’s 1-2-2 trap last year and how the Kings series could mirror it. From what I could tell, the Kings have switched to a collapsing 2-1-2 trap, the key piece being the center. He ends up sweeping back through the zone with speed to pick up loose pucks once the defense pins the wings in the corners. It worked very well in transition tonight.

The best ideas I have at the moment to counter that would be to either 1) dump the puck to the end boards rather than the side boards or 2) shoot the puck hard on net. This would get the center to stop and start rather than glide through the zone. McLellan has a little work to do here.

The space between Couture’s goal and the last 8 or so of the third wasn’t pretty, but the Sharks decided they should stop assuming the Kings would roll over and got it done. Now they need to keep that sense and repeat it in game 2.

Wow, I’m a bit strung out by that experience and it was only Game 1, my nerves are gonna be shredded by the time this is all over.

I’m gonna have to work from home today, for two reasons:

1. Because OT means very little sleep and I fear I might need a nap at some point this afternoon.
2. So I can wear my Couch Tarts Big Pavelski t-shirt today in tribute to Captain Clutch.

Go Sharks!

lol… I’m not familiar with this.

Anyways—I’ve now predicted a Sharks’ series win. Why? Because the LA fanbase on Yahewww looks like the Blues when they are down in the third period and giving up on the actual game: all they do is pick fights. hehe. To be fair, this isn’t just the Blues. When teams start to lose hope, they often will pick fights out of frustration. Anyways, if their fan base is already collapsing on itself… how will the team hold up? (rhetorical question?)

I watched the entire game from start to right before Pavy scored… what happened? Of all the times my girlfriend interrupts me to talk about something totally irrelevant, she “unintentionally” blocks the screen to get my attention, and Pavy scores….. _

This is what he said: “You hate to see a guy get hurt in the regular season or playoffs and I definitely wasn’t trying to hurt him. … There wasn’t a penalty on the call so I’m not expecting anything.”

yeah, I know this isn’t quite the right article… but I wanted to put something up about this.

I was excited to see SJ win; however, that’s not what kept me up afterwards. I was SO PISSED at the terrible reffing during this game. It made me actually want to have some political power to put pressure on the Commissioner and the league to get their heads out of their butts. Maybe it’s just me, being a fan, but I felt the refs were being paid off. As a fan of an expansion team, I’m used to calls not going our way but last night was ridiculous. The call against Clowe was terrible – a push for 2 mins. The non call for White sent my blood boiling – it should have been a game misconduct. Didn’t anyone else feel that Jarret Stoll whisper some trash in White’s ear as he had him helplessly against the boards? If the league doesn’t respond, this series could get really ugly, fast… and it will honestly be their fault. Sorry for the rant – not enough sleep and the teal blood turned black with anger!!

The two goals against they actually scored (which is a lot for them) were pretty fluky. I mean, sending 3 people on the rush and then missing the net on a shorthanded chance is pretty dumb (I blame whoever was the 3rd man in on that rush as I do Couture for missing the net on his shot)…the second goal was just a bad bounce and Niemi overanticipating where the puck was going to go. Those things happen…and the Sharks still won.

The Sharks, despite coming out the gate hot as blazes, stopped playing their game for a large chunk of the game, and basically let the listless Kings attack dictate play…which is terrible. They played back on their heels and did not look like the dangerous Sharks we have seen over the last few months…and the Sharks still won.

And after the vicious, predatory, dirty hit by Stoll on White, the Sharks had to play pretty much a full game of hockey with only 5 D men. They had to be tired…and they had to conserve energy and sit back a little more than you would like. For a position that is already a weakness for us against the Kings’ strong blueline, losing White for nearly 60 minutes of hockey was a crushing blow…and the Sharks still won.

Just imagine what will happen when the Sharks actually wake up, realize they are playing the Kings, and start dictating play like they should!

Damn Beer and Screwdrivers. I past out before the game winner.

At times we did look slow on D and LA looked like a better team. Time to pick it up.

It’s the playoffs, and I’ve come to the realization that it honestly doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you get it. And that’s what the Sharks did last night. JFTC has a bit more belief now… though I’m honestly not sure why so many of them thought this was going to end in 5.

It was going to be a close series… this isn’t the freakin’ NBA after all. I had the Sharks in 6, but it could very well end earlier. I think it was a near 50/50 split in play. The Sharks seemed to struggle after that White hit. I think JFTC saw the injury as an “excuse”, which is what TMac apparently made it sound like, but it’s a serious hit to the team. It’s an offensively starved D-core as it is, but adding Braun (who I fully expect to play on Saturday) should make it interesting.

And while it’s easy to look at what the Sharks did wrong (as the higher seed), the Kings were far from great. When you set expectations that low… it’s easier to look good.

Per WTC and sportsnet.ca

yawn First of all, GOOD MORNING SHARKS FANS! I didn’t get home from the Tank until around 11:40 last night and I had a 8:30 meeting this morning so I was up at 6:20 so please bear with me. :)

First off, the tank was rocking as the guys came out. Great job! I was a little dissapointed the rest of the game with how quiet it seemed for a playoff game but a co-worker of mine said it sounded loud on TV so maybe my hearing is just going out (at 25! At least I don’t have any gray hairs yet).

First period looked great. We dominated them the way I figured we would all game. Second period and most of the third except the last five minutes, really dissapointed me. The Sharks couldn’t pass to save their lives, they were scrambling, and it almost seemed like they were expecting the Ottawa Senators on the ice instead of the LA Kings. Very frustrating. Yes, the OFFICIATING was horrible (understatement) but the Sharks didn’t step up their game to overcome that either.

Then OT, I almost had a heart attack about 5 times as the Kings were shooting that puck left and right. Niemi came up big. Then the Big Pavelski… saves the day when he was running low on gas. Props to Wellwood and Clowe on that one too. They should get just as much credit for that win as Pavs. So overall, got the win result I wanted. I just hope the Sharks keep the pressure up ALL game on Saturday.

GO SHARKS!!!!!! See y’all Saturday.

Drew complains about room service tipping (cheapskate, typical Canadian), and is conflicted about his feelings of being in the backseat with two other men, since he only associates it with procreation and marriage. Randy going for some sort of Hugh Hefner/Jedi hybrid look. Brody Brazil trolling for p tang, as usual.