I think we're running out of sports cliches to describe where the San Jose Sharks sit. Backs against the wall, give a 110%, do or die, bla bla bla. Momentum does exist in sports, but it's not a game to game thing. It's more like an ebb and flow, and it can only last one or two shifts or it can last an entire playoffs. It's the kind of thing you can't really detect or define; you just know it when you see it.
Ron Wilson's been trying to psych his team up by talking about history. Well, here are some stats courtesy of WhoWins:
(Mike's note: Some of these numbers were compiled after looking at a bazillion tables. I might have made a counting error.)
-In NHL history, 150 teams have been down 0-3. Of those teams, only two have come back (1942 Maple Leafs and 1975 Islanders).
-Of those comebacks, one was for the home-team series and one was for the visitor-team series.
-The average win percentage of the team up 3-0 winning game 4 (in other words, a sweep) is 65.1%.
-One comeback was in the Stanley Cup Final (Leafs), the one was in the conference semifinal (Islanders)
-In the modern era, a Game 7 has only been forced twice, both by the Islanders in 1975 (one win, one loss). In the early days of the NHL, this happened a few times, such as the 1939 Boston win over the New York Rangers.
-In total, ten teams have come back to force Game 6. In the modern era, only five teams have done this, the most recent being the 2004 Colorado Avalanche--losing to the San Jose Sharks.
So, the whole deal is about making history, right? Well, the Sharks are in pretty rare company as it is, and if they pull off tonight, they'll be in even rarer company.
The big, big difference between a lot of 3-0 series and this one is that the games have been extremely tight affairs with a number of overtime periods and disallowed goals. For the Sharks, we all know how they can be topsy-turvey in a maddening way; at this point, I don't question their heart anymore, I question their smarts, because if they'd played smart the whole way through, we wouldn't be in this mess. Still, you learn from your mistakes, and this team has been set on proving to everyone that they could withstand adversity.
Well, here's the ultimate adversity. Let's take another step towards history tonight.
Go Sharks.
No offense, but I think I speak for all non-Sharks fans when I say that nothing, and I mean nothing, would make me happier than if the Sharks won tonight and then lost game 7.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, that would be fantastic, but I'm not sure I'd want to chance it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Sharks. This pun's only good once a year, so here goes.
ReplyDeleteMay the Fourth... be with you.
(glares @ rudykelly or is that rudekelly)
ReplyDeleteGO SHARKS!!!
Earl, I'm shunning you from now on.
ReplyDeleteThat joke is absolutely awful. I think the series ends tonight. No way Dallas loses Game 6 at home.
ReplyDeleteEither way, whoever wins the game tonight wins the series
That joke is absolutely awful. I think the series ends tonight. No way Dallas loses Game 6 at home.
ReplyDeleteOK, but if Dallas does lose Game 6 at home, then I'm going to assume that you're just generally wrong and the joke is thus brilliant.
If that was an anti-Sharks comment, I would quote one of my favorite Smiths songs. Hopefully, someone would get it.
ReplyDeleteBut since it's not anti-Sharks, I'm not saying anything.
Take this as a 3-1 series. Forget about the 3-0 stats, they're useless now.
ReplyDeleteGood luck from a habs fan.
I meant a 3-2 series of course...
ReplyDeleteI agree with greeeegoire- it's two (possible) games, and that's all that really matters.
ReplyDeleteMay the fourth be with you
Quality stuff Earl.
What's really bad is I've used that joke 3 times already today.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days, Ott is going to pull that Superman shit into the boards and no one will be there. He'll end his career and I will laugh.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe we'll all luck out and he'll just lacerate his spleen.
Well, the dreaded opening goal's out of the way. Still, I'm thinking that the Sharks could really use a gift from Turco right about now.
ReplyDeleteHey, alright. More controversy. Someone with HD TV is going to have to tell me if the Stars should be outraged that Plihal punched that in like the TSN guys are telling me.
ReplyDeleteOkay...I've hit "bargaining." I promise to lay off Ron Wilson for...a month if the Sharks can pull a game 7 out of their asses.
ReplyDeleteOT again. UGH! I swear my blood pressure is skyrocketing!
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOD...I don't want to hear any more shit about Nabby's save percentage from certain Canadian sports columnists/blog gurus after that glove action.
ReplyDeleteWow, what an OT save. Nabby's channeling the Force tonight.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Michalek got fucked up!
ReplyDeleteTSN replayed the Torres hit from '06. I loved it at the time, but ouch. And yeah, I can admit that was dirty now.
That boy's career could seriously be over. He didn't look like he knew what a country was, never mind which one he was in at that moment.
I assume Mike and Cheechew are holding each other tightly while watching this game.
ReplyDeleteThey probably have to take turns watching at this point.
Also, Michalek got fucked up!
Milan "Memento" Michalek.
How many times in Michalek's young career has his knee been reconstructed already?
ReplyDeleteIs there an over/under on the poor kid's career?
So what is it, one more OT period and then a league-mandated shootout? :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I would use the word "unfettered" like Razor just did to describe the first OT period, but man, was that great to watch.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can spend the break trying to figure out why Joe Thornton was a healthy scratch for this game.
Okay, time to 'fess up; who else has seen enough of the filmography of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper to have seen "They Live?"
ReplyDeleteAt one point (well, okay, like a quarter of the movie) Piper and Keith David are just beating thee shit out of each other in an alley. Five minutes of slugfest, and Piper ends up in a dumpster. But no! Out of the dumpster with a shot across David's jaw. Piper stumbles away, and David's character comes out of the frame to tackle him down. High cinema. Nerve-wracking hockey.
Best Rowdy Roddy flick by the way? "Hell Comes to Frogtown." No question.
Shit, don't tell me we have nothing but Versus promos between periods from here on out.
ReplyDeleteShit, don't tell me we have nothing but Versus promos between periods from here on out.
ReplyDeleteMeh, still better than Brian Hayward.
Zing!
ReplyDeleteOkay, who had "arm" in the Michalek injury pool? Or is this just more tricky playoff injury misdirection?
ReplyDeleteI think I had "brain death," so I guess I lose.
ReplyDeleteHe probably just damaged the part of his brain that controls the ability to properly put on a shirt.
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ReplyDelete"They Live" is my third favorite Carpenter film, behind "The Thing" and "Big Trouble in Little China."
ReplyDeleteI need to get up at 6 tomorrow, but I don't want this to end.
Ahhh, "Big Trouble in Little China." The rain is falling and the lightning is flashing here in central Texas, and I can almost hear the ol' Pork Chop Express barreling down the highway out my window.
ReplyDeletei swear i have memorized every versus tv commercials since the playoffs have started. if this is it for the sharks, part of me (my brain) will at least be at ease.
ReplyDeleteNo kidding. I am more liable to saw my own arm off at this point than to spend any money having Verizon break me out of broadband jail.
ReplyDeleteas this game keeps on going i keep thinking... time to bet the house on Detroit in game 1.
ReplyDelete(CRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
ReplyDeleteGoddammit.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Turco and the Stars. Quite a run they're on.
Fire Ron Wilson.
ReplyDeleteI feel inclined to make a joke about this game lasting 69 minutes (and three seconds) past regulation, but I'm still flabbergasted at what I've just watched.
ReplyDeleteTurco was amazing, what a great series he put forth as well as the rest of the Stars. What a game.
ReplyDeleteTime to hit the sack. Wtf i seriously watched hockey for almost ten hours today (counting the Pens game).
plank, same here. and cant' think of a better way to spend a day. So ... I'll be cheering the Red Wings over the Stars myself. Anyone else? And it has nothing to do with this game.
ReplyDeleteNow that the Sharks are dead I dunno... Probably just root for the Penguins.
ReplyDeleteIm right there with you angie and brokeyard. Pens-Wings would be unreal (plus we'd get some zany posts from Pensblog).
ReplyDeleteI hate the Wings so much, I never thought I'd be rooting for em.
Oh, I see my post implied that I was rooting for the Sharks... I wasn't.
ReplyDelete