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Nobody Said It Was Going to be Easy…

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Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks

The San Jose vs Detroit Western Conference Final series has been quite the ride. Both the Sharks and Red Wings teams have given their fanbase hope of moving on to the next round. The Sharks took a commanding 3-0 lead and then the Red Wings have won 2 straight to make it 3-2 with game 6 at home at the Joe. Nobody said this was going to be an easy series, in fact most people predicted 7 games so I am not surprised that the Sharks not only missed the sweep (again) but also lost game 5. Jeremy Roenick also had his thoughts on why the Sharks lost game 5, which I don’t totally agree nor disagree with.

If you haven’t heard or read the comments by now, then I don’t think you are really a Sharks fan…but nonetheless, here is what came out of JR’s mouth after game 5 ended. At the postgame report on Versus, JR said Marleau’s performance was “gutless”. He then took to twitter to defend what he said because of the uproar he caused on national TV: “Marleau has his fans, and that’s great! I am not one of them and won’t pretend to be! I love the sharks w a passion and think the fans deserve a better effort than Marleau has given in this series.” He then tweeted, “I love sharks!! Don’t take my comments outta context. I want more from a 6 million dollar man.”

I understand what JR was trying to say, he just isn’t the most articulate person. Remember, he is the guy that wasscratched at a game when playing for the Coyotes and left the arena for a steak dinner. The choice of words was poor and to call him out on national TV was even worse. Randy Hahn’s response via twitter I think summed up his comments very well: “For Roenick to call Marleau’s performance gutless (twice) and question his heart on national TV is over the line. It was unprofessional.” I also noticed that Randy is no longer following JR on twitter…interesting. The Sharks response was better in brushing it off as an outside distraction (which it was) and that they just need to focus and worry about one thing: winning game 6 in Detroit. Leave Patty alone and realize that hockey is a team sport – there are more people accountable for losing than one player.

Game 6 will be the toughest win the Sharks will need in the playoffs. We will see what the Sharks are made of if they can pull off a series clinching win in Detroit, a place they haven’t been too successful in. A loss will undoubtedly give Detroit the momentum to possibly become the fifth team in NHL history to win from being down 0-3 in a 7 game series; a list I don’t ever want to see San Jose on. That would also add fuel to the fire of the Sharks being playoff chokes, a moniker that has been around for far too long and needs to end.

Another thing that is bugging me is that people need to stop panicking about the Sharks losing the last two games. They are still up 3-2 in the series against the Detroit Red Wings. Not a lot of teams would be able to be in that position; hell, not even Phoenix could win one against them this year in the playoffs! Why wasn’t there more press about Detroit losing the first three games to San Jose after sweeping the Coyotes? Sure they were close one goal games…..but so were games 4 and 5. The press loves to jump on the bandwagon of big market teams during playoffs because they know the players. I don’t even think I need to write up on how biased the Versus announcers were during the televised games. One thing that did make me laugh out loud to my TV was what the announcer said after the Wings won game 4, “It’s a series now!” Really? Since when is 3-1 considered a series? You should remove your lips from the backside of Detroit before calling a game nationally.

Here are five things to keep in mind while watching the Sharks play in the post season:

  1. No team “deserves” to win and not always the best team does win.
  2. When the Sharks beat the Wings and move to the Conference Finals against the Canucks, we are only halfway there to a cup and will still need 8 more wins.
  3. Every stat that is brought up on the screen doesn’t matter; just the game at hand.
  4. The national media will only get worse as they like to dramatize everything to get more viewers.
  5. We will unfortunately not see nor hear Randy Hand and Drew Remenda call a game after tonight’s game 6.
  6. The only thing better than playoff hockey is overtime playoff hockey – there are no commercial breaks and lots of tense action.

As for game 6, I see the Sharks winning simply because they are healthier. Johan Franzen can’t skate because of an ankle injury from the first round (0 points in the series) and I don’t think Zetterberg is completely healed from his injuries – I was expecting more dominance from him like Datsyuk. Once Datsyuk and Zetterberg are neutralized (and I think they will in game 6), Detroit doesn’t have much more to offer that the rest of the Sharks can’t handle. Like I wrote before, no one said it was going to be easy especially against a great team like Detroit, but the Sharks can handle them and will.

By the way, if any Detroit fan gives you crap about not winning a cup, kindly remind them that the Sharks have only gone 20 years without one and they have gone 42 – not even halfway there yet.

On another note, how many of you have been growing a playoff beard? I started mine the first week of series 1 and it is getting to be a hangover beard. Is anyone else doing it or are they bearded out after the Giants run last year? This was take last week so it is even longer now.

Fun Fact: The Sharks tied up game 3 with 4:08* left in the third – coincidence?

*For you out of towners and slower people, 408 is the area code of San Jose. Props to my follower, Hao, for digging that up!

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