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 Ron 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?

There was a time when we were actually pretty into hockey, a left over effect of having grown up in Flyers-mad Philadelphia. But somewhere along the line, right around the point we started seeing highlights of a Columbus/Nashville game, we stopped really caring that much. We would, however, get a little interested again around playoff hockey because playoff hockey is a whole other beast entirely, hockey at it's purest and with an intensity that ranks right up there with the Big Three sports, (check out this YouTube video of the Sharks' entrance in Game 4 of the series against the Predators to check out the intensity-- it's right out of a rock conert, a Ronnie James Dio rock concert). Actually, one could even say that playoff hockey has even more intensity than the other sports. In hockey, for instance, a star player would never quit trying half-way through a 7th game to sulk because they know that they will probably be pummeled to death their teammates.

This season, we started to pay mild attention to the Sharks only to see them spend most of the season in a funk, mired in the bottom end of their division. But then they traded for Joe Thorton in one of the best trades the Bay Area has ever seen and the team took off, finishing off as the hottest team in the NHL. So now we're back into it, following along with the team and even checking them out on TV (that is if we could find the OLN network). We're even more into it because this series has been a real humdinger and because the Shark's are winning the way hockey is supposed to be played, old time hockey-like, with much hitting and checking and do-or-die intensity.

In other words, Go Sharks.