The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Admittedly, I thought the Bruins would walk in this game.

But the Sharks, who took an alarming amount of penalties (and inexplicably got away with a few others), had a plan. And in a battle of the league’s two best teams, they took an alarmingly easy 5-2 win.

The San Jose penalty kill, which went 5 for 5 and barely let the Bruins set up their 5-on-4 attack, was unstoppable. It controlled the boards, it controlled the center of the ice, it controlled the high-traffic areas near the faceoff dots. Boston had eight shots on the power play, but most were from the perimeter and Evgeni Nabokov, the game’s undisputed No. 1 star who collected 28 saves on 30 shots against a Boston attack which was among the best in the league and had a home power play running around 30 percent, had little problem with the few shots he faced from the perimeter.

Milan Lucic might have scored a pair of first-period goals to stake Boston to a 2-1 lead after the opening 20 minutes, but the Bruins had little answer for the Sharks’ defense, which blocked 12 shots and outhit Boston 39-25. Simply put, San Jose wanted this game more.

Garbage goals from Rob Blake, Patrick Marleau, and Milan Michalek, all of which came either on rebounds or deflections, allowed the Sharks to jump out to the lead they never surrendered, and insurance goals from Joe Thornton (who exorcised whichever demons you’d like to bring up regarding his Boston days) and Mike Grier (into an empty net) locked the game up late.

San Jose never looked like “The Team To Beat” in the NHL, but certainly in handing Boston its first loss of the seaosn by more than two goals, it made an emphatic statement as to the legitimacy of its claim that it would not go quietly into the night once it had met the second round of the playoffs.

If it could make Boston look this bad on the power play (and the Bruins had trouble even gaining the red line on its five man-up chances, putting just eight shots on net during its five power plays), and beat it by three goals, then surely the Sharks are a for-real, legitimate, no-joking-around contender for the Stanley Cup in a way that it had never been considered before. This wasn’t just a good regular-season team. This was a good all-the-time team.

It handled the best team in the league no problem. Winning on the road, on a Tuesday night, when they were in the midst of a three-game losing streak? Please. The Sharks could handle it. And win by three. What more qualification could need?

In maybe the most entertaining hockey game of the NHL schedule so far this season, the Sharks were not only winners, they were emphatic winners. Those fears about a second-round exit? Stop it. No.

The Sharks are legit. And that was all the evidence anyone should’ve needed. Beating the Bruins in the biggest regular-season game since the lockout? Yeah, that’ll square that away.

Elsewhere…

Los Angeles 4, New York Islanders 3 (SO)

Okay so I went out and had a few drinks tonight with a friend of mine. I didn’t watch this boring-ass game between two teams I could care less about. Sue me. Know who scored? Doug Weight, that’s who. Still a bad dude after all these years. Jack Johnson had the quote-unquote game winning goal in the shootout, but who couldn’t score on Yann Danis in a shootout?

Columbus 3, Colorado 0

Man, the Avalance is so bad that even Columbus goalies that aren’t Steve Mason are shutting them out. If you’re not a member of Dan LaCosta’s family and have heard of him, raise your hand. ………. That’s what I thought. Suck it, Avs.

Atlanta 3, Tampa Bay 1

Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal. The other three goalscorers were Colin Stewart, Viktor Kozlov and Gary Roberts. Did you care? Probably not. Unless the previously mentioned players were on your fantasy team for some horrible reason, no, you did not. Kari Lehtonen got the win. And because he’s on MY fantasy team, I did care. So there’s that.

Florida 5, Toronto 4 (OT)

Richard Zednik’s doin’ a-okay lately. First he scored that goal that got linked on Deadspin (I rule!) and then he got the overtime game-winner tonight against the Leafs, with whom the Panthers are competing for a playoff spot.. well, theoretically at least. He also had the game-tying goal. But I didn’t read that until after all that malarkey about the OTGWG. So whatever.

Detroit 5, Nashville 3

If I’m not wrong (and it’s entirely possible that I am), Detroit outshot the Preds like 27-8 in the first period. TWENTY-SEVEN TO EIGHT, ALRIGHT? And somehow the Wings only won by two goals. I don’t understand that. Ty Conklin, who got the start, is, I assume, the reason this was even a remotely close game. Goddamn is he awful. Hahaha, I just read that Detroit had 50 goddamn shots on goal. That’s crazy. How did they only win by two? Oh yeah, Ty Conklin. Right. He sucks ass.

Vancouver 6, St. Louis 4

I don’t know for whom I’m more embarassed: Roberto Luongo, who, despite being among the best in the world, gave up four goals on 28 shots FROM THE BLUES(!), or Chris Mason, who gave up five on 29 FROM THE CANUCKS(!). Both are indescribably awful teams, but 6-4?! Jesus Christ. What a gong show this one must’ve been. Pavol Demitra had a goal and two assists, for the love of Pete. How does any professional goaltender mentally reconcile THAT? Ugh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 3:17 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.