Gut Check

I missed Friday's game against Anaheim, but when I logged on and saw the result the next day I couldn't have been happier. Not only did San Jose win the game 2-1, but they outshot the Ducks 43-13 and held Anaheim without a shot throughout entire third period.

As well as the Sharks have been playing during their very impressive streak of consecutive games with at least a point, I think all fans of the team were casting an anxious eye towards this particular date with the Ducks. Not only is Anaheim a divisional foe, and a threat to San Jose's Pacific Division lead, but they are an opponent that the Sharks have been unable to solve over the past couple of seasons. The games in the series over the past two seasons have generally ended in victories for Anaheim, frequently by comfortable margins, whereas the few wins the Sharks have earned have come in extremely close games that could have gone either way. Even though San Jose has spent much of the past month looking down on the Ducks in the standings, I know there was a latent worry in my mind that once the teams hooked up, Anaheim might prove they were still better on the ice.

The Pacific is San Jose's to lose at this point. For a brief, glimmering moment there it looked like they might even have an outside shot at Detroit, when the Red Wings seemed to falter a bit and the Sharks were charging hard. The chances that that will occur are fading, but that's okay. I always try to evaluate the strength of the team with a healthy dose of honest skepticism, but I think right now I have to say that I see few if any weaknesses in San Jose's game, and there certainly isn't any team in the league that is playing better hockey.

So what's the number one challenge going forward? Refusing to accept any retrograde step in the team's quality of play, while still recognizing that the current streak will not continue forever and there will be ruts and bumps and potholes in the road as deep as those that pit the streets of Minneapolis after a long, cold winter. (Holy smokes, it's bad out there...good thing this isn't a street-quality blog, or I would go on and on...)

As much of a gut check as this Anaheim game was, there will be more and more difficult challenges to the morale and psychology of the team going forward into the playoffs. And as any fan of the team knows all too well, the Sharks have crashed out of the playoffs at the hands of self-doubt and a general collapse of spirit in the last couple of years as much as they've been beaten by any opponent. There is no way to gauge a priori whether Team Teal is up to this challenge...we won't know until we get there.

But for the moment, it's hard to ask much more of the Sharks than what they're showing.

I hope everyone is having a happy Easter. If travel is in your plans, travel safely.