Wow, nice game by the Sharks last night. Especially Joe's line, of course (scary!), but everyone was pretty dedicated defensively. It seemed like none of the Thrashers could get a shot off without a Shark either harrassing them or getting in the way of the shot. Lines other than Joe's also put in shifts of sustained pressure and while none of those resulted in goals, they're still important shifts for eating up time, tiring the other team out, and preventing them from getting offensive zone time.
Joe's been kind of insane lately, highlighted last night by the play where he kind of performed a figure skating routine through the Thrashers zone, before passing to Hannan -> Cheechoo for the goal.
Praise for Joe:
''Joe is perhaps the best set-up man in the league,'' Blackhawks forward Martin Havlat said Thursday after practice in Bensenville.''You can see by the way he set up his wingmates [Wednesday night], and I think it's a lot of fun for the other wingers to play with him.''
Canes will be a tougher game for the Sharks. Not because they're a better team, but because of circumstances. Sharks were playing on the 2nd day of back-to-backs (going into that game we were 8-2 in that situation; I think it's because the Sharks usually suck on day one and get yelled at and play better on day two :P), Thrashers hadn't played since Sunday, including 2 days completely off (to rest for later in the season and the playoffs, which is a good idea I think) and had been on a really good run, and the longer those go, the greater the chance of a let down.
Canes are fighting for a playoff spot so the motivation factor will be there and the Sharks have been on a good stretch. Should be a good game. Or could possibly devolve into a brawl which seems to happen a lot between the Canes and Sharks for some unknown reason.
A Thrashers fan called the Sharks "a bunch of NFL free safeties on skates" because they're big and fast. *heart swells*