Game 1: Sharks 4 - Ducks 1

Half a second behind.

We spent our home opener making every play pretty much correctly... just half a second behind.

Too many little things were off-kilter. Too many hesitations. Too many players relying on the next guy to make the right move.

Worst of all, the guy who arguably lost us the game is the guy we were all taking completely for granted: Jonas Hiller. Two goals, including Patrick Marleau's short-handed breakaway, looked like something out of a video game; it wasn't so much that the puck was snuck under Hiller's pads, but more like the pads were momentarily absent.

The Ducks looked a lot stronger in the third period, so that's a plus. And both Bobby Ryan and Mike Brown filled their roles admirably. Steve Eminger also stepped up and did as solid a job as anyone on the blue line. And after 40 ineffective minutes, Ryan Getzlaf finally played a little bit like Ryan Getzlaf on his lovely fake-and-feed to Ryan Whitney.

Also, Doug Murray was scoreless before he was ejected for being an unrepentant douche, so that's a plus.


Tuesday it's Saku vs. Mikko in Minnesota. Honestly, I'd say that looking better than we did in our home opener is virtuall guaranteed.


God, I hate the Sharks.

Until next time...
-The Raving Duck


ps - To the woman I saw during the warmups holding the sign reading "real teams don't come from movies," I would counter that real teams win Stanley Cups.

Boo-yeah.