Friday, October 24, 2008

Games 4-7

Anyone who has been following the Sharks recently knows three things: 1) The offense is pretty good, 2) the defense is iffy, and 3) us here at the Odyssey (me) haven't been doing a great job at keeping you up to date on all of that. But, just like the Sharks, business here is just beginning to pick up.

Over the past week, we've seen a 5-2 win over Columbus, a 4-0 loss to Anaheim, a 5-4 OT win over Philly, and a wild and woolly one (that's for you, Dan) over the Flyers 7-6 in a shootout on Tuesday.

So what do we know:

*Patrick Marleau is playing pretty well
*Joe looks hurt or something
*Devin Setoguchi has learned how to not disappear after one game
*Jonathan Cheechoo can score goals in the late months of a calendar year
*Rob Blake likes to shoot the puck
*Dan Boyle is everywhere
*Evgeni Nabokov looks kinda tired
*The season needs to end now so the Cup can just be awarded to the Sharks

Before the season began, people expected the Pacific to be tops in the league. Its only 3 weeks in, but that's not the case. After the Sharks, the rest of the division is floundering in mediocrity, with the next nearest team 5 points back (Dallas). I predicted a similar dominance for the PacDiv, but if it stays like this all year long, I'm not sure how much I'll mind.

Tonight the Teal play the second on their three game roadie when they invade the Ft. Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers (4:30). The Panthers are 3-3 this year, and offer a balanced attack. With the trade of Olli Jokinen to Phoenix in the off-season, the Cats have turned to kids such as David Booth, Nathan Horton, and even Keith Ballard to provide the scoring. The last time the Sharks played the Panthers, they tricked the Cats into losing, and treated themselves to a late 2-1 win on Halloween night in 2006.

On a side note, tonight San Jose State University football plays what is probably their biggest game in the last few years when they host #13 Boise State tonight at Spartan Stadium (6:00). Each year for the last few, the Spartans have had a chance to make a dent in the BCS standings, coming close to upsets over Boise in 2006 and Hawaii last year, but falling just short. However this year carries more significance, as this season sees SJSU poised for a shot at the WAC crown. The spread is set at just 7, and should SJSU pull off the win tonight, there will be a great deal of partying at 1257 S. 10th. For those of you looking to watch some of both local events tonight, the football game can be seen on ESPN2 live.

GO SHARKS (GO SPARTANS TOO)
-Jess

1 Comments:

Blogger Matthew Proctor said...

I'm a new blogger and I just started a hockey related site dedicated to hockey jerseys called The Hockey Jerseys Guide. I liked your site and I was wondering if you would be interesting in trading links with me. I'll link your site in my blog roll and you link mine and we'll both benefit from google's searches.

What do you say?

Thanks,
Matt Proctor

1:56 PM  

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