I’ve been on a never-ending mission to clean out my closet for months. The other day I noticed that my closet was about to burst open with t-shirts, sweatshirts, and any other item of clothing under the sun that a person could possibly think of. Taking that as a sign from the gods to get to work, I started taking out clothes and asking myself if they had looked like they’d been bought from the Baby Gap.
Somewhere wedged between a University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux and Baylor University t-shirts, I found one that said “Stanley Cup Playoffs” plastered on the front, all wrinkled and perhaps maybe a little too dusty.
Dusting it off, I realized that it was definitely a little old. It had an old roster on the back, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. Scott Hannan?
Oh, he’s the “minister of defense” in Colorado. Patrick Rissmiller?
Gone. Kyle McLaren?
I wonder if he will ever pass a physical. Something told me that it was time to retire the shirt, not only because of the fact that it was a little embarrassing to have a shirt that old in my closet, but because of what it stood for. Call me a little superstitious, but I’d want to rid myself of any reminders of past post-season failures.
Playoffs are right around the corner, and tonight the San Jose Sharks (50-15-11) are going to be facing one of their old playoff foes, the Edmonton Oilers (36-32-9).
As of today, the Oilers are only three points out of the number eight seed. There’s still the odd chance that we might be seeing more of the Oilers during the postseason, but the slumping Oilers have gone 1-4 over the past five games. So, a loss tonight could equal a kiss goodbye to a 2009 playoff berth.
It will be physical and undoubtedly one of those games where I’m sure many of us are going to be leaping off our couches when an inevitable scrum will arise. That’s just what you get whenever it’s a Sharks/Oilers matchup.
Dwayne Roloson has always given the Sharks hell for some reason or another. If he gets hot between the pipes, I can see him definitely throwing a huge monkey wrench in the injured Sharks’ push to keeping the number one spot in the West (they’re currently four points ahead of Detroit). There’s no elbow-happy Raffi Torres and no fist-pumping, mullet-rocking Ryan Smyth, but Roloson still has the uncanny ability to bring back those memories of a second-round loss with the flash of a glove.
The Sharks are still without most of their regular players, but in the games that I have been able to watch lately (if I haven’t been bogged down by work), I’ve been really impressed with the way the third and fourth lines have been stepping it up during the absence of a lot of players. Travis Moen has been a good addition, and the guys who have been called up from Worcester (McGinn, definitely) have proved that they can fill in the roster nicely. Plus, Dan Boyle finally scored his first goal since Feb. 13 during the Calgary game, and Joe Pavelski’s on a six-game point streak. Just saying, that’s all.
Sure, the Sharks might be a little different than the roster on the back of my old t-shirt, but here’s hoping that they won’t share the same fate.
-Danielle
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