So here we are again. I am not going to sit here and bash every Shark for not playing out of their mind last night. Instead I will only acknowledge them as a team, not individuals. Did this team play to win last night? Yes. Did they have the talent and skill to win last night? Yes. Does that talent and skill have what it takes to kick it in to that extra gear? No.
The biggest problem I have with this TEAM is their lack of desperation. When they need to go all out, and that includes every player, they can not get away from their calm coolness. This team is a team that believes if they continue to play their game everything will work out. Sorry, I have news for them, their game sucks right now.
The Sharks are actually playing Anaheim's game right now. I am sick of seeing Ducks players skate across the Sharks blueline uncontested while everytime a Sharks player does so he is pinched off or crushed. The defense continues to allow them to skate in and then try to angle them to the corners. That is fine as long as the forwards backchecking are picking up the guys following them, but they are not.
Plain and simple, the Ducks are outworking the Sharks. It is really that simple. The Ducks defense, offense, goaltending, special teams, and overall competitiveness has been better than the Sharks. That is why the Ducks will win this series. It is not because the Sharks don't want it as bad.
So how bad do the Sharks want this? As much as the next player or team in the playoffs. Everyone who competes at this level wants it and wants it bad. So what separates the lions from the goats? The extra gear. What is the extra gear? It is something deep inside a player or team of players that comes out when things get tough and allows them to play at a level higher than normal. It is not something you can see in an x-ray or brain scan, it is only seen on the ice or playing field. The Sharks do not have that extra gear.
The Ducks have that extra gear. It is what allows a team like Anaheim to come into a building like the Sharks Tank, where the Sharks lost in regulation only 5 times all season, and come out with 2 wins. It is what allows Getzlaf, Perry, and Ryan to out play any of the Sharks lines. It is what allows Scott Neidermayer to be as good as he is still at his age.
You can compare it to driving a stick shift in San Francisco. The Sharks are the stick shift VW that you have to work at getting going to make it up the hill, after working the clutch too much you burn it up and you just roll on back down the hill.. The Ducks are the smooth automatic corvette that just goes on up with little work to get moving. What I am getting at is this.... The Sharks are a team that needs that extra gear to be shifted by the coach and even when he tries to shift they either don't go into gear or they grind for a little bit and you have to end up down shifting and just cruising in third and hope you can make it. The Ducks on the other hand just switch automatically and the coach can sit back and enjoy the view on cruise control.
It is not the coach, it is the car he is driving and the parts that make up that car. Here is hoping the Sharks can chug on through in third gear or else they are going to get left in the corvette's dust. Maybe this summer might be a good time to overhaul the car and upgrade to an automatic.
Mark
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