All Uphill From Here

The Sharks are in trouble, plain and simple. They were defeated for the 2nd straight game on their home ice last night by the Chicago Blackhawks, who have a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-7 series heading to Chicago.

The Sharks seemed to have no chance in this one. They were outplayed by the young and quick Blackhawks, who behind their red-hot goalie Antti Niemi looked like a team that could take the Cup.

From a Sharks angle, something has to change. After a game in which the Sharks were able to get the puck to the net at will, the complete opposite happened on Tuesday night as the Sharks couldn't get anything started, let alone anything to the net.

Evgeni Nabokov wasn't much help either. After letting a goal up in the 1st period, he let his guard down for a whole 3 minutes in the 2nd period, and the Blackhawks took full advantage netting 2 goals in that time span.

Nabokov would finish with 18 saves on 22 chances, definitely his worst effort that we have seen in awhile.

It's all uphill from here. The Sharks are down 2-0 headed on the road, a position nobody wants to be in. The good thing is that they will have an extra day off, with their next game being on Friday. It will give them an extra day to find out what in the world they can do to stop this Blackhawks team from rolling completely over them.

In Chicago, Niemi will continue standing on his head. But if the Sharks' goal coming into Game 2 was to put bodies in front of the net to get in the way of Niemi's vision, that didn't happen, at least from what I saw. Something needs to change because the Hawks look quicker, more skilled, and more prepared for this series than the Sharks do.

Do the Sharks have it in them to make a comeback in this series? We'll find that out on Friday, won't we? It won't be enough just to come out of the gates firing like the Sharks have done in these first 2 games. They will need to carry it throughout the entire game if they are going to defeat a Blackhawks team that seems ready for a Stanley Cup birth.

The only upside for the Sharks, the Blackhawks are 3-3 at home in these playoffs, which isn't saying much because they are 7-0 on the road, but we'll take it. The Sharks will take it. But they will take whatever they can right now in a series that is in their hands to keep alive.