Suspensions in the playoffs (and sharks game 6)

Brashear gets six games in the playoffs — well deserved, and well done NHL. The only way you stop this kind of crap is to kick them where it hurts. And Brashear needed a 2×4. Given Betts has a broken orbital bone and is out for a while, I’m glad the league came down hard here.

The Tortorella suspension? Unfortunate, but earned. Same penalty Tie Domi got for watering a fan and turning a small altercation into a bigger one. You simply DON’T DO THAT. And while I have some sympathy for Sather wanting sanctions on the Caps (they’re deserved, from what I can tell), it doesn’t argue away the issue of YOU DON’T DO THAT.  The Tortorella suspension should be ground zero for the debate on how the NHL handles things, mostly because the fans are always complaining that the league is too soft (except when it impacts their team, or “the game”). The league did right here.

As far as the Sharks? I finally saw the kind of game I felt this team was capable of; not perfect, but Joe Thornton finally stepped it up and played a “Joe thornton playoff game”. Will that game appear in game 6 tonight? If it does, the Ducks are done. Am I convinced? Far from it, but at least I’m looking forward to this game with some anticipation instead of resignation. There’s hope in Sharks land again, at least for me, that Thornton has finally figured out what it takes to win in the playoffs. I give the team a 25% to force a game 7, well up from “not gonna happen”. And if Game 7 happens, I expect the Ducks to go down. I don’t, however, expect the Ducks to go quietly. This’ll be a game to watch. Especially Joe.

There are some writers out here putting the blame on Nabokov for soft goals. Fortunately, these are writers who ignore hockey except when it’s playoff time, so it’s easy to realize they don’t have a clue and ignore them, hence I’m not linking to them (Hi, Mark. Hey, Ray, go cover the Warriors in the playoffs instead like you prefer. Oh, wait..). While I don’t completely exonerate Nabby, both of the goals in game 5 were started by defensive and coverage problems that had a lot more to do with the goals happening than Nabby did. When one of your players runs into a linesman and falls down and turns over the puck at the blueline, bad things usually happen… But you actually have to watch hockey to know that, it’s much easier for a columnist to blame the goalie….

Game on!

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  • Mike

    I agree with Cook that the Sharks have looked pretty ordinary and beatable since the All-Star Break.

    We find ourselves once again wondering why the Sharks don't seem to come out consistently up or motivated in big games. We've changed coaches, but that didn't help much. Maybe a rookie coach was a bad idea as McLellan seemed to run out of ideas the last few weeks.

    My issue with Nabokov is he doesn't seem to be able to step up and steal a game when the season is on the line. He puts up fine statistics, but never seems to take over and say that “we're not going to lose this game if I have anything to say about it.” Hiller seemed to do that in his very first playoff series. Unfortunately, a bunch of other Sharks play much the same in the playoffs.

    I don't know the answers, but once again I'm planning theatre trips in May instead of hockey nights. Sigh.

  • http://mmatm.blogspot.com Red

    Well, I'm all over Nabby to go. The Nabby in the playoffs was about as real as the Nabby on Twitter. He was merely average. Even if his injury from earlier in the season came back to haunt him, and I don't think it did, we've given him several years as our guy. I don't know what the solution is, but clearly he's not the one to save the Sharks when they screw up in front of him when it counts. And his comment last night about the team not playing badly was ridiculous. He's delusional… probably the reason he relaxed and stood up everytime a Sharks player had the puck in our own zone. He just assumed they were going to clear the zone no problem. No goalie should do that. They just don't have enough time to check their posts and set up if the unfortunate turn-over happens.

    Doug Wilson may be on his way out. I think it's a shame, but what he's doing isn't working and this was just unacceptable. I know a few season ticket holders that have definitely stated they aren't renewing, and I'm sure they are serious. I will, but only because I realize I was entertained for several months of the year. Not in the spring at all, but those are the tix that would be easy to sell. Could be worse. We could be in Toronto!

  • http://chuck.goolsbee.org Chuck Goolsbee

    Mind you I have not watched much of the playoff so far, but what little I've seen of the Sharks/Ducks series the Sharks have looked AWFUL in their own end. You can't win games, much less Stanley Cups making bonehead errors in your own zone.

  • Mike

    I agree with Cook that the Sharks have looked pretty ordinary and beatable since the All-Star Break.

    We find ourselves once again wondering why the Sharks don't seem to come out consistently up or motivated in big games. We've changed coaches, but that didn't help much. Maybe a rookie coach was a bad idea as McLellan seemed to run out of ideas the last few weeks.

    My issue with Nabokov is he doesn't seem to be able to step up and steal a game when the season is on the line. He puts up fine statistics, but never seems to take over and say that “we're not going to lose this game if I have anything to say about it.” Hiller seemed to do that in his very first playoff series. Unfortunately, a bunch of other Sharks play much the same in the playoffs.

    I don't know the answers, but once again I'm planning theatre trips in May instead of hockey nights. Sigh.

  • http://mmatm.blogspot.com Red

    Well, I'm all over Nabby to go. The Nabby in the playoffs was about as real as the Nabby on Twitter. He was merely average. Even if his injury from earlier in the season came back to haunt him, and I don't think it did, we've given him several years as our guy. I don't know what the solution is, but clearly he's not the one to save the Sharks when they screw up in front of him when it counts. And his comment last night about the team not playing badly was ridiculous. He's delusional… probably the reason he relaxed and stood up everytime a Sharks player had the puck in our own zone. He just assumed they were going to clear the zone no problem. No goalie should do that. They just don't have enough time to check their posts and set up if the unfortunate turn-over happens.

    Doug Wilson may be on his way out. I think it's a shame, but what he's doing isn't working and this was just unacceptable. I know a few season ticket holders that have definitely stated they aren't renewing, and I'm sure they are serious. I will, but only because I realize I was entertained for several months of the year. Not in the spring at all, but those are the tix that would be easy to sell. Could be worse. We could be in Toronto!

  • http://chuck.goolsbee.org Chuck Goolsbee

    Mind you I have not watched much of the playoff so far, but what little I've seen of the Sharks/Ducks series the Sharks have looked AWFUL in their own end. You can't win games, much less Stanley Cups making bonehead errors in your own zone.

  • http://tewha.net Steven Fisher

    Having watched a smattering of games from each series, I believe that every team that made the playoffs was capable of winning the whole thing. It's already come down to who's willing to play hard for it and who isn't.

  • jecook

    Well Chuq a tough way to end the season. Sharks top players were fairly ordinary but they were really an ordinary team starting around february. I was hopeful they could turn it on when they needed it most, but I never got a warm and fuzzy feeling about rookie coach todd. While GM Wilson preached the filling of holes with vets, he rolled the dice and filled the key coaching slot with a rookie, and Carlyle seemed to enjoy eating him for lunch in this series. While many will call for Nabby, Joe and Patty to move on, I am calling the hiring of Todd Mac as the biggest problem in shark land, I doubt he goes though, but I was wanting Joe Quinneville and he was available until OCTOBER, now Joe Q lives to face the Canucks in round 2, crap this just sucks

    later
    JECook