A moment of silence, please
Well, while the Stars and Red Wings resume playing hockey tonight (see below for O'Brien's preview), the rest of us have some time to reflect on other things than "Please oh please don't lose tonight!"
Greg Wyshynski, now of Yahoo! Infamy (apparently now he's known as "Puck Daddy"), has put together a “Eulogy” feature to help remember teams that have been eliminated from playoff contention. Instead of having guest bloggers lament their own team's disappointing playoff exit, he instead has solicited rival-team bloggers to help celebrate the passing of the deceased teams. I think it makes for a better read: why focus on the pessimism of playoff elimination when in other corners of the hockey world rival fans are cheering?
So in that light I was selected to help commemorate the passing of the 2007-08 San Jose Sharks. When Greg contacted me before the postseason started, I didn’t realize it would be such a workload: I had to be prepared for a possible Sharks elimination in Game Seven of the first round, and then Games Four, Five, and Six of the second round, and even then the Sharks pushed their demise until quadruple overtime.
So, without further ado, I point you to Eulogy: Remembering the 2007-08 San Jose Sharks, penned by yours truly. Mainly, it’s a silly look at some of the ways that the Sharks tried to copycat tactics from the Ducks’ cup win from last year, and how even those changes couldn’t get the Sharks out of their annual second-round demise. Also, I take a brief look at some of the salary struggles the Sharks will have this coming offseason: how much more will this same Sharks team cost next year? Feel free to discuss in the comments.
But hey, Wyshynski's not all about Shark-bashing at Yahoo!; he's equal-opportunity. For embittered Shark fans (or other Duck-haters), why not enter Greg's caption contest to assign a Stompy-bashing label to Chris Pronger's Hockey-Reference.com player page? I predict that a Red Wing fan wins this, though; it's going to be tough to match the bitterness of a loud-and-proud fanbase that Pronger eliminated two years in a row.
7 comments:
What does AOL think about you gallivanting on rival blogs? At least link to your Series Preview Roundtable.
I think your predictions were pretty spot-on.
Good point.
Everyone who goes to a Yahoo link, make sure you hit this AOL link twice as often!
random poster:"And how far did Anaheim get this year?"
Earl Sleek: Ooh, I feel burned. Better watch that cup DVD again.
hilarious. but you shouldn't compare the sharks logo to Batman: The Animated Series. That'd be an insult to BTAS.
And I don't think they'd slide into mediocrity in the coming years. I think they have enough decent prospects so even if they lost some FAs, they'd at least be able to maintain the status quo. Which of course ain't that consoling either.
No, I doubt it's mediocrity for the Sharks: they'll still have a lot of the pieces in place.
Still, I was shocked at how much extra money it's going to cost to even ice the same Sharks team next year. Doug Wilson's going to have a busy, busy summer (especially if he's hiring Ron's replacement), and I figure if Campbell's in the cards, that means something probably has to be trimmed elsewhere.
It's a contrast to the Ducks' offseason, which is mostly:
1. Sign Perry
2. If he's willing, sign Teemu
3. If Scott doesn't retire, trade Schneider
4. Get a backup goalie/re-sign Hiller
Really, Anaheim's interesting summer will be a year from now, but that's a post for after the playoffs.
Earl Sleek's post = Mariah Carey.
Heartbreaker man.
Good job though, you covered all the points. And the cartoon was awesome as always.
"Please oh please don't lose tonight!"
That's hilarious. And so true! It was great watching the Wings / Stars game tonight and cheer on a team that I have no passionate commitment to. I feel like a normal (semi) person again. My stress level is down, I'm not screaming at the tv, breaking out in hives, etc etc.
The problem with giving Campbell alot of money is he is not a shut down defenseman. That is why I had trouble with giving Schneider all that money. There's a reason why the top NHL defenseman are Lidstrom, Pronger, Niedermayer and Zubov. They're overall game is pretty unmatched by anyone. Though Chara impressed me this year more than he ever did on Ottawa.
Course Chara reminds that Ottawa finally made it to the Cup finals without Chara. They chose to pay Redden instead. I don't think Chara was the problem. Maybe it was that they placed too much confidence in goalies like Lalime and Hasek, who got hurt in those pesky Olympics. However, whatever happened, the big players in Ottawa elevated their game and the team finally made it to a cup finals. Even if SJ loses players, they have enough talent to remain serious contenders.
As far as your eulogy, it was great. A fun read
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