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All is not lost
Season was not a failure
| 5/28/10 - By Paul Krill -
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OK, so it wasn't the season we wanted. But with the
expectations so high (Stanley Cup or bust), we were bound to be disappointed by
anything short of that. The Sharks did, however, get to the league's Final Four
and did have some playoff success, winning two of three playoff rounds.
Yes, the team did not win the title, but only one team out of 30 does.
Still, it stings that the Sharks remain one of the few teams to never get to
the Stanley Cup Finals. The Sharks are the second-oldest franchise never to
make it, exceeded in years only by Winnipeg/Phoenix.
The others are
expansion teams that joined the league more recently than the Sharks. Once
again, we go through the euphoria of early-round Sharks playoff victories only
to be back watching "Dr. Phil" a few weeks later because the Sharks aren't
playing anymore.
Can't help but think the Sharks are just in the wrong
conference.
Now, for some other observations:
- The team that whipped the Sharks in the Conference
Finals, the Blackhawks, finished poorly enough in 2007 to the get the top pick
of the draft (Patrick Kane). Now, they have breezed right by the Sharks, who
are forever stuck in playoff limbo and unable to run away from the
pack.
- The interesting phenomena in which no team has ever
beaten the Sharks in an earlier round enroute to the Cup championship looks to
be in serious jeopardy in coming weeks.
- Anybody else notice a pattern here? Sharks fans made Ed
Belfour their pet whipping boy some years ago and he went on to win a Stanley
Cup. The same thing then happened with Chris Pronger. Now, the Sharks fans'
latest villain, Brian Campbell, moves on to the Stanley Cup Finals, where his
team will be heavily favored. Prior to all this, original pet whipping boy Theo
Fleury already had won a title before the Sharks' first season. Sounds like
it's a good gig to be the Sharks fans' pet whipping boy.
- Looks like the clock struck midnight for Cinderella Joe
Pavelski late in the Red Wings series, when the avalanche of goals from him
stopped.
- It's been fun to have Evgeni Nabokov on board. I remember
the first goal he ever gave up - a puck thrown back in his direction while he
was skating toward the bench so the power play-bound Sharks could have an extra
skater. And he's the only Sharks goalie to ever score a goal. But the bottom
line is he keeps getting outplayed by nobodies in the playoffs. It's probably
time for him to move on unless he wants to take a dramatic salary cut.
- The other big UFA for the Sharks is Patrick Marleau. It
would be a shame for him to celebrate his 1,000th NHL game next season in a
another uniform. Let's bring him back, Sharks.
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