Grypho

So, do you all think I'm sitting here, as a Sharks fan, as calm as the beautiful spring day it is here in San Jose, thinking, "What, me worry? Who cares, it will be a great game, and after all, even if we don't take this one, we do have two more chances after this..."? No. Not at all. Not even last game, but especially not this one. I'm pretty much crapping myself here, thinking, "Oh man, you bastards had better show up to your own party. If you give them any leeway, any leeway at all, they will build on it, and might be as good as dead!" Anybody else out there, besides me, from either team, out of their friggin minds, reaching for Tums, doing some pre-game drinking/numbing/whatever, or otherwise not in a state of absolute zen at the moment? FESS UP!

The feeling's mutual. I don't know if you remember or not, but I only joined LGW a couple of weeks after you did back in 2007, and instantly recognized you when I started posting again this time. If you ever make it to China, send me a heads up first! If there's no hockey playing then, perhaps I can introduce you to, and sell you on, my latest addiction: the intensely exciting Aussie Footie - aka Australian Rules Football.

I completely forgot that you don't have them back east. The whole menu is great, but the monster tacos are to die for, and the eggrolls with sweet and sour sauce are addictive and AMAZING. Back on topic, no, I guess I don't know Williams, haven't followed him at all, actually. With Dan Boyle, we at least have a player who has proven solid. If Williams has never had it, then a choke-cum-redemption scenario probably isn't all that likely. Anyway, food for thought. (Jack In The Box anyway)

I have a theory about this, and I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned anything similar. Dan Boyle was our goat in the last series, the one who made a pass that went into our own net in OT, costing us that game. Talk about hated here in San Jose (not by me, but definitely by many Sharks fans). After that game, Dan Boyle became the one Sharks player with THE most to prove. He knew that he had to do everything in his power to redeem himself, and he DID. In spades. The very next game, and he's been pretty solid since. Anybody remember the Jack In The Box scare back in 1992, when several lots of E. coli tainted hamburger were improperly cooked, and kids were getting sick (I think one even died). Even after the cause was identified, I remember people saying they would avoid Jack In The Box at all costs. My thought was different, and I went there REGULARLY to eat, because, my thinking went, of ALL the fast food restaurants out there, NONE are nearly as safe, at this very moment, as the one restaurant that is now under the gun, and under investigation with a public relations nightmare on their hands! That meant NO lines for me to wait in, I had the restaurant, a VERY SAFE, ULTRA-CLEAN RESTAURANT, practically to myself for at least a couple of months. On that same line of reasoning, you're all harping on Williams when I personally think you should be BANKING on him. Few other Detroit players have as much to prove as Williams does now. If he was given the chance, he could be dangerous. As a Sharks fan, not a Wings fan, I am the one who would hope that Williams wouldn't get any shots at redemption.

Me too. Different reasons, perhaps, perhaps not, but I did laugh my ass off.

The Sharks usually have a better road than home record, in contrast to a lot of other teams, like the Wings, where it's the other way around by a fairly large margin. That was true even for this year with the Sharks, even if the contrast wasn't as large as in the past. I talked to Dody Woods and Shean Donovan about this years ago, when Shean was my neighbor in San Jose, and both were playing for the Sharks. He said he thought of two things as being the most intimidating about the Sharks arena for opposing team players. The first isn't what I would have expected, but I think it makes sense, as visiting teams are deliberately treated very well. The locker rooms are extremely nice, very spacious, with provisions that are first rate by comparison to most of the other arenas. Donovan said, "They get treated like ******* royalty here! You go to another arena, especially the older ones, and it's like they are trying to let you know up front that you're second rate, right from the start. Kind of dumb, really, because all it does is make you want to beat them even more. The Sharks arena does the exact opposite, and I think that might throw other teams off psychologically. It's almost like we're pampering them to sleep before a game." Secondly, they said that the Sharks fans help (and the acoustics at the arena doesn't hurt), as they have a history of cheering the Sharks on even when they're doing s***ty (after so many years of screaming "SHOOT THE PUCK!!!", we would get excited if any of our pucks went anywhere near the other team's net). Sometimes the Sharks will boo their own team, like fans of other teams, but the Sharks have to be executing some stinking rotten plays, or not trying at all for that to happen. I personally think that for as cheesy as some fans of other teams think it is, all the staged and scripted background drama (Sharks players entering through a giant shark's jaw, artificial smoke and lights, playing the Jaws theme before a PP, etc.,) has the effect of putting all of the players on the ice under a spotlight -- like they're not just playing a game, but are also on stage, as part of a big dramatic production (a "Sharks Production" no less), which reminds everyone at all times that they are on a 'stage', performing in front of a live audience, as opposed to playing on a rink, with fans looking on. EDIT: There is one other thing: that "jaws chomp" we do with our arms before a PP, that looks so strange, even silly to many other fans -- it creates movement in the entire crowd that's hard to ignore; strange movement that players don't see in any other arena, unlike twirling towels or thousands of thunder sticks (bangers) that are more typical, and easily ignored as a blur.

Tank's nothing. Come watch the game at my house. :yowza:

I think obvious might just be in the ear of the beholder. I heard exactly the same sounds, same reactions, listening to to the games at the Joe. No different to my ears. It just doesn't tend to annoy (read=draw attention to itself) if you happen to agree with whatever they're reacting to.

I've said that twice in other threads about the Sharks. Remember when I said that if they're going to lose, I want it to be 9-0 or something? I was watching this game, thinking, let it be a shutout, and let them score two or three more goals for a complete annihilation. I call it the pendulum effect, and it always worries me when it happens to us in reverse. We can get lots of close wins, but whenever we completely humiliate and destroy a team, it invariably comes back with a vengeance to bite us. Yeah, I honestly think, and I could be wrong, that it might have been better for the Wings if they had won 4-3, just like the first three games, only this time to the Wing's advantage. At least something with a much smaller, more face-saving, margin.

Are you referring to me?! I didn't see any other Shark fan posts, maybe I missed those. Every one of my posts was intended as fun, good natured game banter, the kind of stuff we'd exchange if we were watching the game together at a bar. Whether you notice or not, when things are going terrible for the Wings, I AVOID the game day thread altogether, and even that's out of respect. Trolls indeed. EDIT: s***. Just realized what you were saying. Last game. Sorry, my misread.

Well, given the gross penalty call disparity in this game, I think they owe us big time, don't you? ::: ducking for cover ::: J-u-u-u-ust kidding! I'm just hoping they all get it out of their systems in this game. Detroit gets lots of goals (17 in one game, I hope), while San Jose does nothing but take penalties... all in one game.

The Sharks aren't even trying to score. Just looking to do damage, treating it like a circus, setting up for the next game.

My sister said, "Who the hell is Applicator (Apple Cater? Apple Tater?) I keep hearing the announcers say something that sounds like that." LOL

I was just arguing with my sister about that. She saw the dive, didn't see the elbow. She said, "I think he did something with his hand". I said, "What kind of a homer fan are you? It was an elbow, then a dive, both clear as day. Why do you think Thornton took a pissed off swipe at him on the way to the box?" It's funny what fans often, and honestly, think they see (and don't see). We humans are a scary lot.

We don't have that much history with the Pens, so not as much reason to hate. I was shocked to see some of the blatant diving stunts Crosby pulled in the crybaby video someone posted. If anything, I'm just happy to see the Habs and the Pens beat the s*** out of each other!

It's awful, I tell you, just awful. Good thing we got a phantom makeup call against the Drapes! I wish the Sharks would start their come from behind game winning run early, and not wait until the third period like Bettman told them to do. As the Pater Familia would say, "We're in a tight spot!"

OK, I can understand spotting Detroit some goals going into the 3rd period, but 6?! Now they have to get seven to make it the traditional one goal win? No way. The odds against that kind of comeback are insurmountable I tell you, just insurf***ingmountable. Biggest comeback in NHL playoff history, though, if it happens. Sooooo....maybe...just maybe... I'm starting to believe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzes12YwaTA

What I meant to say was... never mind

No, I won't feel better until they give us the makeup goals that we so clearly deserve. We are the San Jose ******* Sharks, after all. That should mean SOMETHING! Sheezh, where's the respect.

TERRIBLE! FOUL! HEADS MUST ******* ROLL NOW! If the current goal disparity isn't strong evidence of shenanigans, then I don't know what is. This is just terrible. And what's with all these bulls*** non-calls against Franzen for those unsportsmanlike goals and other whole-bunch-of-unnamed s*** he's pulled? Clearly the refs owe us at least four 5 on 3 makeup calls. I don't like this script. I'm holding my breath right now until the makeup calls come.

Nervous as hell. In an awestruck kind of way.

Oof...I would never, ever, my good man, jinx my team like that! Two years ago, few Wings fans were pointing to the past, but were instead talking excitedly about their current team, and what made them so exceptional. Hence, you have no idea what all the laurel-resting, past-pointing statements do in terms of giving me the most confidence in this series! Whatever happens tonight, the outcome rests solely and squarely on the shoulders of the two teams that will be on tonight's ice. If ghosts, demons, laurels or failures of yesteryear are there to haunt and affect the outcome, so be it -- but I doubt it! Dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt-didilideee!! GO SHARKS!