May 13, 2011
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SHARKS!!!!!!
San Jose Sharks center Patrick Marleau, left, celebrates as Detroit
Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, right, skates past at the end of Game 7
of an NHLhockey Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinal playoff series Thursday,
May 12, 2011, in San Jose, Calif. San Jose won 3-2 to take the series and advance to the conference
finals. (Eric Risberg/AP)
The Daily News
1 The DN stood on hold all last night.
2 I got home pretty fast after school yesterday.
3 The second I got home I made a huge smoothie with grapes, bananas, lettuce, melon, non-fat milk, and natural almonds. Lip-smackin’, and then Nicoley came over with some AWESOME news, but I am not at liberty to reveal it quite yet.
4 And then I went on hold. A half hour before the Sharks/Wings game I watched all the pre-game hoopla with Greg Papa, Some Chick journalist from Detroit, the venerable Ray Ratto, and the Merc News’ Mark Purdy. Some Chick journalist predicted the Wings were going easily to win because of their experience; Ratto stayed with “Sharks in six!” and Purdy said what he said a week ago, “Sharks in seven, because lot of these guys are old enough to be your grandfather,” referring to Some Chick.
5 The reality is that either team could have won.
6 But the Sharks got hungrier early.
7 Amazing game, amazing battle to the bitter end.
8 But we all knew our Sharks HAD to win this one, for the history, for the franchise, and for the Town.
9 Anything less is almost scary to think about.
10 But the Sharks showed up. Not for the second period, but for MOST of the game.
11 Some amazingly wussy moments, but overall, they did what they needed to do to win, and Patrick Marleau the Gutless stepped up when a goal was needed and faithfully laid a puck right between the Red Wings’ shoulder blades.
12 I actually thought I heard a “KUH-RUNCH!”
13 The six-on-five at the end was a bit scary, but really, an open net means desperation, no matter how aggressively you try to describe it, or how “dangerous” the other team is. Open net means open desperation, and you losin’ dawg.
14 Anyway, it is sure nice to have another Bay Area team in there competing with the big boys. And the Giants’ and Sharks are pretty good friends, so hopefully the particles will fall over he entire northern part of the state.
15 And what is REALLY fun about the Sharks is that they are homespun, home-town boyz. It’s OUR downtown, and OUR town, and everything that is home.
16 And last night HAD to happen. I just had to.
17 And say what you will: the Sharks knew this. Yes, they rested a bit in the second period, but in the end, they laid the handle down.
18 And yes, it IS fun to live in the very town that wins big.
19 Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess, but something magic happened in Sannozay last night. We are somehow suddenly running with the big boyz, and don’t it feel good?
20 Walkin’ on sunshine.
21 Good times.
22 It’s all about a huge victory last night.
23 I talked with lots of people, and the prevailing attitude all day yesterday was amazingly one of apprehension and hesitation. I saw very few Sharks’ fans stepping back and remembering that this was a HOME game, and a seventh game after the Sharks began 3-0.
24 I tried to pump it up, but I’ll admit that there were times during the second period when I started wondering if these guys were standing down a little. But Niemi’s wall and a huge hit by Boyle turned a lot around, and when Marleau came up big, it started to look storied.
25 The rest was a race to the finish. I found myself rooting for the clock more than for the players. I wanted us to eat up the time, run it down, and keep them out of our end of the ice.
26 A great, great win for Sannozay.
27 It is okay for all of us to be proud this morning.
28 Hats off to a fiesty Detroit team. What an incredibly tortuous series.
29 And now let’s look to tomorrow.
30 Go Sharks.
31 Have a great weekend everybody.
32 Peace.
~H~
