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.

They lost the game in OT thanks to an outstanding goal on the power-play by Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider. With Craig Rivet in the box for a needless delay-of-game penalty thanks to a clearing attempt from the Sharks zone that went over the glass, which is now an automatic 2 minute penalty (I'm betting that will change over the off-season), Schneider gloved a weak clearing attempt right up center ice by normally reliable Scott Hannan. Schneider then dropped the puck to his stick, and launched a shot that deflected off a Sharks player and into the left-top corner of the net.

More stupidity followed in Game 5, with Nabokov literally giving away the game and the series with an attempt to play the puck at center ice with Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk bearing down on the loose puck. Nabby, for reasons still unclear to us, tried to clear the puck past Datsyuk, instead of away from him. Datsyuk blocked the clearing attempt with his body, corralled the loose puck, and calmly tapped it in the gaping net to break a tie-score.

By Ian, contributing