Everybody hates/loves Evgeni

I love it when a plan comes together. I was putting together a post about how everybody in Sharkdom seems to hate Evgeni Nabokov right now, and then he pulled yesterday's awesome performance out of his ass. Maybe I consider ranting about Josh Gorges too and he'll turn into the second coming of Brian Leetch.

It's funny how quickly the Sharks fans have turned on Nabby. If you go to the store at the Tank, no Nabokov merchandise is there, it's all Toskala stuff. The weird thing is I didn't see that many Toskala jerseys around this season. I think people are gunshy with buying one because he might be traded.

For most of last season and this season, when Nabokov was announced as the starter, there'd be a healthy chorus of boos. That can never feel good when you're a home player, but it's got to feel worse considering that Nabokov's carried the load for over five years now.

Well, how quickly things turn around. After the first breakaway stop yesterday, some fans tried to start the old "Nab-By!" chant and at least in my section, people were trying to boo to counteract that. But by the end of the night -- especially after the sliding pad stop -- everyone was firmly in Nabokov's corner.

This was the total opposite of last season. He had his angles, he had his rebounds controlled for the most part, and he looked extremely quick. Nabokov was quick to blame last season on a variety of injuries and likes to point to his stellar Olympic performance; after two shutouts and one game which had its share of freaky deflection goals, I'm ready to believe once again.

All's I know is that both Nabokov and Toskala's trade value have to be going up, especially with all of the shenanigans in Boston, Philly, and Ottawa. I hate to use a stock quote from Doug Wilson, but it really is a good problem to have.