Our hockey correspondant, Ian, returns to discuss the slow starting Sharks After getting bounced last spring by the Detroit Red Wings for another second round playoff collapse, the refrain from the Sharks brass, coaches, and players during the off- and pre-season has been: consistency and resiliency. With twelve games under their belts in this young season, the San Jose Sharks currently sit atop the decidedly mediocre Pacific division, and unfortunately have shown many of the......

Well. Um. *cough* Err. Yuck. This going to sting for a while. The Sharks are going to have a lot to think about this off-season, as they once again collapsed in the playoffs after taking a series lead. They were 30 seconds away from a commanding 3-1 lead in Game 4, but then collectively lost their minds, with some stand-out individual mind-losing efforts as well. They not only allowed Robert Lang to tie the score with barely half a minute left in that game, but were dominated in the subsequent overtime. ...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

We're three games into the Sharks-Red Wings series, and so far it's been like watching a couple of dogs tussle in Duboce Park: it's competitive, but not exactly fun to watch. The Sharks got two quick goals in Game 1, then endured a Wings onslaught for the win, thanks to stellar goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov. In Game 2, the Sharks went for seconds, going up by two goals in the first period before going into a shell. But that second plate never is quite as good as the first, and Detroit dominated play, battled back to tie the score, and got a late goal by Pavel Datsyuk on a broken play for the win. ...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

The Sharks begin their Western Conference Semi-finals matchup with the Detroit Red Wings on the road at the Joe Lewis Arena tonight. The Wings played the Calgary Flames in Round 1. The series was tightly played, with the Wings ultimately prevailing over the Flames through their forward depth, better transition game, and (somewhat surprisingly) better team speed as the series went on. Mikka Kiprusoff, the Flames netminder, couldn't hold off the Wings offense forever, and Kipper was the only real hope the Flames had to take the series. ...

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. ...

Here's todays sports news...

-So we've already had our say about Art's canning, but what does everyone else say? Ray Ratto wishes whomever the next coach is good luck and Gwen Knapp thinks it should be the Mulleted One (as does Don Banks on CNNSI). Raiders Fan House runs down a list of candidates as does Inside Bay Area. In the national sites, Deadspin wonders if Al and Art are the new Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner and ESPN's Mark Kreidler thinks Al needs to get over himself and hire some big name guy. Over in San Jose, Mark Purdy picks Bill Cowher out of his ass as a potential replacement. ...

Lot of sports to talk about, so let's get r' done. -Cal beats Stanford to win the Axe. See what happens when you don't let the Stanford band play? Anyways, Cal played just enough to win and Stanford played well enough to win, but Cal still won. As for Stanford, the Walt Harris death watch begins. ...

-Experienced climber dies in fall at Yosemite. -Bevan and Alix have a debate....

-You know how Gavin said we needed more money to fund all the new police work we're asking the police to do? He was only punking Chris Daly. ...

What is it with all this meta-comic stuff we've been reading lately? Last week it was recycled romance-comics, then before that it was tales of comic-cons, and also an alternate universe where superheros run around in Hollywood like it's no big deal. We've got similar stuff this week with "Superior Showcase," by Nick Bertozzi, Mike Dawson, Dean Trippe, and John Campbell. The book features three fun vignettes: one features a "Super Mart" with super-powered staff......

There are two great things about getting to compile this column -- one is the sense of camaraderie and sharing we get when our wonderful SFist colleagues or readers recommend, refer, or concurrently read (Christine, that's you) books from their online reserve list. There are so many books we've read only because we've checked them out, borrowed them, or purchased them from one of our fine local independent bookstores at the behest of a......

At first we were alone � we were petrified .... kept thinking we would never live without you by our side.... and then Esseffist found out about the SF women politicians� karaoke night!...