Escape

Where to begin?

The San Jose Sharks bounced back from their dismal Game Six performance in Alberta and defeated the Calgary Flames 5-3 tonight, winning their first-round playoff series four games to three.

That's the one-line summary, but it doesn't begin to scratch the real story.

Let's start with Jeremy Roenick. JR, who is older than his uniform number (ahem) and was a healthy scratch in Game Six, was involved in four of San Jose's five goals, scoring two himself and chipping in two assists. You hear a lot of talk in the playoffs about the importance of "veteran presence", et cetera, and it's the kind of thing that one is tempted to sneer at and dismiss. Sharks GM Doug Wilson lured JR out of retirement in the offseason precisely to bring to the team that kind of guy...the kind of guy who can lead a team to victory through sheer force of will. So clearly he believes in it. I believe in it, too, and I offer Roenick's performance tonight as evidence.

I find something hockey-affirming in this. The notion that willpower, emotion, and courage can be at least as important as talent in ice hockey is not just an old saw for writers of dramatic sports journalism...it's as real as the blood on Patrick Marleau's face in Game Three.

I think the effort of Joe Thornton has to be acknowledged tonight, as well. Big Joe has taken a lot of heat for allegedly disappearing in the playoffs, not just this season but in years past (and not just in San Jose...in Boston, too). To an extent, I think some of this criticism is justified. But it's not about the goals. Some of Thornton's critics have been grumbling that his playoff goal totals are meager, but Thornton is not primarily a goal scorer and never has been. He is a dominant possessor of the puck and an extraordinary passer, and as such his role is to make the other players on the ice better. He excels in this role, which is why he's always among the league leaders in assists. But in this series, Thornton has only rarely seemed to be the player he was during the regular season--the dominant final shift in Game Four that ended in his game-winning goal was an exception, not the rule. But Thornton played inspired hockey tonight, possessing the puck well and winning at least two crucial battles for loose pucks in the late-going with six Flames on the ice.

The Sharks put forth the kind of dominating effort tonight that many fans of the team knew was possible, but which, to our frustration, we glimpsed only rarely during the regular season. It goes without saying that I'm glad the Sharks put together this strong of a game tonight, but in my mind it's still an open question whether the Sharks really have what it takes to play playoff-caliber hockey with enough consistency to challenge for the Stanley Cup.

The Sharks can be proud of their effort tonight, but they also need to count themselves as extremely fortunate to have advanced to the second round after a series that included a blown 3-0 Game Three lead and a dreadful effort in Game Six. They were the best of teams, they were the worst of teams. If they "come out flat" in even one game against Dallas, that will be one game too many, and summer vacation will be on us before we know it.

What will it take to convince me? A playoff series in which the Sharks work hard, fight for every loose puck, hit, get to the tough areas of the ice, and show the remorseless killer instict of, well, sharks, in every game. Not just "When it counts", or "When it matters most". Every. Single. Game.

Next are the Dallas Stars, the Evil Empire, against whom I nurse a deep and very personal grudge. I can't think of a team I'd rather beat in the playoffs.

A Good Start to the Second Half

Sweep

The Sharks defeated the Vancouver Canucks tonight 3-1, completing a four-game season sweep of one of the better teams in the Western Conference.

After a first half to the season over the course of which they were plagued by inscrutable inconsistency, Team Teal needed a strong effort to start the second half, in order to convince themselves, at a primitive level much deeper than public expressions of coolness and confidence, that they really are working with a fresh slate. They got such an effort tonight, taking the game to the Canucks right from the start.


Respect your opponent. (But not too much...)

The Sharks' first goal was scored by Craig Rivet and came in transition off a 4-on-2 break that was initiated by Mike Grier. Against a goaltender with a fearsome reputation (such as Roberto Luongo) a player often succumbs to the temptation to make a complicated play (read: extra pass) in hopes of producing a can't-miss layup. But with Luongo obliged to respect the three San Jose forwards charging the goal, he was unable to get into his "butterfly bunker" and seal off the goalmouth, as he is so adept at doing. Rivet (a D-man, remember) correctly made the decision to drive to the net, found a gap, and scored. Nice.


The Anxious Advantage

The emotional dynamics of "lopsided" power-play situations (by which I mean 5-on-3's and five-minute majors) are odd, and have always been quite fascinating to me. Whenever one of these circumstances occurs during a game, I become anxious for my team. If it's my team that's shorthanded, I am anxious for obvious reasons. If my team has the advantage, however, I am equally anxious, because many times I have seen failed lopsided power plays turn the emotional tide of a game.

I've come to regard these types of situations as sort of "forced wager". Imagine a blackjack player sitting at a table betting, say, a dollar a hand. Then imagine a gentleman in a referee's outfit walking up, tapping the player on the shoulder, and saying, "Oh, by the way, you need to bet fifty bucks on your next hand." That's what getting a lopsided power-play feels like. If you win, great. But if you lose, you could be in real trouble.

The expectation of a 5-on-3 or a major is that the team with the advantage will score, and the pressure can be tremendous--both the pressure that a team puts on itself and the pressure that can be produced by the crowd, be they hostile or friendly to the team on the power play. Few things can turn a friendly crowd restless more quickly than a weak performance on a 5-on-3 or a major. Few things can serve to rally a crowd faster than the growing feeling that their team is about to escape from grave peril. (What Sharks fan can forget this?)

The Sharks controlled the first period tonight, but the decisive segment of the game was initiated when they killed off a 5-on-3 situation in the last five minutes of the opening frame. You could really start to hear the crowd hum as it became clear that the Canucks weren't able to get anything going despite their two-man advantage. During the 5-on-4 that began when Marleau came out of the box, San Jose had two separate shorthanded attacks, one of which turned into a legitimate chance by Milan Michalek. The reeling Canucks were saved by the bell when the first period ended a few minutes later, but the Sharks also controlled play during most of the second, drawing penalties and eventually adding the second goal. It wasn't until the last five minutes of the second that the Vancouver attack started to look at all scary.


Don't Make Me Say "Fragile" Again!

Midway through the third, Vancouver's Ryan Kesler scored on a bad angle shot that hit the post, then hit Evgeni Nabokov, then found its way across the goal line. Subsequent to this the Sharks again (as in the Columbus game) looked a little worried and shaky, but Nabby made a huge stop on a Daniel Sedin breakaway (that's why he's deservedly an All-Star), and shortly thereafter a little luck (in the form of a bad officiating call that put San Jose on the power play) helped sap Vancouver of any spirit or energy they may have had for a rally.

A better response that what they showed to a nearly identical situation in the Columbus game, but still short of what I'd like to see.


Congratulations...

...to Jeremy Roenick, for moving into sole possession of second place on the list of all-time American-born NHL goal scorers.