The Importance of Being Earnest

I knew that title would grab you. What can I say, I play to my base. And although the plot of the play has nothing to do with Sharks hockey (which I only just found out by reading wikipedia), the title itself is still apropos.

The Sharks came out shooting. And shooting. And driving. And shooting. On Saturday, they had 17 shots all night. Tonight, they had 16 in the first period, 9 in the second, and 10 in the third. They dominated the first 10 minutes of the game, and what always seems to happen happened. There was a tricky rebound that bounced right to Mike Ribiero, and he chipped it over Nabokov for a 1-0 lead on the first Dallas scoring chance of the night. But the Sharks continued to fight, and Pavelski, on a great (one might say earnest) second or third effort swept a wraparound in before Turco could cover his far post.

Then, in the second, Dallas got an early Christmas gift with a shot from Niskanen that changed direction twice off of two different Sharks players and went in the net. The Sharks went into the third down 2-1.

But they kept digging, and we saw two beautiful feeds from Thornton to Setoguchi to take the lead, then Bernier was rewarded for his strong forecheck with a nifty little screened wrister that darted in on the near side. All Sharks goals were even strength, which is icing on the cake.

But as the Keith Jones in the Vs. studio seemed to say at every opportunity, the Sharks don't play a consistent style. Tonight's style suited them. With a billion division games coming up, I hope they continue to go with it.