Fire in the Valley III: Sharks and Coyotes
When I was a young lad, just like all of my friends, I watched professional wrestling. Having lived in the south, it was not the WWE (which was WWF at the time), no it was NWA/WCW and they hyped this pay-per-view event called “The Great American Bash”.
It was billed as the biggest.event.ever and we wouldn’t want to miss it because it may never appear again! P.T. Barnum was right and people forked over their $20.00 (yes, it was that cheap then) to watch it, thinking that it wouldn’t ever come back.
Only, the Great American Bash happened so often, they started offering subtitles to ensure each show was “different” than the other. It made Ric Flair rich, so I guess it worked.
The problem is, the “pro” rasslin’ was pre-determined as they knew the outcome. Hockey though is very real:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z427GW8uir0&rel=1]
It should be a passionate game between these two teams tonight. And Daniel Carcillo is not ready to come back.
With the Coyotes .500 road swing, it’s pretty important for them to establish some sort of dominance here at home. Finishing off the home stand before the All-Star Break can only help them with their playoff aspirations.
However, with the Sharks having an incredible season on the road and a 16-3-3 record, it will not be easy. After their loss against the Anaheim Ducks, in a game where they pretty much controlled the opposition, they found a way to give away a point.
They will not make the same mistakes twice.
The Coyotes have to improve their home record and the time is truly now. In addition, Bryzgalov lately, has been decidedly average over the course of four games. No one can certainly blame him though since he has held this team together, but now everyone must elevate their games to a different level.
In the interview with Keith Yandle, Daniel Winnik, and Craig Weller, found on Phoenix Coyotes.com, the emphasis is not lost on the young grinders.
Nothing has changed over there with San Jose. They lead the division, and thanks to a two-hour team meeting following the loss against the Coyotes, they have been focused since the last time these two teams squared off going 7-1-2.
The Sharks have another goal scorer to lead the team besides Joe Thornton and that is Zbynek Michalek’s brother Milan with 15 goals. Thornton leads the team in points with 53! He has more points than Michalek and Patrick Marleau combined.
The defensive horse for the Sharks is Doug Murray as he carries a plus-17 rating. Expect him to be physical once again with the Coyotes. His battles with Shane Doan in this series have been fantastic.
The Coyotes must give Bryzgalov some support and score. The VHS line needs to re-emerge and the goal scorers need to fire everything they have at the opposition. If they can stay physical, without getting into penalty trouble, they should open the home stand on a positive note.
Great wrestling reference! After reading this, I looked up Sting (Steve Borden) and it slays me that under his bio, it reads as if all the wrestling stuff is real. He won this…he won that. So funny. Even more amazing is at the age of 48, he is still in the ring.
Anyways…back to hockey. Great setup for tonight’s game. Should be a good battle between these two teams.