"In that situation, that's dumb, a dumb time to put your stick in, and it cost us. I take full responsibility for that one. I was just trying to make a play, but I was trying to do too much."
--Corey Perry, Ducks forward
You betcha, kid. In fact, my response to that penalty (and the goal that resulted from it) was
tweeted as "Pears, I owe YOU a facewash for that one!"
Up until that penalty, things were sailing along pretty evenly. Sure, we had thrice trailed the fast-moving Sharks, but we had thrice matched them. Most everyone could feel it in their bones, that the next goal would be the decisive one. And when San Jose notched it, well... I had just about had it.
Not with my team, don't get me wrong.
With my cable TV. See, somewhere in the middle of period 2, things started to go a little haywire. Then, by the middle of period 3, there was nothing for me to even see anymore (if you looked at my picture in last night's liveblog, you'll see what I mean). Thanks to fellow blogger
Eric McErlain for pointing me in the right direction to an online live feed that let me watch the rest of the game on my laptop. That's just about when
Corey Perry took the costly hooking penalty got called.
I should've known then. The omens had been there from the start. This game didn't start the way the ones in SJ had. The Ducks were spinning wheels trying to keep up with San Jose, and for the first period, they did a commendable job of holding on. They kept it close, evening up the score twice in that period alone, but San Jose moved faster, striking first on a lucky bounce off
Andrew Miller then breaking their PP scoring drought about two minutes after
Bobby Ryan had leveled the field with a goal that had bounced off
Evgeni Nabokov's skate. For the superstitious out there (ahem, yours truly, ahem), having a goal go in off your team happens, but it isn't a good omen when it's the first goal of the game. But, I kind of thought the karma had leveled out when Nabby accidentally potted one in Anaheim's favor, so I didn't think about it that much.
Until my audio went out, then my picture soon followed. Surely, your TV shutting the game down on you is not a good sign. Clearly, some higher power was trying to tell me, "Don't watch, Finny, don't! You won't like it!" But I stubbornly persisted.
And what do you know. The next thing I see is Pears in the box and
Patrick Marleau celebrating his to-be GWG, SJ's second PPG for the night.
:Le sigh:
Once again, Anaheim lost in the face-off circle (47%) and the SOG count (30, SJ had 35), but thankfully the margin was much closer this time 'round. While tempers were raised and insults were flying freely in the first, both teams had negated a number of the penalties doled out and ended up with fewer PP opportunities. San Jose managed to revive their ailing PP and nailed Anaheim for 2 of 3 PPs while Anaheim only made 1 of their 3 chances count.
Hopefully, the boys take this one as a wake-up call. They can talk all they want about penalties. When they start paying for them is when they might start changing their bad Duckling ways. Now, knowing San Jose has a chance to shovel their way out of the 1-2 series hole their in, Anaheim has to regroup and bring back that rock-solid defensively sound play that stifled the Sharks efforts in the first two games, and play smarter than they did in G3.
"A few little mistakes, and that's all it takes."
--Scott Niedermayer, Ducks Captainquote courtesy: OC Register
In the playoffs, those mistakes will cost you your playoff-life. With SJ revived and the naysayers changing their tune to praise the superior play of their team, the margin for error is about as thick as the skin of a shark's teeth.