Sharks Gameday: Ok, Well, Whatever

When I worked in London for a little bit, I had this boss who loved gambling. Almost every week he'd go to a casino and somehow come back with stacks of money. I went with him one time, and as we walked through the London tube station, he explained his strategy to me. He always brought about 150 pounds and played roulette. Instead of sitting at a table and playing, he'd stand in the middle of a bunch of tables and watch the screens displaying the numbers. He'd look for a certain third or a certain column to appear three times in a row; if it did, he'd run over to a table and bet 20 pounds each on the other two thirds or columns. If it didn't hit, he'd do the same thing but double his bet.

He didn't look like he had much fun, but I saw him turn 150 pounds into about 800 pounds with a small number of bets (and a lot of standing around). When I later presented his strategy to stats people, they said that it was a flawed strategy because you can't look at something like roulette with series odds; that it has to be a single event taken every time.

Well, the Sharks are down 3-1. Do you look at the inevitable and say it'll be just about impossible for them to win three in a row or do you just look at this next game and see what happens?

The cynic/realist in me says to accept what it is, and for the most part, I have. The optimist in me says that the Stars (and Marty Turco) are due for a meltdown game and that the Sharks have been close in this series despite playing pretty crappy, and if they can just reach that magical plateau where the whole team is firing on all cylinders, who knows? It's not impossible, after all, just really, really, really ridiculously unlikely.

As for me, I feel loose. I'm going tonight, but I'm not stressing because ultimately, whatever happens will be and now that I've sat back and thought about it, I can see where the flaws are in the way this team is constructed. I may be drinking the Teal Kool-Aid, but I don't think it's as bad as some people do. I don't think there's a need to completely destroy things, just one or two core changes, a few tweaks, and another year for so many of the kids that the Sharks relied on to mature.

If they win, that'll activate the little part in me that goes, "Maybe, just maybe." If things aren't going well, I'm going to take the whole thing in as something that's pretty personal to me, as it may be Jeremy Roenick's last game. For a guy that's been a fan of his since middle school, it's kind of neat to be able to be there if it ends. I hope it doesn't, either for the team or for him (especially with his newfound ability to be a character role-player), but you know, shit happens.

Go Sharks.