What the...

If I could change anything in that game, minus that one section of the first, I would have called San Jose for that high stick on Franzen.

What? It was Filppula's stick?

Oh no, wait. That was Filppula's stick in Lidstrom's face in Game One of the Phoenix series.

Seriously, refs, I thought you were going to stop sucking at the end of the first round. But my ideals for you guys were optimistically high. In the words of The Beatles, I should have known better... Anyway, onto the game.

Besides that minute and a half in the first period where our team decided to not play hockey as well as the bad officiating, it was a pretty damn good game. I'm really not upset about this loss [except for the blown call]. We didn't let a three goal deficit get us down and battled it out through all of the adversity of fake calls and blown calls. While Jimmy Howard looked like a rookie goaltender for a little over a minute in the first, he made some big saves to keep us in the game after that, so don't start blaming the goalie like Detroiters usually do.

San Jose didn't do anything that we haven't seen before and like we did with Phoenix, we have to test the waters with a team first. Plus, cut us some slack; we were playing a game 48 hours ago and the Sharks had at least twelve days off. Maybe it wasn't actually that long, but it sure seems like it with how much pep they had in their step.

Remember when I said that Phoenix pissed off the rhino, the rhino being Nick Lidstrom? Yeah, well, San Jose just pissed off the Mule. I still stand firm in my belief that this is the Mule's series. He's on a point-per-game streak and Game Two, he's going to be chomping at the bit, back in the stable, ready to treat us all to some curly fries. ...Or at least get a game-winning goal or Kronwall the crap out of a Sharks player.

Two days of rest for us will be huge. We'll all be ready to prove that we're Cup contenders.