San Jose Sharks: Win or Lose, It's Time for a Big Change

The San Jose Sharks need to hit the self-destruct button now. Like, this moment right now.

Don't wait for the Sharks to come back and win a game in St. Louis. Don't bank on them surprising the world and fighting out of a 3-1 hole to win a first-round series.

Enough is enough.

Being a "very good team" doesn't qualify as being a championship contender, because that's all the Sharks have ever been for the past two decades.

When it wasn't Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau's fault, it was on goalie Evgeni Nabokov, and he was sent packing. The change the team felt it needed last offseason was to trade youngster Devin Setoguchi for defenseman Brent Burns, then Dany Heatley was shipped away for Martin Havlat.

Change after change by Sharks general manager Doug Wilson and where's the team now?

Here's a soundbite some Sharks players might take out of San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh's book: "I thought they played well enough to win but we didn’t win."

That's not good enough.

Some teams like being just "good enough." Examples of those teams in other leagues are the Cincinnati Bengals, Oakland A's and Golden State Warriors.

That's right. Two of those teams are right in San Jose's backyard.

All of those teams appear like they're trying to become contenders, but it doesn't take a genius to realize they haven't actually contended for years. When's the last time the A's made the playoffs? 2006. The Warriors? 2007.

The Sharks, on the other hand, have made the playoffs for eight straight seasons. They're a good, not great product. A great team would have at least reached a Stanley Cup Final by now and not just be praised as the only professional sports team in San Jose. 

This is not to say the Sharks' past few seasons have been bad; it's to say they need something else, an "it" factor to be championship-caliber because their two-headed dragon of Thornton and Marleau has never led the team to a Stanley Cup Final.

They aren't "it" unfortunately.

And for the past few years, with every Sharks near-miss and close call to Lord Stanley's Cup, out come the usual "Oh for sure next year is the year. You betcha! They'll do it!"

There's no sense of that this year.

There's no positive thinking for Sharks fans. They've come to expect "Sharks playoff disappointment" like it's Thanksgiving week each year. There's nothing to be thankful for but the Sharks' existence as the only professional sports team in the Bay Area's largest city.

Is that good enough?

There isn't a way to say who should stay or who should go, but the team that's been built around Marleau and Thornton needs to be reconstructed around something else if it wants to win a championship someday.

It's to be determined if that's another star, coach or system, but it'll get minds off these constant oh-so-close calls of the last decade.

If the Sharks come back, win this series and the Stanley Cup, then maybe they don't need to be torn apart, but what does history say will eventually happen?

That's right. Get a head start, and hit "reset" now.