Play down to your competition

It’s a marathon, not a sprint, as the saying goes. So I’m basically fine with the Sharks coasting through some of these games at 85%, even though it makes some fans insane. They don’t remember the games where the Sharks take it easy and still win, but if they don’t bring INTENSITY AND HARD-CHECKING PLAYOFF ATMOSPHERE HOCKEY against the Sabres or Coyotes or Avalanche, that means they’re soft and unserious and for sure going to get eliminated in the 1st round or whatever.

This is all BS. One way you can tell is by asking yourself, “Is this something Mike Keenan would say?” and if so, give it up immediately. Secondly, I don’t want our aging players going hard for the puck 82 games a year so they can get injured as the grind of the season wears on and have to play with a separated shoulder or something once the postseason starts. Save that up. It’s a long season, and while you don’t want to give up points, losing to a non-Conference team in February is really not that big of a deal.

Patrick Marleau scored his 500th goal

Here is your place to discount this achievement, which has been accomplished by so few people you could load a charter bus with them, living or dead. I’ll get this started.

He took a really long time to do it. [When his early career was in the so-called “dead-puck” era.]

He did so quietly. [On a medium market team on the west coast]

He has weird eyebrows and we shouldn’t be celebrating that. [Racist.]

Sharks @ Sabres

4:00 PM Pacific

Prediction: Take it easy, man. Don’t get hurt out there.