SAN JOSE, Calif – Well here we are, it has finally begun. The REAL season if you are a Sharks fan. The previous 82 games were merely a warm-up for what really counts. The only thing that matters in the Bay area to hockey fans who support the San Jose team is a deep playoff run.
On paper the San Jose Sharks have had what it takes to contend for the Stanley Cup year in and year out. After each season ends in disappointment, GM Doug Wilson does some off season tinkering and they give it another shot. This year things are different. Different because if the Sharks don’t make a dent in the spring time tournament you can expect a major shake-up.
Changes from the head office down will be made.
Another reason why the Sharks are poised for a playoff run with meaning is the number of key players who are free agents. Players typically play better in a contract year, it is their lively hood. At the end of the 2009-10 campaign Evgeni Nabakov, Patrick Marleau and Rob Blake are unrestricted free agents while Joe Pavelski and Devin Setoguchi are restricted free agents.
Significant off season changes that were made also have restored belief in many Sharks faithful. Bringing in players such as Manny Malhotra and Scott Nichol has added grit and depth. Joe Pavelski has grown leaps and bounds from last year and has matured as a hockey player after winning a silver medal in this year’s Olympic games. In past years the team goes as far as Thornton and Marleau would take them. This year all of the on ice responsibilities have been shared and I haven’t even mentioned Dany Heatley yet. This is a player with playoff experience who has gone to the Cup finals and has produced solid numbers in the post season.
Let’s compare the Sharks versus the Avalanche from the net out.
GOALTENDING We begin in net with Evgeni Nabakov for San Jose and Craig Anderson from Colorado. Nabakov is a 35 year old soon to be unrestricted free agent. There is a chance that regardless of the outcome of the playoffs this is Nabakov’s last year in a Sharks uniform. This is a goalie who has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top net minder but has not gotten it done in the post season. If you want to be remembered as one of the great goalies of your era playoff wins are a must. Curtis Joseph will be remembered as an all time great and he does not have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, but he won and played in a plethora of memorable spring time hockey games. Nabakov typically slumps come playoff time but this year his usual big games disappearing act happened at the Olympics and he finished the season on a three game winning streak which is a promising sign for San Jose.
On the other end of the pond stands what has to be the best off season free agent pick-up in the league, Craig Anderson. Anderson is 28 years old but this is the first season where he is the number one goalie. He started the year off like gangbusters and is the main reason for the Avalanche’s quick turnaround from last place in the western conference a year ago. Anderson has shown signs that he is human in the stretch run and may have already peaked getting the Avs into the playoffs. Another knock against Colorado’s number one net minder is that he has not played a single NHL playoff game.
At the end of the day there is no clear advantage here, the goaltending is a wash.
DEFENSE Niclas Wallin was the only trade made by GM Wilson during the season right before the Olympic break and it is a part of the roster that needed bolstering. Even with the addition of a Stanley Cup winner the defense for San Jose lacks depth. The average age of the Sharks defense is 32 and they have only one player under the age of 30. The Avalanche forwards are young and fast and will push this defensive core to its limit. Team defense will have to be the highest of priorities if the Sharks are going to move on past the first round.
Colorado’s defense is not that much different from San Jose’s. Both teams’ captains are the oldest players on the team and both have Stanley Cup rings. They won a cup together in 2001 when Rob Blake played for the Avalanche. However, Colorado’s core is younger and has more skill on the offensive side of the game. John Michael Liles skates as well as any point man in the league and Kyle Quincey is the next coming of Dan Boyle. Scott Hannan spent most of his career in San Jose and has a reputation for shutting down the other team’s top line.
The advantage here goes to the Avalanche, they are younger, quicker and have more depth.
FORWARDS The San Jose Sharks forwards are the envy of the NHL. They have skill in players like Thornton, Heatley and Setoguchi. The speed comes from the likes of Mitchell and Marleau. They have size with players such as Ryan Clowe and Manny Malhotra both tipping the scales at over 220 pounds. Tenacity, grit and character come from Pavelski, Nichol, McGinn and Ortmeyer. This is clearly the strength of the San Jose Sharks. In past years it was up to Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau to carry the offensive load but with the off season changes made to this roster the Sharks have depth. There is so much depth up front that coach MacLellan has the luxury of putting 3 players who finished in the top 15 in scoring in the NHL on the same line and still have scoring power left over for the 2nd and 3rd lines. If “the Burger line” as they have been named isn’t working, MacLellan can split them up and the scoring depth then filters down to the 4th line. With the addition of rookie Logan Couture from the AHL finding his scoring touch the question then becomes who do you try and stop.
The Avalanche forwards are good but are a couple of years away. If Colorado is able to keep all the young talent they have up front it will be the second coming of the Stanley Cup years with guys like Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk are current superstars in the NHL but the youngsters they have are the stars of tomorrow. Players like Matt Duchene, Peter Mueller and Chris Stewart are the future of this organization. Fortunately for Sharks fans the lack of experience and youth of this team will be their downfall. Mueller will be out for the start of the playoffs after he suffered a concussion against the Sharks on April 4th when Rob Blake checked him into the boards.
The advantage and the difference in this series will be the forwards. San Jose forwards are bigger, just as fast, more experienced and more skilled.
The Sharks record against the Avalanche this year was 2-1-1. Their last meeting was in Colorado on April 4th where a desperate Avalanche team won 5-4 in overtime after the Sharks erased a two goal deficit in the 3rd period. My prediction is the Sharks win the best of seven series in 6 games.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Contact Cam.Gore@prohockeynews.com
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