The Sharks Fallout

Ryane Clowe of the San Jose Sharks

So it’s been a few weeks since the Canucks beat the Sharks in the Western Conference Finals and hopefully you are a little less bitter now when thinking about them not playing in June. I know it sucks, we all wanted them to win the cup this year and were once again thinking “this is the year”…..but once again, it wasn’t. Let’s take a look at why the Sharks couldn’t get past the hump into the finals, what would you rather see from the team, and what to expect going into next season.

The Sharks looked like a team that got beat up and exhausted after the Detroit series. The fact that they couldn’t close out the series until game 7 after going up 3-0 will do that to any team, but the Sharks just couldn’t recover in enough time. Sure you can blame the refs and linesmen for missed calls, but you can’t blame them for the losses – the Sharks shouldn’t put themselves in those situations to begin with.

What always interests me after watching the Sharks inevitably get bounced every year isthe injury report that gets released. After seeing Dany Heatley played all year with a broken hand and a high ankle sprain makes me feel bad about the last article I wrote about him. Thornton, Clowe and Nichol all had shoulder injuries against the Canucks, Demers had a high ankle sprain and Couture had a broken nose.

Not that these should be used as excuses, but you can definitely appreciate the effort these guys gave to even compete with Vancouver. I know it is still a bitter pill to swallow that the Sharks were so close once again to getting into the finals, but we also need to keep things in perspective. Like I said before, getting to the Conference Finals is a feat in itself as every year is different. Going back-to-back years in the Conference Finals by defeating the Red Wings is an awesome accomplishment – just imagine how Detroit is feeling losing two years in a row in the second round to us? Also, the Red Wings are celebrating 20 years of making the playoffs, having won a cup 4 times in those 20 years. Does that make the other 16 years a failure? I know they won cups…..but this brings me to my next point.

Let’s take a 10 year window with the Sharks with two different scenarios, and you tell me which one you like better. The first scenario is what the Sharks have been doing for the past 10 years – having a great team on the ice every night, winning entertaining games in the regular season with sellout crowds and getting into the playoffs every year but not winning a cup. The other scenario would be similar to the Pittsburgh Penguins – being the crap of the league for 4-5 years, not selling out games and getting destroyed by teams but accumulating top draft picks, building a team around them and finally making a playoff push towards the 7^th and 8^th year and finally winning a cup in the 9^thyear. Which would you prefer?

Devin Setoguchi of the San Jose Sharks

I am sure everyone will choose the second since they would want to win a cup, but I am going to choose the first. The first scenario means we have a competitive team every year, bringing in crowds of people that will drive the businesses around the area, and make more people Sharks fans. I absolutely love bringing people to Sharks games that have never been to a hockey game before because they always turn into a fan. Seeing a hockey game in person will blow their socks off and make them forget about the other “big three” sports – ESPECIALLY a playoff game. Having one of the loudest arenas in the NHL definitely helps sell it to newcomers, but I truly believe hockey is a much more entertaining sport than football, baseball and basketball. It is fast paced, lots of scoring, bare-knuckled fighting and a fan friendly sport that also has the BEST trophy and celebration/presentation in all of sports. Who can complain or even compete with that?

Next season will be an interesting one for the Sharks. With the salary cap going up next year to possibly $63.3mil, they have plenty of cap space to resign their Restricted Free Agents and even some Unrestricted Free Agents. We will know about anyone the Sharks plan on singing before July 1^st since that is the opening day to sign UFA’s. Out of that list, I would like to see the Sharks keep Wellwood, White and Wallin. I know Wallin had some naysayers this year but I thought he would be a great player in the 6^thdefenseman slot – as long as we can sign him for cheap though. Ian White definitely earned his striped in San Jose and I hope they can bargain a deal for him. Boyle, Demers and White are an effective trio of right-handed defenseman. I also think that the Sharks will sign Setoguchi but not so sure about Ferriero or Desjardins.

Since the Sharks season has come to an end, I will be covering them less unless something major happens over the summer. I will be covering the San Jose Earthquakes on Bay Area Bias going forward though, which will keep me rather busy and hopefully bring some of you readers over into the other non “big 3 sport”.

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