commentary...

the Sharks should have won game in regulation,last night,but the referees missed the puck hitting the shoulder of one of the Sedin twins,on the icing call,at end of game,that would have forced the critical face-off to the other side of ice,in front of Roberto Luongo,instead of in front of Antti Niemi,but the Canucks got the game into overtime,not just one overtime,but into two overtimes... the Sharks had 56 shots for the entire game,and had the momentum most of the game,but Loungo was very good,in net,all night,allowing only two goals,all night... i can talk about the strange looking game winning goal,by Kevin Bieska,but the oldest saying in hockey is true:just shoot the puck towards the net,and strange things may happen... case in point:the bouncing knuckleball of a shot,that came off the stanchion,and went to middle of ice,to Bieska,on a weird puck bounce... 99.9 percent of the time,that puck goes behind the net,but this time,it went to the middle of ice,for a game winning goal,by Bieska... the Sharks were one for nine,in last two games,and could not solve Roberto Loungo,over the last two games... Todd McLellan(Sharks' coach)admitted that the series,against Detroit,took "a little bit of their juice",away from them,saying that going seven games,with Detroit fatigued them some,in this series... as a Red Wings' fan,i smile at that... however,making excuses on why you lost in five games does not mean that the Canucks were the better overall team,in this series... what is shocking is that the Sharks have won only one Conference Final game,in last eleven games,dating back to 2004,and the Sharks say that they are close,to winning the Conference finals... ha,ha,on that fact,and it is laughable... the fact is that they may have been the better team,against Detroit,but one puck bounce the other way,in games one through three,they go nowhere,and Detroit plays Vancouver(probably gets beat the way that the Canucks are playing right now,i have to admit...),but the series would have much closer than in five games,because Detroit has played Vancouver very tough,over the years,period... the Sharks are a very good team,but championship-caliber? debatable,to say the least... until this year,they had a goaltender,who folded under the pressure,in Eugeni Nakobov,and a team that was very good in regular season,but the overall talent was not there,to beat the really rough,and tough teams,in NHL,in a seven game series... they had not enough grit,they had talent,but not enough grit... i mean they did not have enough players,to go in front of the net,and really dig for goals,in front of the other team's goaltender,and tip the puck past the goaltender... so they retooled,with last year's Stanley Cup winning goaltender,in Antti Niemi,and yet,they did not get enough gritty players,on third,and fourth lines,to irritate,and be the nasty pests,and be goal diggers,in front of net,and knocking players down in front of the goaltender... they did it,against Detroit,because Detroit is basically a finesse team that does not like to knock you down in front of net too much,but yet,the Red Wings can kill you in other ways,like puck possession,crisp passing,and deadly shooting... that may be their one major drawback... Vancouver has bigger overall players,that will knock you down and dig for goals,and still kill you with great passes,and great shooting... both Sedin twins have led the NHL,in scoring,one last year,and the other one this year,so Vancouver has a lot of scorers,and they played very good defense the last two games,against Sharks,on the penalty kill,and if they can stay out of the penalty box,they will be tough to beat,but more of that later... if Sharks would have played like they did,against Detroit,and they kept on digging for goals in front of Luongo,the series would have been closer,but they tried to out-skate Vancouver,and they had no luck,in doing that,because Vancouver can out-skate most teams,and the Sharks played like they were intimidated,by the Canucks,most of the series... you did not see people in front of Luongo,on power play,too much,and Vancouver would enjoy keeping the other team to the outer reaches of the zone,on opponents' power play... the Sharks were built to beat their hated rivals,the Red Wings,and they did,but they played like they were ill-prepared to play Vancouver,and had no answer for the Sedin twins(Daniel,and Henrik),who dominated,after game three,and may be the best duo,overall,in NHL,and Ryan Kesler,who pundits compare to Pavel Datsyuk,but i will not do that,because Datsyuk is quite special,as a player,but i will say that Kesler does remind me of Datsyuk,and he is a very good player... Kesler is very good,but needs experience(playing time,and more years,in NHL),but both players are fun to watch,and near mirror images,of each other,except Datsyuk is much better in taking pucks away from other players(for now)... give him time,and watch out,NHL,because he is going to be very,very good... Luongo has been very solid in net,for Vancouver... his overall playoff record,until this year,was exactly 18-18,but he has impressed me this year,no end,because he has bounced back from really bad games,and then played like he wanted it more than the other teams... EXAMPLE,against Chicago,he came up big after losing three straight games,against the Blackhawks,when Chicago forced game seven,in opening round,he played like a rock,and a stud,in goal,in game seven,simply refusing to lose the game,and their season... watch out Boston,or Tampa Bay,because Vancouver is for real... tough series,for either of you,coming up,in Stanley Cup Finals,because Vancouver seems to be on a quest:win the Stanley Cup,and nothing else does not matter...