Three Nouns

A noun, as we all know, is a person, place or thing. Let's look at three nouns--one of each type--that will be crucial to the Sharks in their upcoming playoffs series with the Evil Empire.

Every person you can know...

PERSON: Milan Michalek

Ask anyone who watched San Jose's first-round clash with Calgary to recall something that Milan Michalek did in that series, and you will certainly hear about how he failed to get a shot away while leading a three-on-one break in Game Six. Ask them to recall something else Michalek did, and they will likely shrug and give up.

Michalek was San Jose's second leading scorer this year (24 goals and 31 assists for 55 points) and a rare source of reliable offense not named Joe Thornton. But his production waned down the stretch and vanished--literally--in the series against the Flames. That's right, Michalek had nary a point in any of the seven games. By Game Six and that trainwreck of a three-on-one that represented the nadir of an awful night, it was clear that Milan had completely lost his confidence.

He needs to get it back...to look at the upcoming series against Dallas as a chance to reboot the 2008 playoffs and start over. The Stars are always a tough defensive team, and Marty Turco is playing great hockey right now. The Sharks can't afford to have a player of Michalek's goal-scoring ability serve up another goose egg.

...and every place that you can go...

PLACE: The Penalty Box

The San Jose penalty kill, a source of strength for most of the year, began to wobble as the season drew to a close, looking at times very vulnerable down the stretch, even while the Sharks were putting together long strings of wins. But it was downright dreadful against Calgary, often at the worst possible times...indeed, it was the collapse of the penalty kill that really doomed San Jose in that Game Three (of the blown 3-0 lead).

On the other hand, the Dallas power play was flying high against Anaheim, racking up ten power-play goals in only six games. Add to this the possibility that lethal point man Sergei Zubov could be returning to the Stars' lineup soon, and you have the classic case of unstoppable force versus extremely movable, smashable, crushable object.

The Stars will try to goad the Sharks into taking penalties, but the Sharks gotta stay out of the box. Either that or they gotta figure out how to make clearing the puck while shorthanded something other than a task of epic difficulty. Or both...both would be nice.

...and any thing that you can show...

THING: Effort

I've said it before, and recently, but it can't be said too many times: the Sharks have to put forth playoff-level effort every night. They didn't do that against Calgary. It's got to be there every game against Dallas, or the offseason starts early.