The speakers of the HP Pavilion are rumbling to the sound of the Jaws theme from the famed movie, the sellout crowd is doing the iconic “Chomp”. The “Shark Tank” is buzzing as it should be because this exciting team has been giving fans, young and old, many things to cheer about in its twenty year history. Fourteen playoff appearances, six as the Pacific Division Champions and four of those come in back-to-back-to-back-to-back fashion from 2007-2011. Possibly the best season in San Jose Sharks history was when they won the Presidents’ Trophy in the 2008-2009 season for being the overall best team in the National Hockey League. They lead the league with 53 wins and had 117 points under the control of Head Coach Todd McLellan. With all the success the Sharks have had in the past twenty years the team is still searching for it first Stanley Cup Finals appearance. The Sharks have reached the Western Conference Finals three times in Franchise history, but unfortunately Team Teal has a disappointing 3-12 record. These poor numbers come on the heels of back-to-back appearances in the last two seasons in the Conference Finals losing both times to the Vancouver Canucks and being swept by the Chicago Blackhawks who would go on to win the Stanley Cup in the 09’-10’ season.
It seems like the Sharks always have a stellar offence which scores goals and win games, however it can also be said that some areas of play can be weak at times. You have a who’s who of talented player donning the Teal and Grey or the newly added “Black Out” jerseys in Jeff Friesen, Sandis Ozolinsh, Mike Rathje and Ricci. All-Stars like Owen Nolan, Vinnie Damphousse, Teemu Selanne, Patrick Marleau, Jonathan Cheechoo all the way up to Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle and Joe Pavelski. These men have shed an astonishing amount of blood and sweat to be put down in record books, for most games played, goals, assists and points. Most of these records belong to “Mr. Hat Trick” Patrick Marleau who holds the Franchise record for most points with 768, goals with 357 and assists with 411. When it comes to single season records you have big Joe Thornton leading the way with 114 points and 92 assists in the 06’-07’ season where he won the Hart Memorial Trophy. So it seems that with all this star power it seems rather confusing how the Sharks haven’t won multiple Stanley Cups let alone never reach one???
From my standpoint and analysis I personally believe that the short comings of Team Teal can be pointed at our goaltending core. Sure during the regular season the goalies tend to get the job done and lead us to the playoffs as Division Champions or even the number 2 seed in the Western Conference. But when the lights are bright and you’re fighting towards the games grandest stage and the goalies wind up folding under the pressure of the big game can we say it was really worth it? Dating back to the formation of the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 season our goaltending presence was better than most. Arturs Irbe set the bar for the goalie measuring stick, and in postseason play Arturs folded in his two appearances for them giving up 82 goals in twenty games. The sub standard play in the post season continued when Evgeni Nabokov took hold of the reigns, granted Nabby holds the Franchise record for most games played with 77, wins with 46 and 9 shutouts. When the lights went bright on the playoffs Nabokov turned in horrible performances year after year and ended with a 40-39 record in the post season with the sharks, he allowed a total of 184 goals. When this happens not even an offensive rich team can overcome that in a win or go home scenario. Exit Nabokov and enter Stanley Cup Champion Antti Niemi who left the Blackhawks after sweeping the Sharks out of the Western Conference Finals in the 2009-2010 season. High hopes surrounded the addition of Niemi and he didn’t let the Sharks faithful down leading us to another Division Title and our latest playoff appearance. Though Niemi lead us to the Conference Finals in his first season in Teal, he allowed more than 4 goals in five of his eighteen playoff games. Niemi allowed 58 goals and allowed nearly 2 and half goals per game and posted a miserable .896 save percentage, this lead to a devastating loss to the Canucks.
For the Sharks to overcome the lackluster play in the playoffs two simple things need to happen; first the Sharks need to sign a proven goalie that has had multiple seasons chasing Lord Stanley’s Cup, and even winning it. A couple of names that come to mind; Nikolai Khabibulin and Marty Turco, have either man play from time to time and help mold Niemi into a stonewall player that can finally deliver Lord Stanley’s Cup here to the Bay Area. The second thing the Sharks need is a smash mouth defenseman like that of Chris Pronger. I’m not saying that I like the man, but his play is proven and its style will give the Sharks a much needed boost to their power play kill. A power play kill that ranks in the bottom three of the National Hockey League with a 76.5 % kill, heck even the damn restart Jets have a better penalty kill then we do.
Minor adjustments and some added player personnel can be the thing to help the Sharks over the hump so they can bring the FIRST hockey world title to the Bay Area. Coach McLellan has the determination; let’s just hope this is the year that the Sharks live up to the hype as the team that’s supposed to win the Cup.
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