San Jose Sharks Hockey is officially back. The Preseason starts tonight against the rival Anaheim Ducks at 7:30 at SAP Center in San Jose. A mix of veteran players and rookies will be on tonight’s roster.
Welp. It’s that time of year again folks. The puck finally drops on the 2018-2019 San Jose Sharks season. The expectations, up until about four or five days ago, were being tampered down. The Sharks had about the same team they had after another familiar second round loss. Then all of a sudden, everything changed.
The San Jose Sharks added some new guy right before training camp opened and everything got turned on its head. The Sharks were maybe contenders to finish first or second in the Pacific Division and then subsequently lose in the second round of the playoffs again, like they always do. Now, after the acquisition of said new guy the San Jose Sharks are arguably the favorite to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Las Vegas odds makers put the San Jose Sharks at 12/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup and 6/1 odds to win the Western Conference. This puts them right in the mix with Nashville and Winnipeg in what is going to shape up to be a dogfight in the best conference in hockey.
All of that starts tonight. Granted. It IS preseason, but the NHL preseason are where unexpected story lines develop. What prospect is going to cement himself with the big boys on the NHL roster? Who is going to make that leap from decent player to impact player? Is there going to be a major injury affecting your team to begin the season? There are many more questions and stories that can arise in the three weeks before the season.
Preseason rosters are out and the San Jose Sharks are facing some of the same questions.
And as you can see, there are some interesting players donning the teal sweaters tonight, and even more-so, some interesting story lines already developing.