There was a little extra spring in the Sharks' step last night en route to their win against Colorado. Joe again was "The Man"™ in scoring two goals and assisting on the third. I actually thought at first that the third goal went in off the defenseman's skate and not Grier's, which would have given Joe the hat trick.
It would be easy to launch into a lament here about the lack of secondary scoring and so on, but there were several encouraging things about the Sharks play last night:
- They actually carried the puck into the offensive zone most of the time on the power play. And pretty much every time they did that, they maintained control and set up. Imagine!
- Like the game against the Kings, they weren't afraid to stand in front of the net. Colorado's biggest defenseman is now Scott Hannan, who isn't quite big enough to bang with some of the bodies we got.
- Save the 30 seconds at the end of the second period where Colorado scored that power play goal, I'd say the Sharks played a complete game. Rarely were they pinned in their end, and they were able to keep the puck low and give the Avs fits by maintaining possession behind the net and in the corners.
I did attend the "Ice Insights" thing last night at the Tank, open to season ticket holders. The four broadcasters for the Sharks fielded questions from the angry mob. And they did seem angry. Stuff like "why the F is Wilson juggling the lines so much", "who should be benched", and "who should be traded". The most interesting answer of the night was when Drew said the three players he would bench were Patty (no surprise), Cheech (<yawn>), and Mike Grier (hey now!). He didn't have time to elaborate on that, but it was surprising. I'm hoping our Grier might do a Real Grier Breakdown.
