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		The Zulewski report By Tom Zulewski April 20, 2010

	If the Sharks lose this series NHL critics fans and media alike will always defer to the game on Sunday night when the Sharks Dan Boyle threw the puck into his own net behind Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov as the signature moment when the Sharks could have gone up two games to one. Meanwhile the Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson was having a career night stopping 51 pucks that were thrown to him on Sunday night in game three. Then the one shot that goes in was thrown in by the wrong guy in overtime to end it. I was just floored with that play. The series goes back to San Jose on Thursday night but still even with game four going on in Denver on Tuesday night the talk shows were still buzzing with that play through the night. It was a fluke thing like that that kills the momentum for the Sharks. The confidence level of this team has got to be in question granted the first loss in game one and then the near loss and comeback in overtime in game two and then of course game three with Boyle's overtime throw. I was listening to these Colorado radio calls Mark Mosher the radio guy for the Aves who was besides himself it was one of those are you kidding me moments. It was amazing to know and it only took 51 seconds in the overtime which was nice obviously for those folks in the media racket. As far as what that did for the series it hurts, the Sharks are struggling in this series with an eighth seed team for the second consecutive year in a row and are heading home for game five and the Aves don't seem to be letting up. It's turning out to be a first round hatchet job. As optimistic as the Sharks looked going into this series that optimism is in the toilet right now and the Sharks have to get on it immediately when they return to HP Pavilion on Thursday night. Game five for the Sharks right now is a total must win. If they go away a loser in that one they'll have to go back to Colorado for game six with their backs to the wall. San Jose is in trouble, and you almost have to wonder if they're becoming the Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox of hockey. I'm just completely and totally floored by the whole thing and what happened on Sunday with Boyle was that he was just trying to throw it around in the back of the net and it went off the wrong part of the blade and into the front of the net. This will no doubt be the biggest upset on record and two years in a row mind you. In the NHL it's like the Sharks are not lovable anymore and if they go out like this it's going to hurt. The Avalanche are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at San Jose to claw and scratch a win every night where as the Sharks should be winning these games with brute force and finesse. If San Jose loses this series all their regular season efforts doesn't mean jack if you can't produce when it counts in the post season then why should the Sharks bother. Hockey for Columbine: When the tragic events of Columbine took place eleven years (1999) ago Tuesday the Sharks and Avalanche were supposed to get ready to face off for the first round of the Western Conference playoffs three Avalanche players who are with the Aves today defenseman Adam Foote, center Stephane Yelle, and winger Milan Hejduk remember the incident along with team mates and Sharks players. Foote was 28 at the time remembered he was driving after the Aves practice on C470 and saw helicopters and thought there was some kind of an accident but when he came home his wife Jennifer had the news on, "I was on C-470 and I saw all the choppers and I wondered what was going on. But I thought it was an accident or something. When I got home, my wife had the news on. I was shocked, and it was so close to where we lived." Hejduk remembers, "It was a brutal thing. We'll all remember it forever. Somebody told me, I don't remember who, and I started watching the news, and like everybody was bowled over." The Sharks Patrick Marleau remembered being at the morning skate and hearing the emergency vehicles and police rushing out of the building. Marleau was just two years out of high school at the time and was 19 years old, "there were police cars and ambulances scrambling, and at that time, we didn't know the extent of what was happening, I was a couple of years out of high school, but I think everyone was in disbelief because of what happened." Columbine lost 12 students and one teacher in the school shooting. Tom Zulewski files his report each week on Sportstalk