The San Jose Sharks – Will the pros outweigh the cons?

NHLHS writer Laura Astorian looks, in depth, at the pros and cons of the San Jose Sharks as they head into second round action against the Detroit Red Wings.

It’s a running  joke – second round dropouts.  The curse of Jumbo Joe Thornton.

Holy terrors and perennial Pacific Division Champions during the regular season, the San Jose Sharks have been a playoff pariah for about 10 years running.  They’re good, but never had that extra push to make it over the ledge.  Last year should have been the season, but instead they repeated the cycle like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  This year the Colorado Avalanche gave them a run for their money in the first round, but the Sharks outplayed them and continued on.  Can they outplay the Red Wings, or will they realize that the curse continues and just start eating doughnuts for every meal?

The traditional San Jose Sharks playoff breakfast.

Playing the Wings takes a certain balance between scoring and physical play.  The Sharks can do it, but the question is – will they?  They were 1-2-1 against the Wings during the regular season.  What are some of the pros and cons of the black and teal?

Pros:

• Solid checking line.  Clowe-Nichol-Staubitz needs to be out there to shut down the Wings’ top scorers.  Is not, despite what they want you to think, an amazingly physical team.  When Phoenix ramped up the intensity, they won.  The Sharks need to do the same thing.
• Sharp scorers.  During the regular season, the Sharks had 3 guys with more than 80 points: Thornton, Marleau, and Heatley.  Boyle, Clowe, and Pavelski cracked the 50 point mark.  There’s no reason why the Sharks can’t light the lamp a decent amount this series.   Howard got off light with the Phoenix team – this is going to make him work.
• Goaltending: Nabokov is playoff tested and solid, and so far has posted a 1.76 GAA and .926 SV% in the hard fought series against Colorado.  If you compare that to Jimmy Howard’s 2.59 GAA and .919 SV%, the veteran netminder comes out on top.
• Coaching: Yeah, so, maybe it’s Detroit Light.  I don’t buy that the Sharks tried to copy the Wings’s style of play – after all, they have a decent playoff tested goalie.  That, and half of their team isn’t Swedish.

Cons:

• Sadly, while the Sharks can be considered “playoff tested,” they can’t be considered “successfully playoff tested.”
• The Red Wings are professional clutch playoff guys.  You can outplay them for a few games, as Phoenix showed.  You can push them around, and you can rattle their defense (and thereby rattle their goaltender).  But by God, they know what to do to come back.  They’re like a Five-matic transmission.  Chugging along, stick shifting through the season, and then blammo – they’re not only on automatic now, they’ve hit overdrive.  Witness game seven against the Coyotes if you don’t believe me.
• Their big guys are PPG players during the playoffs.  So how in the hell can they not win?

Sharks fans have a lot to look forward to going in – the Wings didn’t have hardly any time to rest up, and the team always has the motivation of moving forward a round.  There can’t be any close games like there were in the series against Colorado – it has to be decisive.  Teams don’t gain momentum from 2-1 leads, so the Sharks’ offense has to be all over Detroit’s D like white on rice to prevent Howard from having another amazing performance.  Pepper him with shots, and it’s not enough.  Put the fear of God into him.

Laura Astorian
NHLHS NHL Corresponent
lastorian@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @hildymac