Wow. Just Wow. Part II

That will teach me to place faith in the Sharks. Just when it looked like San Jose had slain its playoff demons and was riding the wave of momentum into the conference finals, the Sharks laid an egg in this series as were promptly swept by Chicago. Like the last series against Detroit, the series was closer than the team’s records would indicate. But that hardly is any consolation as the Sharks are headed to another early summer and another year of wondering, “what if?”

It was pretty obvious that Chicago was able to succeed by relying on its youthful corps of players. The stars of the Hawks are in their 20s while the Sharks key players are in their 30s. This late in the playoffs, the younger, healthier team will advance most of the time, and that seemed to be the case here. Chicago seemed like a team on the rise a few years ago and now it seems likely they will win the Cup once the eastern finals is over.

So where does this leave San Jose? With Marleau and Nabokov free agents this offseason and Blake considering retirement, this team will have a different look this fall. Doug Wilson will have some tough choices to make as he will have to deal with salary cap issues if he wants to keep this group of guys. The main issue still seems to be defense, as the Sharks could use another solid blueliner to compliment Dan Boyle (who should be the next captain if Blake retires). Nabokov is starting to show some ware from being a workhorse all those years and I think his best days are behind him.

I was excited to see Joe Pavelski emerge as a threat in the Colorado series, but he faded down the stretch and didn’t score at all in the Chicago series. Along with Devin Setoguchi, they are the future of the franchise. After them, there isn’t much young blood on this team; perhaps its time to unload Thornton for some younger guys and start building for the future.

I am having a hard time deciding if this season is considered another disappointment. I can see both sides, but I am leaning towards no. As opposed to losing to an inferior team (like Anaheim last year), Chicago is clearly the best team in the west and while a sweep is embarrassing, it isn’t heart-wrenching like previous years. The Detroit series would have been the opportunity to choke, and the Sharks found a way to pull together and win. It doesn’t seem like much consolation now, but maybe San Jose can enter next year’s playoffs without the underachiever label around their necks. But what stings the most is it appears this series was the de facto cup finals, as now Chicago has an easy road to the championship.

By the way, I promised Tracy I wouldn't grow a playoff beard next year in advance of our wedding. So no new pictures like the one below next year; hopefully, their luck will finally change (but I doubt it).

Photo: Watching the Sharks get swept was a little upsetting

Team Coco invades Lansing

Lansing seems to be the comedy mecca of Michigan these days. After heading up our capital city to see Lewis Black a few months back, we saw Conan O’Brien at the Breslin Center last night. Tracy has been a big fan of Conan for years, and she was excited when he took over the Tonight Show, and crushed when Jay made his hissy fit and took it back.

When his national tour was announced, Michigan was not on the list. The closest stops were either Chicago or Toronto, so nether was very practical. At some point, they added the Lansing stop and it was intended only for MSU students. Tickets to the general public were only released two weeks ago, and they were gobbled up by the end of the day.

Not being too familiar with Conan’s comedy, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I know his style is very self-deprecating, so that is something I can both appreciate and relate to. The audience was composed of mostly college students and young adults, similar to his demographic of viewers, I imagine.

I expected him to simply perform a typical standup routine and take shots at Jay and NBC most of the night. However, the format was closer to an episode of his talk show than a comedy show. It included several segments, with an opening segment by Conan, different comedians taking the stage, some pre-taped segments, and even a musical guest (Kid Rock?!). I’m not trying to say I didn’t enjoy it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. Tracy enjoyed it as well, but was a little disappointed there wasn’t more Conan.

So now we’ve both been lucky enough to see one of our favorite comedians already this year. The only thing that would have been better was noting having to drive to Lansing both times.

Wow. Just wow

Well, that was unexpected. When I saw that San Jose would face Detroit in the second round, my reaction was probably similar to other Sharks fans: “Oh no, here we go again.” We’ve been down this road before and there wasn’t much reason to expect a different outcome. Add on the fact that the Sharks have struggled against the Wings and this had all the makings of another playoff disappointment.

Somehow, the Sharks managed to put together a solid effort and dispatched the Red Wings in five games. However, the 4-1 series breakdown doesn’t begin to illustrate how close this series was. All four of the Sharks wins were by one goal and each lead never felt safe. After the 7-1 debacle in game 4, it was another premonition things were about to go south. But the Sharks rebounded back at the Tank to close out the series.

The Sharks excelled in several areas in this series, but it seems the most impressive characteristic of this team is tenacity. When it seems like things go wrong, they don’t wither away like previous years, but confront the problem and quickly find a solution. Several of my work friends have complained about the officiating in the series, but it shows how San Jose was able to pounce on loose pucks and force Detroit out of position.

The Sharks now face Chicago in the conference finals, tying the farthest San Jose has been in its playoff history. If the regular season is any indication, the Sharks should be in for a tough fight, as the Hawks held a 2-1-1 series advantage. The one game I saw at The Tank this year was against Chicago, which just happened to be a 7-2 loss. The Blackhawks could have easily been the #1 seed in the west had they won their regular season finale, so these two teams are very close on paper. My head says to pick Chicago to win, but my heart finally believes the Sharks have the willpower to advance to (dare I say it?) the Stanley Cup finals.

Breathing easy

In a rare moment of weakness, I broke down and discussed a political issue a few months back: the new Michigan law to ban smoking in public places. That law went into effect on Saturday, which also happened to fall on a bowling night. I was really intrigued to see what effect it would have on the people in our league, as we are the only team out of our 20-team league that has four non-smokers. My prediction was business as usual, meaning everyone would continue to light up and the alley would throw up their hands, as the control desk was too far away from our lanes to enforce the law.

It turns out I was totally wrong. There were large signs posted on all the doors reminding people the law was now in effect. All the ashtrays were removed to reduce the temptation. The one thing that was pretty obvious was almost half the teams were absent this weekend, which is way above normal. I think the most I recall seeing out at one time was three; this time, it was closer to 10. This could be an amazing coincidence, but with only one more round left, perhaps teams decided to call it a year. Bowling seems to have a culture that is tied to smoking, so now that one part has been removed from the equation, it looses its appeal. It should be interesting to see if alleys have trouble fielding leagues this fall if this weekend was an indication of how die-hard bowlers feel about the law.