@ 5:00 PST
33-24-9, 75 points		33-25-10, 76 points
8th in Western Conference		7th in Western Conference

The Phoenix Coyotes are a confounding team. They started winning after they were put into bankruptcy and fired the long-established coach (albeit the coach was Wayne Gretzky, who was as bad at coaching as he was good at hockey). They push for a playoff spot despite having a payroll in the bottom third of the league. And they’ve stayed owner-less for three seasons now, perpetually on the brink of relocation but never actually going anywhere. It’s like they’ve somehow managed to turn down into up in Glendale, Arizona.

So, in honor of this thoroughly confounding team, here is a list of other things that are quite confounding:

• The Sharks’ season started out with a game opening night, a week-long break, and then three games in four nights.
• There is a seven hole system for goalies all set up, yet the only one that people ever use is the five hole.
• Cell phone voice mail systems that have “send a fax” as an option.
• The Sharks had a nine game road trip in sixteen days with three back-to-backs. Still don’t understand that.
• Colin White.
• The Dark Knight did not get nominated for Best Picture in 2009.
• Jack-in-the-Box’s taco promotion at HP Pavilion.
• Those people who wear Giants hats in Dodgers colors or vice versa.
• Los Angeles traffic jams at 11:30pm.
• Vesa Toskala was a serious contender for the starting goaltender job in San Jose.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago White Sox are all teams named after articles of clothing.
• There were two different Canadian Football League teams who had the name Rough Riders at the same time.

• Joe Pavelski’s awesomeness. I don’t mean that it’s bad or weird or anything, I just don’t see how one man could be that awesome.
• Despite this horrible, horrible stretch that saw the Sharks lose to Columbus of all teams, they still are in playoff position.
• MLB will add more wild card spots the season after having a dramatic game 162 because of the single wild card spot.
• Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
• Colin White.
• People who wonder why people on the west coast don’t watch a 9am pacific time game on New Year’s Day.
• Torrey Mitchell scores one goal per season that is the prettiest goal of the season for the Sharks.
• “I Am The Walrus” by The Beatles.
• Dan Boyle scores one goal per season for the other team.
• Takeaways are the most important stat when considering Selke candidates until Datsyuk isn’t the leader in that category.
• The San Jose Sharks and the Ottawa Senators in the 1992-93 season.
• The pockets on women’s jeans.
• That one time when the Sharks’ fourth line was Brad Staubitz – Jody Shelley – Alexei Semenov.
• General managers continue to give out long term, big money deals to players in every sport, even though Rick DiPietro is right there.
• On a calculator, the numbers at the top of the keypad are 789. On a phone, the numbers are 123.
• Players don’t get out of the way when Zdeno Chara or Shea Weber wind up for a slap shot.
• The word hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
• Thomas Greiss and Brian Hayward are the only goalies to wear #1 in Sharks history.
• The St Louis Blues.
• Expiration dates on water bottles.
• The treatment of Jerome Iginla versus the treatment of Joe Thornton.
• The belief that all women like rhinestones and Swarovski crystals on their clothes.
• Who Todd McLellan scratches on any given night (see also: Colin White).
• When creating this gameday post, the Sharks had the same exact number of losses and OT losses and the Coyotes had the same number of losses as they did when I last wrote a gameday post for a Sharks-Coyotes game.
• The price of college textbooks versus the price bookstores buy them back at.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets wanted Logan Couture AND a first round pick for Rick Nash.
• That the Sharks essentially got Logan Couture and a fourth round pick for Mark Bell and Vesa Toskala.
• Evgeni Nabokov is the New York Islanders‘ franchise leader in GAA among goalies with at least 35 starts.
• The San Jose Sharks.

Prediction: Sharks win, 5-1. Goals by Thornton, Galiardi, Demers, Wingels, and Pavelski.