The August Predictions series on the 2016-17 San Jose Sharks concludes as each season does—with the Stanley Cup playoffs…
Every NHL team’s stated goal for this season is to win the 2017 Stanley Cup. It is a pipe dream for almost half the league, but not for the San Jose Sharks.
San Jose is coming off its first Western Conference championship and has kept most of the team together. Only four players will be 33 years old by the time the 2017 champion is crowned.
That is why it was puzzling the Sharks were not given better odds this summer to win the 2017 Stanley Cup. Still, even teams getting more love are over 80 percent likely to fail.
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There are too many great teams and too many variables to predict winning the Stanley Cup by the rules defined in the first edition of the series. The focus has been on other worthy—august, if you will—predictions.
The first eight looked at how the 2016-17 NHL season plays out. That culminated with the ninth edition predicting between 101 and 110 standings points on Friday, August 26.
That should be enough for San Jose to host the extra game in the first postseason series. That is huge after a season of heavy travel. The speculation from Yahoo and others was that the team was worn down by the 2016 Stanley Cup finals.
The Pacific Division finish is harder to predict. The Anaheim Ducks have taken the last four titles. They also kept most of their team together and thus have to be considered the team to beat.
The Sharks are the only team at the same level. The Los Angeles Kings lost more than they gained this summer and were already clearly the lesser team by the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs. Other Pacific Division rivals will do well just to reach the postseason.
Still, there is a great deal of potential for the picture to change. Any prediction of who finishes where is unlikely to come true.
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Simply finishing in the top two is more important anyway. Los Angeles is the only team to win a Stanley Cup without home-ice advantage in at least one of four series (2012).
Prediction No. 10: San Jose will have another deep playoff run. A successful 2016-17 NHL season puts this team in position to do that. Another successful postseason should follow.
It is important to examine what constitutes a deep playoff run. We also must keep in mind what is realistic in keeping with the theme of the prediction series. However, it would not be much of a prediction to simply say the Sharks win the opening Pacific Division semifinals.
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One series win also does not constitute a deep run. On the other hand, only four teams win two rounds. That is nothing to bet on.
However, the Sharks ensure that only four postseasons in franchise history go deeper by pushing the second round to the seven games. They should be able to do that.
Finally, a further statement should give the prediction more weight: San Jose is as good as any team in the Western Conference. No team has a better chance of reaching the final four if the backup goalie issue is solved either from within or by trade at any point during the 2016-17 NHL season.