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Here We Go Again

Time to shave those beards, fellas; the San Jose Sharks are in the playoffs once again. With two of the three core players resigned after this season, there won’t be those lingering questions from the “experts” on whether or not Thornton/Marleau/Boyle will do everything in their power to win a cup. With other weapons at their disposal and most of them being healthy, the Sharks look poised to make a deep run once again. But just how far are they going to go?

There are a few keys to winning a Stanley Cup: health, depth, and luck. San Jose has the first two of the three but can only continue to work hard in order to get that third. Luck is created by working hard and not relying on skill to win games. Hard work will beat skill nine times out of ten (also, 87% of stats are completely made up). Throughout the season we have seen the Sharks play well against top teams, dominating them in every aspect mainly by outworking them. Then we see them lose and play awful against bottom tiered teams, almost like they were all taking the night off and not working at all. The only good thing taken from that is that there are no bottom tiered teams in the playoffs.

As for the depth of the Sharks, they boast two solid scoring lines, a third that does decently well and a fourth that can support with 10-12 minutes a game of hard-hitting. This is finally the full team that San Jose has been waiting to see on the ice for the post season. When GM Doug Wilson did not make any moves at the trade deadline, there were many people upset and wanting his head. Others saw the forest for the trees and knew there were already two guys coming back that would be better than any overpaid trade for at the deadline: rookie wonderboy, Tomas Hertl, and the catalyst, Raffi Torres.

I honestly did not think Hertl would be back to play until the second or third round of playoffs, if at all this season. His youthfulness mixed with his skill is a much-needed asset to the team going into the first round. Seeing him play in the last two games, you couldn’t help but notice how dangerous he was every time he was on the ice. Getting those few games in before the Kings series will definitely help him get back to NHL speed. As for Torres, his five games played this season saw him get three goals and two assists. I wouldn’t expect that kind of output in the playoffs, but that third line is going to be better than most teams’ second lines.

The Sharks depth also extends to their blue line. The one year singing of Scott Hannan has been brilliant as he has been a solid sixth defenseman. The rotation among the bottom three (Hannan, Irwin, Braun) has made each one a seamless part of the defense. If anyone of the top six get hurt, they will be able to fill in admirably.

Moving to the backend, I think Niemi will be on some pretty thin ice in this first round. Alex Stalock has looked very impressive in his starts and gives the team a completely different look with his puck handling skills. Having some competition should push Niemi to be better but also gives the Sharks a cushion if he happens to falter. I’ve never thought of Niemi as the answer but I also think Stalock should get one more year in as a 1A/1B type goalie before completely taking the reins; which also conveniently coincides with the end of Niemi’s contract with San Jose. Niemi is a good goalie, but not a great one. Stalock seems to have more tools to push into that upper tier of goalies in the league.

I think the San Jose Sharks will beat the LA Kings in the first round in six games, meaning the series ends in LA. In the beginning of the season, I said they are legit contenders and I still believe that now. Of all the years I have thought they would win it, this one seems to have every single piece of the missing puzzle there in front of them. Also, we can all be happy that Raffi won’t get Shanabanned anymore either. And just think, we could have had a year like Vancouver did this past season and seen the team get dismantled starting with the GM. Yikes.

I started my playoff beard today – anyone else joining in?

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