Meet the 2007-2008 Pacific Division Champs

I'm thrilled about the Sharks' now-assured Pacific Division championship (clinched by the 3-1 win at Anaheim on Friday), but not because I think the title itself will be extraordinarily valuable. Yes, San Jose can now finish no worse than second in the Western Conference. (There's still a miniscule chance they can catch Detroit--the Wings would have to fail to earn another point and the Sharks would have to win out). This ensures that they will start the playoffs at home, and would also have home ice in any potential second-round matchup. Should they make it to the Western Conference finals, the Sharks would start on the road against the Red Wings but would host any other team.

This is all good, but it's easy to overstate the importance of home ice...home, road, North, South, East, West, wherever, to advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs you have to play excellent hockey, period. In my judgment, home-ice advantage is of relatively little importance. (The Sharks have certainly seen their share of playoff flameouts in series in which they had home ice).

Of even less consequence is what team you play. Again barring a wacky finish to the season that lands the Presidents' Cup in San Jose, the Sharks will begin the playoffs against the seventh seed in the West. Peril to any team that looks at a first-round matchup against a seventh seed (or an eighth seed, for that matter) as an easy pass to the second round. The teams in the bottom quarter of the playoff qualifiers have shown themselves to be perfectly capable of winning a playoff series (or two or three) over the past several years. Look at the top ten teams in the West and you'll see ten tough hockey teams, any one of which is perfectly capable of beating you in a seven-game series. Additionally, those teams that barely squeak into the playoffs have frequently been playing for their playoff lives for weeks or even months, and often enter the postseason playing their best hockey of the year.

So, now that I've trashed the importance of the Pacific Division title, you might be wondering why I would describe myself as thrilled. I'm thrilled because although a division championship is a modest goal, it's a goal that the Sharks put in the bank with considerable authority. San Jose didn't back into this title...they had an opportunity to clinch with wins on back-to-back nights against Dallas and Anaheim, and sure enough they won both games to salt the hardware away. As a Sharks fan, it's extremely satisfying to see the team set its eye on a goal and promptly go out and accomplish it. The fact that the clinching victory came against the defending champions made it just that much sweeter.


Sharks 3, Coyotes 1

Good win tonight against a game Phoenix team that I'm quite certain will be a force in Pacific Division races of the future, possibly as soon as next season. With the second seed wrapped up, I was very pleased to see San Jose come out with some fire tonight--Joe Thornton scored only fourteen seconds in and the Sharks generally controlled the play throughout the game. Regardless of whether or not any further progress in the regular-season standings is possible, it's important for the Sharks to keep up their high quality of play...you can't ease back your effort and then just magically ramp it up again when it's time for the playoffs.


Brown and Clowe...sounds like a law firm...

Two valuable Sharks are back in the lineup after extended absences due to injury. Both contributed tonight. Curtis Brown returned to the ice during the March 19th game against Minnesota, scoring a goal that night, one on Friday in the course of the clinching win against the Ducks, and tacking on another tonight. Brown's goal scoring won't continue at this pace, of course, but his leadership, penalty-killing skills, and hockey savvy will be valuable in the playoffs.

Returning against Phoenix tonight was tough winger Ryan Clowe. Clowe injured his knee way back in October and had to have surgery shortly thereafter. He brings that great combination of nasty physical presence and goal-scoring touch that is so valuable at any time but especially during the postseason. Clowe assisted on Thornton's first-shift goal tonight, and was all over the ice for the remainder of the game. It's great to have both of these guys back.

Sunday Scraps - February 17th

Awesomeness or Cartoonish Super-Awesomeness?

The Detroit Red Wings have a 41-14-5 record (good for 87 points) which places them very comfortably atop the NHL. Yet their current five-game losing streak cannot be ignored. It has included losses to last-place (but improving) Los Angeles and second-to-last-place (and floundering) Toronto, not to mention a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets Friday night (at home). All-Star goalie Chris Osgood has been chased in two consecutive games. Is there cause for concern in Detroit?

Probably not. Any discussion about the Red Wings pretty much boils down to a debate about whether they have achieved awesomeness or cartoonish super-awesomeness (to paraphrase Waylon Smithers). It's a long season and no team will maintain any particular level of play, good or poor, from wire to wire. Roll together a couple of injuries (Niklas Kronwall has been out for a while and Brian Rafalski didn't play against Columbus), a bit of a slump by an otherwise good goalie, maybe a game against an inferior opponent who happened to get hot at precisely the wrong time (Toronto had won at Le Centre Bell two nights before beating the Wings in a shootout--perhaps the Leafs dug deep and found some pride after getting smoked by the Panthers 8-0 on February 5th), and BAM!, there's your five-game losing streak.

A brief survey of the internet appears to reveal some rumblings among the Red Wings' considerable fan base about the need for the team to acquire some help at defense. What's this? A contending NHL team is looking for another solid defenseman as the trade deadline looms? Stop the presses! Seriously, at this time of year, every GM in the league who thinks they have a shot at a Cup run is shopping for help at the blue line.

If this current slide has any consequence, it's that the pressure to make a move could oblige GM Ken Holland to overpay for a quality defenseman. Regardless, there's little doubt in my mind that the Wings will win the President's Cup and be the odds-on favorite to win it all.


Kings-Coyotes Observations

Los Angeles visited Phoenix tonight and I decided to check it out. The Kings and the Coyotes are both intriguing teams lately, especially for a fan of another Pacific Division squad. Phoenix, unexpectedly, is in the playoff hunt out west--if they do squeak in, I think that Wayne Gretzky has to be considered a legitimate candidate for the Jack Adams Award. Los Angeles, as of this writing, is dead last in the league in points, but one gets a strong sense that they are headed in the right direction. They just finished an eight-game road trip with a very solid 4-3-1 record; they are very young and seem to be getting better by leaps and bounds.

Good game tonight in the desert. Phoenix took a 3-1 lead into the third period, then the Kings rallied to tie before Radim Vrbata scored to win the game for the Coyotes 4-3. The highlights are worth checking out if for no other reason than to see Phoenix's second goal, scored by Joel Perrault. Perrault was very deep in the attacking zone, nearly to the goal line and outside the dot to Dan Cloutier's right, when he took a pass from Shane Doan and snapped a beautiful one-time laser short side. Extraordinary shot from a very bad angle. (There was also a weird sequence late in the second period in which Kings defenseman Brad Stuart's stick became entangled in Cloutier's equipment during the course of play. With the Coyotes attacking, neither player could really do anything about this, so Cloutier continued to play with Stuart's stick sprouting from his equipment...he looked like a mammoth that had been speared by an ice-age hunter. I'm not sure if that will show up on the highlight reel, though.)

(UPDATE: But it is on Youtube...)

Part of the reason I was interested in watching this game was to have a look at Kings rookie center Brian Boyle. A Massachusetts native, the kid is enormous--listed at 6'6", 222 pounds--and a veteran of four years of high-level play at Boston College. He scored four goals in his first seven NHL games, and though he wasn't listed on the scoresheet tonight, I have a feeling he's going to be giving Sharks, Ducks, Stars, and Coyotes fits for a while.

The Kings aren't quite there, yet. They definitely have some guys who can score--Anze Kopitar, Alexander Frolov, Mike Cammalleri, Dustin Brown--but goaltending is still a bit of a question mark. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Bernier, who actually did get a little NHL playing time this season early on, is presumably the goalie of the future for the Kings organization. If he matures into that role, and the young guys who seem to be meshing now continue to do so, this could be a dangerous team before you know it.

(Incidentally, Los Angeles' old war horse, Rob Blake, has been mentioned in various trade rumors as the deadline approaches. He has been dealing with some injury issues, which would presumably drive his trade value down at least a little bit. With the Kings' kids seeming to bloom recently, one wonders if maybe Blake doesn't have more value as a veteran presence in the Los Angeles locker room than he does as trade bait. Just a thought.)

From the perspective of a Sharks fan, all of the above means that the Pacific Division is not only likely to remain the toughest division in hockey, but is likely to get even tougher in the near future.


R'uh R'oh!

Speaking of tough opposition, I caught a little of the Rangers game today. They were firing on all cylinders and blew the doors off Buffalo, 5-1. The Sharks, of course, visit Madison Square Garden tomorrow. Zoinks!