One of the sports columnists for the San Jose Mercury News (Mark Purdy, I think) declared that it was safe for people to climb on the hockey bandwagon once again--not only were the Sharks going to the playoffs, but they were going as the second seed (of 8, for you non-hockey folks) in the west. They're going to keep us busy well into April, I think it said.
(Yeah, more hockey fan-goobing--don't read if you're not interested, there's no non-sports content here. :)
If last night's crowd was any indication, it didn't take long for people to hop on. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I saw maybe three or four Blues jerseys, but the rest of the place was just covered in teal. Of course, get 17,496 (give or take) fans together, bandwagon or no, and that's liable to happen, I guess.
The crowd definitely didn't disappoint, either. Everyone was on their feet when the Sharks came out, and that Shark Tank howl that we haven't heard since the 2001-2002 season was out in full force. Okay, admittedly, it's not quite the same as the Oakland Coliseum howl, but the capacity there is at least three times as many. It's outdoor, though, so they don't quite get the reverb effect that you get at the Tank.
ANYway. It was a great game. The goalies were both incredible, and each team played their game very well. The Blues played a pretty hard game, physically (though the Sharks definitely responded--it was really damn good to see Patty Marleau playing the body), and the Sharks were as quick as ever. Both teams had a couple of odd-man rushes, and...
Well.
Anyone who was watching? You can blame Leigh Ann and me for the fact that the game went into overtime. I don't think we figured it'd be a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, but we were talking about how playoff overtime works--how it's basically a 4th period rather than a 5 minute OT. Still sudden death, of course. But I think the fact that we talked about it must've caused it. ;)
When the game went into overtime, I started wondering how I was going to explain to my boss that I was probably going to be in late in the morning, as well--I mean, they play until someone wins, they have to, and we saw a game a couple of seasons ago that went into five overtimes. Yeah. *Five*. As in...eight periods of hockey. The equivalent of almost 2 and 2/3 games. Aiie!
Niko saved us, though. Well. That whole line saved us, really. From Damphousse hollering for Niko not to touch the puck because it was a hand pass, to Marleau driving the net and distracting Osgood, to Niko roofing the puck and putting it in the net...Wow. Just wow. Not only was it Niko's first career playoff goal, but it was his first career overtime goal, too. Alyn McCauley retrieved the puck for him, which we thought was really cool.
And, needless to say, the place just went WILD after Niko scored. And ow, my throat hurts. :)
Someone on the Sharks chat board was there taking pictures, and this one...well. It's worth a thousand words.
Posted by Liz at April 9, 2004 08:03 AM