The Sharks dispatched the Mustard Men in 5 games, which makes the series seem a lot less close than it was. 3 of the games were decided by one goal, with Game 1 in double overtime. Even Game 2, the Predators 5-2 win, was not decided until late in the 3rd period. Nashville's undisciplined play (they led all playoff teams with almost 30 minutes of penalties per game) was their undoing, even though the Sharks power play was more or less ineffective, and often frankly ugly to watch. But it was one more way to wear down the Nashville defenders, and keep their skill players on the bench. Patrick Marleau again scored some big goals, and Joe Thornton took the first step toward erasing his playoff-choker reputation with dominating play and 6 points in the series.

Nashville wasn't the only team to distinguish itself with dirty play in this year's playoffs. The Calgary Flames managed to steal the spotlight by having their backup goalie come in to play lumberjack to the Detroit Red Wings Johan Franzen's, umm, old growth redwood late in Game 5 of their series (Franzen, fittingly, scored the series winner in Game 6). Then the Flames' Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow got in the act late in the game (cross-checking plus slashing and sucker-punching, respectively). Classy. Brad May of the Anaheim Ducks got a 3 game suspension for sucker-punching the back of Minnesota Wild defenseman Kim Johnsson (who is both emphatically not a pugilist, and happened to be Minnesota's best D man), which then caused a multi-player dust-up between the Ducks and Wild during the *pre-game skate* of Game 5 in their series.

By Ian, contributing

The Pond's horrible ice and Teemu Selanne's illegal stick helped the Sharks avoid being down a man in overtime against the Ducks last night. Selanne was called for unsportsmanlike conduct at the beginning of overtime, negating a Craig Rivet penalty that was carrying over from the end of regulation, and San Jose went on to win the shootout for a 3-2 victory. The Sharks came back to even the score after being down by 2 goals in the first period, and both teams helped their playoff positioning against the Dallas Stars.

The expansion of hockey outside of the snow belt has often meant late- season and playoff games are played on ice that in other circumstances would be better off scooped up, drizzled with syrup, and handed to small children. Anaheim's ice last night was terrible, and it marred what otherwise was a tightly played, playoff-intense game between two excellent teams. The ice did help out the Sharks, however, when both Selanne (now using a legal stick) and Andy McDonald flubbed their shootout attempts, making Jonathan Cheechoo's and Ryan Clowe's shootout goals standup.

Um, remember what we were saying about Jonathan Cheechoo not scoring goals? Just forget we wrote that, ummkay? Cheech recorded his 3rd hat trick of the season in last Sunday's 6-2 thumping of the likable, but hapless, L.A. Kings, bringing his season goal total to 35. He's scored 12 goals in his last 10 games (adding 5 assists).

For those who haven't heard, BARRY HAS ARRIVED IN TRAINING CAMP! We repeat, BARRY HAS ARRIVED IN TRAINING CAMP! A day late, however, something that drew a raised eyebrow from some ("oh my God, Barry did something on his own again"). Like last year, Barry met the press to give his annual State of Barry Address, but this time didn't do it press-conference style, instead he just answered few informal questions from the dugout. Probably a smart move as last year's infamous press conference, the one where he spent most of the time berating the press, could only have been a worse P.R. move if he would have given the entire thing while Jose Canseco injected steroids in his ass. Nothing terribly exciting was said, but to sum up: will decide about retiring at the end of the season, wants to spend more time with his family, doesn't want to play for another team, and wants to retire as a Giant. Since we've long since learned not to believe anything the Barry has to say, we take his comments with a grain of salt and wouldn't be surprised to see him wearing a L.A. Angels of Anaheim in Orange County Right Off of the Imperial Highway uniform next season.

It appears that the will-he-or-won't-he-retire theme, which got off to a rousing start with last Sunday's statement and retraction stories, will be a recurring one throughout the season and one we'll all get sick of soon enough. Expect lots of conflicting statements from Barry, lots of speculative speculation from people who have no idea what they're talking about (like us), and lots of columnists wishing the saga would go away while still treating every Brett Favre Hamlet-like retirement posture (now in year five) as if the fate of the world somehow depended on it.

In other spring training Giants' news, that concerning the Barry-ettes, Jason Schmidt appears to have discovered his mojo, the Matt Cain bandwagon is growing, Pedro Feliz is happy to be playing his original position again, and Armando Benitez looks good.

In May, while the A's struggled along 8 1/2 games behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the American League West, A's Brand Baseball promised not to mention the division standings any more until school started in the fall. It was hard to imagine, back then, that the A's would be playing meaningful games when schoolkids were buying pencil boxes and new backpacks, but here's this (Go Bears!), and here's this. After the first week of school and two disappointing, if hard-fought, losses in three games in the O.C. this week, the A's are tied with Los Los Angeles Angeles for first place. That's right, first place: 75-58. That's the same record as the Yankees, in a three-way tie for the AL wild card spot in the playoffs.

The A's have 29 games left on their schedule. If they win 16 of them, they will have outperformed last year's squad, which, lest we forget, had guys named Hudson, Mulder, Dotel and Durazo. If they win 20 of those 29 games--which include 3 against the Yankees, 3 against the Indians (1 game back in the Wild Card standings), 3 against Boston (3 1/2 games up on the Yankees in the East and so very much a part of the Wild Card picture) and 4 at home against Los Los Angeles Angeles at the end of September--we expect the A's to make the playoffs.