This note’s not going to be very coherent, but that’s okay, it’s about the
Atlanta game. It fits.

Congratulations on Adam Graves, who got his silver plated stick (the 9th the
Sharks have paid for — and you wonder why we need revenue sharing?), his
crystal plaque (does Jim Gregory do anything but hand out pieces of glass?
His job: give out all those things Bettman doesn’t want to hand to
people…), a very, um, Niemanesque portrait that I”m sure will sell well on
ebay (maybe), a huge magnum of very nice wine, and a hearty “thank you, go
back to work” from Greg Jamison. Graves’ wife also got a bit of a surprise,
too — Marchment came up during the ceremony and hugged Graves. His stick,
however, took off and missed her face by maybe six inches, much to Mush’s
chagrin. I can see it now — Marchment the first player to get four minutes
for careless use of the stick during an NHL award ceremony…. (we interrupt
this ramble for an inappropriate comment about Adam Grave’s wife: whoo-hoo.
We now return you to the random rant, and I’ll go somewhere and feel
shame…)

Nine sharks have now celebrated 1000 games while in teal. For extra points,
name them. Without looking. Then, name which ones actually had been sharks
for longer than the season they celebrated the milestone….

Whatever the question is, Atlanta ought to realize that the answer is not
(and likely never has been) “Damian Rhodes”. Although to be honest, he was
the least of their problems tonight. Sort of. That first goal wasn’t soft.
It wasn’t “stay-puft marshmallow man” soft. It was “Old Yeller” soft. And
he’s willing to take 45 shots and not start swinging sticks at his so-called
defensemen.

In case you’re wondering, on the first shift of the game, Jeff Odgers tried
to put an elbow through Marchment’s face. Marchment looked carefully at both
refs, who were pointedly ignoring him, and those of us close to the ice
heard a quiet feral growl and then the pinging of the sonar, as Marchment
started shedding clothing and played “heatseeker” for Odgers. Odgers seemed
rather surprised to be jumped, and Mush won on points.

Here’s hoping Odgers isn’t seriously hurt, but he was putting no weight on
his right leg, and there were rumors of it being his knee. And his being
ready for the long jump from that last hit. That injury seemed to stun
Atlanta, and I’m not sure they ever recovered. They aren’t THAT bad a team,
honest. They really aren’t — although I wondered at times if this was a
prank, and they’d hired the san jose state team to stand in for the evening.

The Thrashers REALLY aren’t that bad. Honest. I think. The good news: ticket
prices will go down next year, because of the reduced need for showers and
laundry tonight in the Sharks locker room. If you don’t sweat, you don’t
need to wash…

What got into Hannan tonight? Especially in the third, everything he touched
fell down. Especially good (judges rated it a 6.5, except for the Slovak
judge, but we threw out the high and the low) was Kowalchuk’s triple-axel
fall to the ice, but the rumor that he and Hannan are going to the Olympics
for the pair competition are false.

And imagine this: what would have happened if the sharks WEREN’t playing a
back to back and had to travel in from Anaheim (via the reno airport, or
perhaps Cleveland), arriving about next Thursday and exhausted?

Finally, our refs tonight were Ron Cowal, who we got to know in pre-season,
and Mike Leggo, who we got to know last season. What I want to know is: what
did Lombardi do to piss off the league THIS time, that we got blessed with
these guys together? And will either one ever finish reading the rulebook?
Because anyone who refs that way ought to be told to buy a ticket if they
want to watch. There’s a small difference between “letting the boys play”
and “someone find me a mirror, I need to see if he’s still breathing”.

But then, maybe that’s what this game deserved, and my god, despite the
Graves ceremony, it was over at 10:02. And only that because, god help me,
the Refs decided to call a meaningless penalty with four miliseconds left in
the game, after having ignored the game up until then… Game time:
something like 2 hours and 20 minutes. I’ll take it…

Onward to Vancouver, who could use a guy like Rhodes in goal right now…