So, backup to before Monday night, before Game 3. Two games into the series, two key Sharks players injured and brought off the ice on two dirty hits. Scott Hartnell got a game misconduct in game 1 for elbowing and then kneeing Jonathan Cheechoo. In Game 2, rookie and budding Shark hunter Alexander Radulov checked Steve Bernier from behind, earning himself a game misconduct and a one game suspension. Clearly the Predators were paying attention to last year's Sharks-Oilers series in the second round, when Raffi Torres ran Milan Michalek in Game 3 after the Sharks were up 2-0 in the series. Michalek was knocked out of the playoffs, and the Sharks lost four straight to join him. Torres' hit wasn't penalized, and the Sharks ompletely collapsed. ...

At around 3 o'clock or so on Sunday, Palo Alto gave a huge sigh of relief as the Cardinal made it into the Big Dance, being seeded 11th in the South Regional. Their first game is against the sixth seed, Louisville (23-9). No time has been set, but the game will be on Wednesday. ...

-Sharks score five unanswered goals to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. It was their first victory in Edmonton since November 2003. -Mike Piazza tries the words "DH" on for size. -Lane Kiffin wants to hire Greg Knapp, as in the guy who was the OC in Atlanta and couldn't do anything with Michael Vick. Knapp, by the way, has a lot more experience than Kiffin does. Oh, btw, did we mention Kiffin was hated down......

-The Warriors crumble against the Magic and lose 91-76. Here's the numbers: ten points in the third quarter, twenty-nine points in the second half, and the lowest point total all season. -Ike Diougu needs to step it up. ...

We can't say this was one of the worst years in Bay Area sports but it has to be up there. One only has to look at the early part of this decade to see how far we've fallen. The A's and Giants were both perennial contenders and the Raiders were playoff bound. Only the 49ers and Warriors were woeful but well, beggars can't be choosers. We did get one Super Bowl appearance and one World Series out of our teams. ...

We sort of knew this was going to happen, but here it is: after officially jumping on the Sharks bandwagon last week, they have now lost three in a row to the Edmonton Oilers, a losing streak that started after the Sharks lost an epic, three OT Game 3. We would take some responsibility for causing the Bad Mojo, but after last night's game, Sharks fans only have themselves to blame for any sort of Bad Mojo, something that will happen when fans of a team boo another country's national anthem. ...

We're going to talk about something we rarely talk about-- hockey. Why? Because the San Jose Sharks are now up 2-0 against the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs, after winning last night 2-1. The Sharks, who have won six playoff games in a row, won on a game winning goal by MVP candidate Joe Thorton (check out the great video of it from a fan in the stands). Then there's how they did it, winning last night's game despite, incredibly, being down two players in a 5-3 matchup, only to have two of those players lose their sticks, and still-- somehow, inexplicably-- kept the Oilers from scoring for over a minute. That's studly. Even better is the fact that in describing the whole thing, Sharks coach Brian Wilson referenced the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. How can you not give some props to a Monty Python quoting coach? ...