San Jose Sharks Close To Exorcising Playoff Demons

The Sharks still have unfinished business, but they have continued to silence doubters this postseason with each victory.

Two losses away from elimination and two nights after losing their second-longest game in franchise history in triple overtime, the San Jose Sharks came away with one win.

Not just any win, a decisive win. A 5-1 thrashing.

There were rumblings that their triple overtime loss was a backbreaker for the Sharks. The Predators had all the momentum and nothing to lose after being down 2-0 in the series heading back to the Bay Area for Game 5, but team teal shut them down and reminded the league they are a threat to go the distance.

It hasn’t just been this series, though. Going back to the Kings series, few believed the Sharks would be where they are now.

After missing the playoffs last season for the first time since 2009, the general consensus was the Kings were destined to get their mojo back en route to a series win over San Jose. The Sharks, who finished just four points behind L.A. in the regular season, were not given much chance by those outside of California. The Sharks wound up not only beating the Kings, but sending them to the beach and links in five games.

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Unlike many teams still in the running for the Stanley Cup, San Jose has kept the majority of their core for the last half dozen years or so of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Logan Couture. Since beating the Red Wings in the 2011 conference semifinals, they had lost four of their next five playoff series before the Kings matchup. Now, team teal is a win away from reaching their first conference finals since 2011 where they fell to Vancouver.

Despite those six players being constants, there are a couple noticeable reasons to point at as to why the Sharks have found more success this year.

The first is the emergence of two young forwards who the franchise will look to to keep its consistent success going over the next handful of years: Joonas Donskoi and Tomas Hertl.

In his first year in the playoffs, Donskoi has been a great playmaker and seen a heavy increase in points per game from the regular season. His two helpers last night now gives him three goals and four assists in 10 games this postseason.

As for Hertl, he has improved each season since his 2013-14 rookie year. He doesn’t get the recognition that fellow first-liners Pavelski and Thornton do because Hertl doesn’t rack up a substantial number of points, but he does a lot of the dirty work and is developing into a very good first-line power forward. He led all San Jose forwards in ice time in Gave 5.

GM Doug Wilson is receiving high praise now for acquiring goaltender Martin Jones and forward Joel Ward last summer. Both are key reasons the Sharks sit in the position they are in. Jones has been fantastic and given the Sharks a chance to win every game but Game 3 of the Predators series. He holds a 7-3 record, 2.20 GAA and .917 save percentage. Ward has seven playoff points, giving him 41 for his career, including a beauty of a game-winner in Game 1 against Nashville.

Perhaps the biggest reason for San Jose’s rise from a good team to a great one is the emergence of Couture and Burns.

Most Sharks fans have heard the stat: 14-15-1 without Couture and 32-15-5 with him this year. He gives the second-line a huge boost and could be a first-line center on many teams in the league. But he has taken his game to another level this postseason, racking up 13 points in team teal’s 10 games, with three of his five goals on the power play. Additionally, he has yet to see time in the penalty box in more than 150 minutes of ice time.

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Burns has been documented as saying that head coach Peter DeBoer telling him before the season that he will be a defenseman and a defenseman only rather than flip-flopping from forward to D-man has been a huge reason for him materializing from a very good blue-liner to a Norris Trophy finalist. Burns leads all defensemen with 13 playoff points, and along with Erik Karlsson, is one of the two best offensive-defensemen in the league.

Team teal’s work is not finished yet. They still need to close out Nashville, but whatever may happen in the next week or so, putting a beat-down on the Predators in Game 5 two nights after losing in devastating fashion shows this Sharks team deserves a lot of credit.

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