A San Jose Sharks Blog

From the first line to the fourth, everyone was playing tough. The biggest question mark surrounding Team Teal has always been their grit. It's clear that San Jose has the size, speed, skill, and youth, but toughness has consistently been a place for improvement. I love my Sharks, but I know that they aren't the grittiest team in the NHL. Fortunately, on most nights, they don't need to be because their goaltending and defense gets them by. However, there are times where I feel like the Sharks get pushed around and do little to respond. However, last night was different. Last night, the Sharks pushed back.

The game had a lot of elements that have been missing during the first half of the year; there was anger, passion, and all around nastiness. Let's not forget to mention scoring...particularly from Number 14. You could tell from the beginning of the game that Jonathan Cheechoo was feeling good. He was doing a little bit of everything; blocking shots, checking bodies, taking shots on net, getting dirty in the crease...all the things that he used to do. So why is he just starting to do it? Well, I assume that he's finally starting to feel good out there.

After having surgery, Cheechoo spent most of his time rehabbing in the offseason. By the time the regular season started, he was finally ready for the normal offseason training that he should have been doing the entire time. So in a sense, the first half of the season was Jonathan's "offseason training". Maybe I'm just making excuses for him, but I hope I'm right because that would mean a solid second half is ahead for Number 14. And let's not kid ourselves, it's great that the scoring has been spread around, but we need our big guns firing to compete with the likes of Detroit, Anaheim, and Ottawa.

In the first period, the Sharks had a fairly slow start putting only three shots on net. Though the offense wasn't going, the body checking was in full force. Thankfully, St. Louis was unable to score as well and the first 20 minutes ended with both teams scoreless.

In the second period, San Jose turned on the offense posting a total of 13 shots. Manny Legace stood tall and kept all but one shot out of the net. The only goal of the period came off of Milan Michalek's stick, giving him his 17th of the season. On the play, the big winger skated in two on one with Joe Thornton. Initially, Number 9 fanned on the shot, but was then able to chip a backhander to the far post putting the Sharks up by one.

In the third period, Team Teal pushed the lead even further when Cheechoo scored his 8th goal of the season while on the powerplay. Then, five minutes later, Steve Bernier scored his 13th goal of the season with a slapper from the top of the circles. With the score at 3-0, the Blues finally got on the board when former Shark Brad Boyes netted a one-timer while on the powerplay. To finish things off, Cheechoo scored his second goal of the night, again on the powerplay.

Overall, it was a really strong game for Team Teal which seemed to frustrate the Blues. After the game had ended, there was a lot of pushing and shoving. In fact, most of the Blues players seemed to be focused on Torrey Mitchell which was sort of weird. Moreover, Coach Ron Wilson and Coach Andy Murray also had words after the game. Both men stood 20 feet apart, yelling at one another...clearly the emotion wasn't limited to just the players on the ice.