San Jose Sharks Are Drowning, Need to Bounce Back Against Division Rivals

It’s widely known that sharks cannot breathe and will die if they stop swimming. Clearly, the San Jose variety have nearly stopped playing and are quickly dying because of it.

The San Jose Sharks are sinking fast and while it isn’t likely they will fall out of the 2011 NHL Playoffs, they could lose their highly coveted No. 3 seed to a Pacific Division rival. From there, it’s a quick drop down the standings to a No. 6 to 8 seed, which would pit them against some of the strongest teams in the NHL.

After winning eight straight games, the Sharks have hit a wall, losing their last three and four of their last five, the most recent to the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks netted six goals in that game, including four against their former star rookie goaltender, Antti Niemi. The Blackhawks outplayed San Jose, breaking their own three game skid after a mirroring eight game win streak.

Looking forward, the competition doesn’t get much easier for the Sharks, with eight of their final 12 games against teams currently in playoff positions in the Western Conference. They also play two more games each against two of their division rivals—the Los Angeles Kings and the Dallas Stars—including tonight’s matchup in Dallas at 8:30 EST.

San Jose does currently lead LA in the Pacific, but only by three points. LA has also played one less game than the Sharks, putting them a possible one point back if they can win tonight’s game against Nashville.

In total, nine of their remaining games are against teams in the Pacific Division, with only two games against the Anaheim Ducks, who are currently two points out of the eighth spot in the conference.

Fact is that the Western Conference is so tight that the spread from third to eighth is a minuscule five points. The only team that is even close to a “lock” right now is the extremely hot Vancouver Canucks, and even they could still fall straight out of the bottom if they fail to win another game from here on out.

However unlikely that is, it demonstrates how many teams are still in the hunt and fighting for those last few spots in the playoffs.

If the Sharks want to hold onto their top spot in the Pacific Division, they will need to return to getting great production from star forwards Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau—three team scoring leaders who have combined for only three goals among them in San Jose’s last five games.

Antti Niemi also needs to step back up to the plate, having allowed an average of three goals against in those last five, including four goals twice, against Vancouver and Chicago. Facing Vancouver, the fourth goal came in OT. Against Chicago, it came in a five-goal second period for the Hawks which saw Niemi pulled after only 7:25 of play in the period.

Niemi—who has already won a Stanley Cup and ranks in the top 20 in the league in GAA, goals against, wins, games played and save percentage—has not been able to get the job done lately and might be well served to sit behind veteran Antero Niittymaki and take some well deserved rest.

He is a relative rookie in the NHL, but at 27, he isn’t the youngest of goaltenders and might not have much left in the tank for the final 12 games of the season, much less the playoffs.

In special teams, they haven’t been much better.  The penalty kill unit, averaging 80.3 percent over the course of the season, has gone 12 for 18 killing penalties in their last five, an average of only 66.6 percent.

On the other side of the puck, however, their third-ranked power play has been a consistent bright spot, managing four PPG over their last 18 attempts in those same five games. For a team who has averaged a 22.4 percent conversion rate on the power play through 70 games, a recent average of 22.2 percent has sure helped keep them in the race this far and needs to continue if they want to go deep this postseason.

The Sharks are in position again to make a strong playoff run. Their team has been successful in all phases of the game and they have a blend of pure talent and veteran leadership. However, they have a rough road ahead against teams who want it as badly as they do and who will fight for every loose puck, board battle, icing call, faceoff, goal and point.