Sunday Scraps (March 2nd, 2008)

Fun Conquers All

In the third period of this afternoon's game at United Center in Chicago, Blackhawk defenseman Duncan Keith found himself breaking alone into the Vancouver Canucks' zone, defended by veterans Matthias Ohlund and Kevin Bieksa. Keith tried a nifty between-the-legs spinny move in an effort to beat the defense. It was a cheerfully optimistic effort which utterly failed, and for good measure Bieksa clobbered Keith as punishment for his cheek, but the move was characteristic of the youthful exuberance, even naivety, with which the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the grim, anxious Vancouver Canucks this afternoon by the score of 4-1.

The Blackhawks have fallen to the very margins of the playoff race, but it's still been a very promising year for this very young team. With veterans Martin Havlat, Robert Lang, and Yanic Perrault out with injuries, the squad that took the ice today looked even younger than the Hawks typically have this season. One of the Rogers Sportsnet analysts calling the game for Vancouver joked that it was like the Canucks were playing the Rockford Icehogs (Chicago's AHL affiliate). Today the Hawks were able to channel all that youth into hockey energy, and they controlled almost all of the play. They threw the body, won the battles along the boards, fought with gusto, and swatted pucks out of the air and into Vancouver's net as if they don't understand that that's hard.

The Canucks, on the other hand, are still very much in the playoff picture, but have had some grim outings lately. Vancouver has lost its last two games in overtime after giving up third-period leads. At this time of year you absolutely have to beat the teams behind you in the standings, and I'm certain that the Canucks approached today's game as a must-win.

But they played like a team expecting things to go wrong, and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy...they were tight and never got into a groove, allowing themselves to be pushed around by Chicago from wire to wire. I had a mental image of them standing on a precipice, having just lost their balance, and windmilling their arms in terror in an effort not to fall.

The broadcast team alluded to the sheer quantity of one-goal games that Vancouver's reliance upon Roberto Luongo and a tiny dram of scoring obliges them to play, and one wonders if they aren't beginning to crack under the constant pressure.

The Canucks today were more talented and vastly more experienced than the Hawks, but the Hawks looked like they were having infinitely more fun and in the end that made all the difference.


Wings-Sabres Observations

The Red Wings visited Buffalo today, having gone 1-8-2 in their prior eleven games. East vs. West matchup involving a Western team other than San Jose, so of course I was pulling for the Sabres to do the Sharks and everyone else out west a favor. Alas, the Wings gave the Sabres a pretty good drubbing today, and came out with a 4-2 win.

Much like the other night against the Sharks, the Wings were victimized by a bizarre goal involving the officials allowing play to continue when (almost) everyone was anticipating a whistle. With about four minutes gone in the third period and Detroit leading 3-1, there was a hard hit along the boards, followed by some face-washing, followed by some more face-washing, followed by a few punches. It certainly looked like a melee was imminent, and a linesman had already stepped in to start prying players apart. However, at no time was the whistle blown, and after several seconds the puck, which had been generally disregarded in all the ruckus, squirted free. Jason Pominville scooped it up and bore down on a cruelly marooned Dominic Hasek, beating him glove side to pull the Sabres to within one. Tonight, however, the Wings weathered the bad break...that was Buffalo's last marker, and the Wings added an insurance goal later to provide the final margin.


Rick Jeanneret

One of the great things about watching Sabres games is that you get to hear the action called by Rick Jeanneret, one of the legends of the business. It's pretty much the equivalent of listening to Vin Scully call a Dodger game. He has that energetic tenor that is perfectly pitched for hockey play-by-play. There's a cool video here with some highlights from his great career.

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.

Sweeter Sweaters?

So the Sharks changed their crest and their sweaters this year. This is really the kind of thing I should've commented upon at the start of the season, but, well, this blog wasn't around then. Unlike most hot preseason topics, it's not too late to address this one. (Given my keen fashion sense (ahem) this issue probably would've been at the top of my preseason list, anyway...)

My buddy who went to the New Year's Eve game with me said, at one point, "So what's with hockey uniforms being so ugly?" I guess I did a bit of a double take when he said that, because I've never thought of hockey uniforms as being particularly ugly. (I suppose he could have been referring to the legendarily wretched Vancouver Canucks uniforms from twenty-five years ago, but I don't think so). Maybe my fashion sense ain't so great. I dunno, I guess I've always liked that big ole' crest right on the front of the sweater, displayed in all its glory, not relegated to the cover of the team media guide, or miniaturized and simplified to fit on the side of a helmet. Who wouldn't love the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs' crest? Is that cool or what?

Anyway, more to the point, I've always liked the Sharks' uniforms, so it was with some chagrin that I greeted the news of the change. They were different, so they scared me. Good heavens, even the crest was different! What's with that yellow eye? What is this, some sort of...demon shark? You expect me to wear that around on my chest?

It took half a season for me to stop panicking and get a grip, but I think I'm finally there. So my calm, considered verdict is as follows:

I like the home (dark) version of the uniform. The crest itself is not any better or worse than the previous crest--it would've been nice if the Sharks' original crest could have stayed the same for a half century and become a true league classic, like the Blackhawks logo or the Wings logo, but seriously...who am I kidding? There was no way that was going to happen, and it could've been a lot worse. The new crest is really only a slightly-tweaked version of the old crest. At least it's not a slightly-less-cute version of SJ Sharkie skating around with a helmet and stick, which I'll bet a nickel was on the drawing board. (I mean, I love SJ Sharkie, but...*shudder*)

However, after much consideration I've decided that I still don't like the road (white) sweaters. It's the yellow...I've never thought of yellow as being one of the Sharks' colors, and the color yellow is far too prominent in the road sweaters. They look like the St. Louis Blues out there to me. Now, I realize that in fact there is no more yellow in the road uniforms than there is in the home uniforms...it's just that it pops out far more, for some reason an eye doctor and a physicist could probably explain.

One change that I heartily approve of is the block numerals...those are classy. A hockey fan should never have to squint at a TV and think, "Um, what's that guy's number, exactly?" (Anaheim Ducks, I'm looking in your direction).

So overall, let's call it a qualified thumbs-up. Now that I've got this crucial issue out of the way, I can proceed in future posts to other, secondary topics such as the state of the hockey team. Actually, the schedule has granted a bit of a convenient break here at the precise halfway point of the season, so watch this space for some midseason comments before the Vancouver game on Thursday.