Sharks-Detroit, Cal-Stanfurd hoops
Thursday I went to the Sharks' 41st game of the season, marking the halway point for them as far as games played. The opponent: the dreaded Detroit Red Wings. Granted, the Wings have a ton of aging players (defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom, member of the tribe Mathieu Schneider, and goaltender Dominik Hasek) leading the way, but they are still highly talented.
The game started out well for the Sharks, who seemed quicker and more physical than Detroit during the first two minutes of the game. They outshot the Red Wings 3-0 to start the game. And then, Detroit woke up, and the Sharks seemed to revert back to the form that handed them an 8-0 loss at Phoenix. Detroit outshot the Sharks 16-4 over the last 18 minutes of the first period, and netted 3 goals to San Jose's 1. Jiri Hudler opened the scoring for Detroit, with Tomas Holmstrom adding a power play goal (thanks in part to an assist by Schneider!) and Jason Williams finished Detroit's scoring for the period thanks to a great shot between starting goaltender Evgeni Nabokov's shoulder and the crossbar while he (Williams) was on a breakaway. Sharks' head coach Ron Wilson had enough, and pulled Nabokov after the 3rd goal (on only 12 shots) and replaced him with Vesa Toskala. The Sharks responded to the move, and inched closer thanks to defenseman Josh Gorges' first goal of the season and NHL career.
In the second period, the Sharks dominated against Hasek and the Red Wings, outscoring the geezers 4-0. Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Pavelski scored power play goals - a common theme, sandwiching even strength goals by Ryane Clowe and Christian Erhoff. It was 5-3 Sharks in the second intermission, and I was positive the Red Wings would pull Hasek in favor of backup goaltender Chris Osgood. After all, it was a 2 goal game, and Hasek, like Nabokov, just did not have his good game going for him.
But I was wrong - and glad I was! The Sharks netteed 3 more goals against Hasek in the 3rd period (Mike Grier scored twice on the power play, with Patrick Marleau getting a power play goal between the Grier scores). Finally Detroit head coach Mike Babcock had enough, and placed Osgood in net...and he allowed the Sharks to soore their ninth (9th!) consecutive goal of the game, a power play goal by Ryane Clowe. Detroit finished the scoring for the game with defenseman Brett Lebda scoring with about 1:45 left, but it wasn't enough. The Sharks played sluggishly at the start, but dominated the last two periods to take this game by a final of 9-4. Vesa Toskala got the win, stopping 17 of 18 shots, and the Sharks actually outshot the Red Wings 31-30 for the gam (remember, it was 16-7 Detroit after one period, meaning the Sharks outshot the Wings 24-14 over two periods - a very good defensive effort after one bad period). Dominik Hasek got the loss after stopping only 20 or 28 shots.
The Sharks set a franchise record for power play goals in a game with 6 (they were 6-9 with the man advantage; Detroit 1-7), and in the last 3 matchups between these teams in San Jose, the Sharks have scored 16 power play goals - setting the team record in that department, matching it, then breaking it again. What can I say, I love Detroit's penalty killing in the Bay Area =).
Sharks' captain Patrick Marleau passed Owen Nolan for the franchise lead/record in points in this game, and he received a standing ovation when this was anounced as well as #1 star of the game honors. All in all, this was an excellent game.
I went with Daniel to the Cal-Stanfurd hoops game in Palo Alto on Wednesday, making my first trip to Maples Pavilion. Maples is quite tiny, making for cramped seating but very nice sightlines. Our seats were 5 rows in front of the Cal band, in the 2nd deck and corner of the arena. I was amused because Cal brought a bigger band than Stanfurd to the game. The game started out with the Trees getting out to an 8-2 lead on Cal, and I was sure this would be a long night. Neither team seemed to make many shots (indeed, Cal started out shooting 3-20; Stanfurd 3-8). But the Bears clawed their way back, and once they took a lead, did not relinquish it for the game. Cal won 67-63 for their first win at their Bay Area rival's building in 13 or 14 years, and while I was happy about the win, I was pretty irked by the usher in our section.
I'm guessing whoever reads this blog knows I love taking photos at sports games, and with the exception of one basketball game at Haas when I was on the floor (in the Bench section), no one has had a problem with me using flash photography, and there were no warnings pre-game asking fans not to use flash (in fact, I could see people in other sections using flash when taking photos). Indeed, I need flash for hoops photos or else they turn out very blurry. The usher in our section, with 3 1/2 minutes to go in the first half, angrily demanded my camera. The guy looked older than my grandparents, and would probably have broken his hip had he tried to climb up into my section. Not wanting to cause a scene, I handed him the camera, and watched him for the remainder of the half. I caught up to him at halftime, politely asked for my camera back, and got it with the caveat that if he caught me taking flash photos, he'd toss the camera. I wanted to find that jackass after the game to tell him "congrats, you guys actually beat UC Davis this year, your team's on the way up". Sadly, he was gone. Suffice to say I won't be buying any hoops tickets @ the red menace in the near future (this includes the Washington game this week), in part because I don't want to deal with an aging asshole usher. Last thoughts: You'd think for a newly renovated building (including scoreboard), Maples would work quite well, but alas, they had problems showing which players were in the game on substitutions, and didn't show individual player stats (points, fouls, and who's on the floor) in the 2nd half. Smooth, Maples.
I mailed in the Arizona application today, and am just about done with Washington (I have to edit my personal statement for them). I'm mostly done with Connecticut, and just have to finish them and Miami, and I think I'm done with graduate school applications =).
The game started out well for the Sharks, who seemed quicker and more physical than Detroit during the first two minutes of the game. They outshot the Red Wings 3-0 to start the game. And then, Detroit woke up, and the Sharks seemed to revert back to the form that handed them an 8-0 loss at Phoenix. Detroit outshot the Sharks 16-4 over the last 18 minutes of the first period, and netted 3 goals to San Jose's 1. Jiri Hudler opened the scoring for Detroit, with Tomas Holmstrom adding a power play goal (thanks in part to an assist by Schneider!) and Jason Williams finished Detroit's scoring for the period thanks to a great shot between starting goaltender Evgeni Nabokov's shoulder and the crossbar while he (Williams) was on a breakaway. Sharks' head coach Ron Wilson had enough, and pulled Nabokov after the 3rd goal (on only 12 shots) and replaced him with Vesa Toskala. The Sharks responded to the move, and inched closer thanks to defenseman Josh Gorges' first goal of the season and NHL career.
In the second period, the Sharks dominated against Hasek and the Red Wings, outscoring the geezers 4-0. Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Pavelski scored power play goals - a common theme, sandwiching even strength goals by Ryane Clowe and Christian Erhoff. It was 5-3 Sharks in the second intermission, and I was positive the Red Wings would pull Hasek in favor of backup goaltender Chris Osgood. After all, it was a 2 goal game, and Hasek, like Nabokov, just did not have his good game going for him.
But I was wrong - and glad I was! The Sharks netteed 3 more goals against Hasek in the 3rd period (Mike Grier scored twice on the power play, with Patrick Marleau getting a power play goal between the Grier scores). Finally Detroit head coach Mike Babcock had enough, and placed Osgood in net...and he allowed the Sharks to soore their ninth (9th!) consecutive goal of the game, a power play goal by Ryane Clowe. Detroit finished the scoring for the game with defenseman Brett Lebda scoring with about 1:45 left, but it wasn't enough. The Sharks played sluggishly at the start, but dominated the last two periods to take this game by a final of 9-4. Vesa Toskala got the win, stopping 17 of 18 shots, and the Sharks actually outshot the Red Wings 31-30 for the gam (remember, it was 16-7 Detroit after one period, meaning the Sharks outshot the Wings 24-14 over two periods - a very good defensive effort after one bad period). Dominik Hasek got the loss after stopping only 20 or 28 shots.
The Sharks set a franchise record for power play goals in a game with 6 (they were 6-9 with the man advantage; Detroit 1-7), and in the last 3 matchups between these teams in San Jose, the Sharks have scored 16 power play goals - setting the team record in that department, matching it, then breaking it again. What can I say, I love Detroit's penalty killing in the Bay Area =).
Sharks' captain Patrick Marleau passed Owen Nolan for the franchise lead/record in points in this game, and he received a standing ovation when this was anounced as well as #1 star of the game honors. All in all, this was an excellent game.
I went with Daniel to the Cal-Stanfurd hoops game in Palo Alto on Wednesday, making my first trip to Maples Pavilion. Maples is quite tiny, making for cramped seating but very nice sightlines. Our seats were 5 rows in front of the Cal band, in the 2nd deck and corner of the arena. I was amused because Cal brought a bigger band than Stanfurd to the game. The game started out with the Trees getting out to an 8-2 lead on Cal, and I was sure this would be a long night. Neither team seemed to make many shots (indeed, Cal started out shooting 3-20; Stanfurd 3-8). But the Bears clawed their way back, and once they took a lead, did not relinquish it for the game. Cal won 67-63 for their first win at their Bay Area rival's building in 13 or 14 years, and while I was happy about the win, I was pretty irked by the usher in our section.
I'm guessing whoever reads this blog knows I love taking photos at sports games, and with the exception of one basketball game at Haas when I was on the floor (in the Bench section), no one has had a problem with me using flash photography, and there were no warnings pre-game asking fans not to use flash (in fact, I could see people in other sections using flash when taking photos). Indeed, I need flash for hoops photos or else they turn out very blurry. The usher in our section, with 3 1/2 minutes to go in the first half, angrily demanded my camera. The guy looked older than my grandparents, and would probably have broken his hip had he tried to climb up into my section. Not wanting to cause a scene, I handed him the camera, and watched him for the remainder of the half. I caught up to him at halftime, politely asked for my camera back, and got it with the caveat that if he caught me taking flash photos, he'd toss the camera. I wanted to find that jackass after the game to tell him "congrats, you guys actually beat UC Davis this year, your team's on the way up". Sadly, he was gone. Suffice to say I won't be buying any hoops tickets @ the red menace in the near future (this includes the Washington game this week), in part because I don't want to deal with an aging asshole usher. Last thoughts: You'd think for a newly renovated building (including scoreboard), Maples would work quite well, but alas, they had problems showing which players were in the game on substitutions, and didn't show individual player stats (points, fouls, and who's on the floor) in the 2nd half. Smooth, Maples.
I mailed in the Arizona application today, and am just about done with Washington (I have to edit my personal statement for them). I'm mostly done with Connecticut, and just have to finish them and Miami, and I think I'm done with graduate school applications =).