San Jose's "Shark Bite"/Will There Be Continued Fatalities?

The San Jose Sharks defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Saturday night wrapping up their Western Conference semifinal series 4-1 with the Wings in front of a boisterous home crowd. The Sharks will begin the Western Conference finals opposite the winner of Vancouver and Chicago in the upcoming week. Home ice will be theirs.

This will be the Sharks' second visit to a conference finals series, preceded only by a loss during the 2004 campaign.

Can the Sharks vault themselves into their first Stanley Cup Final? Unlike the Colorado Avalanche opening series win in which San Jose and goalie, Evgeni Nabokov struggled, this series win may have provided the ingredients necessary to a recipe for success.

The top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau were equal to the task in vanquishing Detroit. Sharpshooters Joe Pavelski, Devin Setoguchi and Ryan Clowe must continue to provide firepower in the offensive end as well. 

Dan Boyle anchors a group of defensemen that includes the muscle attribute of Douglas Murray and the ice savvy that Marc-Edouard Vlasic provides.

Goalie Nabokov must be active early in this series. His game four line versus the Wings read five goals allowed in one period of action before being yanked in an eventual 7-1 loss. This despite the Sharks out-shooting Detroit during that first stanza.

Evgeni massaged and tweaked his mental approach to game five, the decider, and was more aggressive in owning his ice space, coming out from the crease and seeing the screens better. This was never more evident than during the middle period when the Red Wings spent most of their time in San Jose's end and Nabokov proved to be outstanding in shutting the door.

San Jose had allowed Detroit to control the neutral zone during the game four loss. Their fore-checking was much improved in most of game five.

The Sharks team has a greater physical presence this year and a deeper squad with skill players that have stepped up to provide scoring and stops.

The team will get a bit of extra rest as they await the Canucks/Blackhawks winner that goes to game six in Vancouver early in the week.

Can the "Sharks' Bite" continue to cause troubled waters for the opposition? The next round will provide an answer to the question 'Do you know the way to San Jose? ' and the Stanley Cup.