Darwinism in San Jose: Sharks Must Adjust or Die

It is April, and the San Jose Sharks are in trouble.

In other news, the sun rose in the east and will reportedly set in the west today.

This time of the year, playoffs is survival of the fittest. The fittest is not the most talented, but the most willing to do whatever it takes.

You know the old saying, will beats skill. Well, there is another one that applies here: It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. Being someone with dogs, I know this saying well.

One of my dogs (the one pictured in my profile photo) is 13 years old. She is missing one of her canine teeth and the other one is broken off. Against a dog that fights back, she stands no chance. But dogs do not mess with her because they do not know that, and she does not act like that.

My other dog is a healthy and athletic, 18-month old, 50-pound Plott Hound/Lab mix. But she is submissive, and has run from dogs half her size. The Sharks are like her.

They are easily deterred from areas close to the net, taking away their chance at not only high-percentage rebound shots but the chance to screen the opposing goalie. The last three goalies they have faced in a series include two playoff rookies and a guy who, like San Jose, carried the choker label. You cannot let these guys get comfortable.

Furthermore, the Sharks do not get in front of shots. The Avs blocked 17 shots and the Sharks got 26 to the net, meaning they stopped two for every three the Sharks got through. San Jose blocked only one for every three (10 blocks, 30 shots).

They get nervous and miss shots. San Jose missed more than one shot for every two that got through to the net (14, 26), while Colorado missed one for every six (five, 30). You do not have to hit the corner—if you are crashing the net, you can hit the goalie in the middle of the chest and go for the rebound.

Finally, they turn the puck over. The Sharks had only one more giveaway than the Avs, and only one less takeaway, but they could not get the puck through the neutral zone because their passing was not crisp and they were not patient to move the puck back or side-to-side when there was nothing there.

All of these are traits that suggest being ruled by fear, not strength. And now they are acting like it by not calling Game Two what it is—a must win game.

In 15 years, the Sharks have not won a series in which they went down two games to none, and the Avs have not lost a series in which they went up two games to none. Sounds pretty "must-win" to me.

The problem is they do not want to put too much pressure on themselves because they know they do not respond well to it. A leader acknowledges the team must win the game, declares that they will, because he does not fear them being able to back it up.

So how do the Sharks change who they are this late? It is actually an easy step-by-step process:

1) Change the lines up. Nothing signifies a new approach better. Plus, the Sharks have all their scoring stockpiled on one line, and that never works in the playoffs.

The opposition puts their top defenders on both the blue line and forwards out there or can make those players chase the puck, the entire offence stagnates. Dany Heatley's line was shut down by the Ducks defence in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, and Alexander Ovechkin's line was shut down by Montreal on Thursday night.

The Sharks would be better-served having Joe Thornton, Patty Marleau, and Heatley all on seperate lines than having them all together, as they would have three dangerous scoring lines. In lieu of that, at least one should be moved.

2) Get more offence into the lineup. Defence was not the problem, scoring was. Jason Demers could play in place of Niklas Wallin, the Sharks least productive offensive player. Jamie McGinn or Scott Ortmeyer could get in there on the fourth line

3) Anger: Not at the Avs, at themselves. In last year's State of the Sharks event, I asked Joe Thornton, in light of how well he played in Game Three when he came out mad, what it would take to get him to play mad all the time. The problem is that you should not need to be motivated by an external force, but driven by an internal one.

Failure can motivate you. Turn the fear that is making you anxious into fear for survival, and get to the net, shoot closer to the net, scramble to keep pucks from hitting the net, take the hit in the corner, and make the hit on the puck carrier.

Take the game to them. Dominate tonight and let them start thinking about how their win was a fluke. Then do it again in the next game to take control of the series back.

If not, there could be consequences, covered in my companion piece on Shark-Infested Blogger.