by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–The Sharks are holding their own losing only one of their last five games where all five games were all one goal decisions. The Sharks are playing at the level of the teams that their going against and their ramping up their game and their having a strong physical game and they really have their head in the games all 60 minutes.

The post season is coming very soon and this team does not lack motivation and they believe they can win and they do. The night they got beat by the Florida Panthers on Tuesday March 18th they ran into a hot goalie Roberto Luongo who did fantastic job and saved a great many pucks and helped the Sharks lose the game. Luongo had a good game against the Sharks and you have to give him some credit.

The Sharks put a lot of pucks on Luongo in the last period of the game but unfortunately for the Sharks that night Luongo stopped them all and the Panthers won it 4-3.

Patrick Marleau’s teammates called Marleau the “Big Player” the team leaders, the Joe Thorntons and the Patrick Marleaus they both showed up for the Anaheim game and they were the best skaters on ice. The Ducks are really lucky because the score didn’t really show how well the Sharks dominated over Anaheim in the 3-2 win.

There were a few times during that game where some of the skaters missed assignments and Anaheim is a good hard htting team and they can capitalize on those little mistakes. For the most part the Sharks dominated that game and the big players really showed up and did their jobs and this will make for a long playoff run for San Jose.

The Sharks played the Washington Capitals on Saturday night and they like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Syd Crosby held Alex Ovechkin the Caps star in check. The Sharks held Crosby scoreless in his appearence at SAP Center on March 6th in the 5-3 win.

Like most NHL clubs the Sharks have to be a little apprehensive on the power play and that’s where Ovechikin gets most of his goals. The Sharks coaches and scouts have really followed Ovechikin’s game coming in Saturday night and they had a game plan ready to get him covered.

In the past to defend Ovechikin they would throw a lot of body on him and they had a handful against as expected and Marc Edouard Vlasic did trying to defend Overchikin. In past meetings with the Capitals. Vlasic has to be the most dependable defenseman for the Sharks and he’s had a good one on one with Overchikin in the past and they ran drills for a Overchikin defense at the Sharks skate on Saturday morning.

Larry Leavitt does commentary on the San Jose Sharks for Sportstalk radio each week