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Olympic
Flame-Out
The Wheels on the Bus have Fallen
Off
3/22/10 - By Paul Krill
All of
us, I'm sure, enjoyed the Olympics tournament, even if our guys on Team USA
came up an OT goal short in the gold medal game against Team Canada. At least
we got to see the silver and gold medals won by Sharks players on display at
Sharks games post-Olympics.
But we all had to be keeping our fingers
crossed that the Sharks would pick up the pace, or at least keep winning
regularly, after the Olympics. Unfortunately, this has not happened.
The shellings both our goalies took in the Olympics have carried on into the
regular season. And players such as Joe Thornton have had their mishaps, too.
As of this writing, the Sharks are enduring a six-game losing streak, including
five consecutive regulation losses on the road, featuring an 8-2 demolition at
the hands of the Stars and a total flop against the league's worst team,
Edmonton, who whipped the Sharks 5-1 with a goalie who has played only a
handful of NHL games.
It's tough to win, however, when you're already
in a 2-0 hole halfway through first period night after night despite
out-shooting the other team. Now, Phoenix has passed the Sharks for the
division lead.
(FWIW, I took my entire family to the Panthers game,
figuring we'd all get free pizzas out of it with our Sharks tickets. When the
team was up 2-0 after the first period, that proposition seemed like a done
deal, given the four-goal requirement for the pizza promotion. Nope. Didn't
happen. My young daughter, at her first-ever Sharks game, decided she wanted to
go home after the first period. So my wife took her home. Turns out she didn't
miss a thing as far as Sharks highlights go.)
We have to wonder now if the wheels again have fallen
off right before the playoffs as they did last season, when the team endured
the inglorious distinction of having the best regular season record only to
lose in the first round to the eighth-seeded Ducks. And that series didn't even
go seven games.
At this point, we all must be asking ourselves, "Not
again?"
If this team doesn't get solid goaltending and players keep
making mistakes, we'll all be saving lots of money on playoff tickets again
this year, since the Sharks will be done by the end of April. It's all out of
our hands, though.
Can the Sharks shake their reputation as Regular
Season Heroes/Playoff Zeroes? At this writing, it doesn't look too good.
Contact Paul at at pjkrillsharks@yahoo.com
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