Playground Odds

As soon as I started looking over the head to head totals in the match-up stats for the Wild @ Sharks game taking place on 6 December, the only thing I could think of was a good old fashioned game of elementary school keep away. Bully A approaches Kid B on the playground and demands that B give him his super cool Sharks hat, at which point one of two things will happen; B will stand there doing nothing while A snatches the teal treasure and runs away with it or B will hand it over reluctantly.

Either way, the instant that B musters up some courage and tries to regain possession of his hat from what has now become Bully A and his gang playing a spirited game of keep away with it, he’s going to get hit and he’s going to have to man up, give up, or hope his own reinforcements are going to be capable of handling the situation.

I realize that looks like a bad word problem, my apologies, but its all I could see in my mind. I wish I could say that the Sharks were the predicted “Bully” tomorrow night, but unfortunately that is not the case…

In a quick glance at the head to head season totals Minnesota has 593 Hits to San Jose’s 408, 187 Give Aways – 77 less than SJ’s 264, and 187 Take Aways to the Shark’s 175. Based solely on these 3 stats, Minnesota simply looks like the dominant side of the match up and is not afraid to play the role of the Bully. Statistically speaking the Shark’s are in trouble tomorrow, but I don’t believe we should assume they won’t be putting up a fight or go in believing they won’t win. After all, if you are going to have to pose a comeback from a game more embarrassing than peeing your pants in front of homeroom in the 3rd grade like Saturday night’s 5-3 loss to the Panthers (for those of you lucky enough to have missed that sigh inducing show), why not come back and win against your buds from before summer vacation?

Lucky for me I’m a San Jasota Shwild fan so I’ll be content with the outcome from a single game standpoint, but I find it funny that the very thing leading to the drama surrounding this match-up is nothing more than a very grown up and complicated version of another playground favorite…Red Rover.

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