San Jose Playoff Preview: Could the Sharks Finally Have the Playoff Antti-Dote?

Two more days until April 14, a date Sharks’ fans have apprehensively circled on their calendars with a yellow marker (appropriate since yellow is the color of caution) to signal the start of the NHL postseason.

What twisted fate lies ahead for the men in teal after that first puck drops in front of Joe Pavelski’s stick?

What kind of reaction can be expected when the Canadian National anthem blares over the Pavilion speakers in downtown San Jose?

The 2011 season has been a tumultuous one for the Pacific Coast champions, who went from 10^th place in the Western conference in mid January to snatching away the No. 2 seed from the Red Wings with an impressive encore performance against one of their fiercest division rivals. Their 3-1 win against the Coyotes concluded a two-month rampage in which the Sharks went 27-6-4 and outscored their opponents 31-15 in the final seven games of the season.

But little of that does anything to change the Sharks’ reputation as the NHL’s biggest pretenders, not until they break their spring curse and bring their fans a taste of sports heaven.   

For San Jose, a sprawling city of nearly one million people and capital of Silicon Valley—the Mecca for high tech businesses and corporate enterprise—has longed to achieve its identity as more than a parking lot for Facebook and Google CEO, but also as the center of a sports culture with overcrowded hockey bars and children dressed in teal during Sunday mass.

There would be nothing like a blue ticker tape parade down Market Street to show the world that San Jose is in the middle of a sports renaissance. Up until now, Sharks hockey has become synonymous with failure.

The best example is the 2008-09 regular season, where they won a franchise-best 53 games and their first ever President’s Trophy.

But the trophy that really mattered, the Holy Grail of hockey silverware, eluded them once more in the nonpartisan postseason which has been treacherous to the Sharks over the last decade.

They fizzled quickly in the opening round against the Ducks, adding a new chapter to their book of playoff horror stories and melodrama. The early exit continued a string of underachieving postseason appearances, which only seemed to grow more frustrating with each passing year. While the standard they set for themselves remained unchanged (win a Stanley Cup for the Bay Area), the result was always the same—play for eternal glory, cry in the offseason.

Although they made it to the Western Conference Finals last year, the Sharks were swept by the Blackhawks despite outshooting Chicago three times in the series. Even with all their offensive intellect, the Sharks couldn’t solve the spectacular play of Antti Niemi—their current netminder who could be the difference in San Jose’s quest for postseason immortality.

Last year’s playoff unraveling, unlike so many others, actually had an upside. The Sharks seemed to finally figure out the major problems that plagued them in every postseason. First and foremost, they can’t win at home. Each of their last two playoff eliminations came after clumsily playing through their first two games at The Tank. In all of their series losses since Evgeni Nabokov's been between the pipes, they’ve posted a pitiful home record of 6-14. Their inability to protect home ice advantage is one of hockey’s greatest mysteries. Maybe the fans aren’t into it enough. Who could blame them, with the awful seating arrangement at the Pavilion which prevents spectators from leaning in their seats?

That second problem is the lack of a shutdown goaltender. This is not meant to denigrate Nabokov, who served as a reliable puck-stopper for the Sharks for nearly a decade but was never able to deliver the kind of lights-out performance needed whenever the offense failed to scrape together a goal. In some cases, the Sharks would hand Naby the lead only for a swarming offense to slip a loose rebound past his leg pads in the waning seconds of the game.

Such was the pain of being a Sharks fan this time of the year.   

The common belief in hockey is that great depth beats great goaltending. That conclusion is reached by doing simple math.  A goalie is just one player in front of the net. One outstanding player does not equal 25. That is, unless that player is Miikka Kiprusoff, Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek or Patrick Roy (who was the Mariano Rivera of goalies in his 20-year career). It would appear in the postseason the rules change considerably.

At least for the Sharks, who just can’t avoid running into a fortress in goal every time they reach the playoffs. Remember in 2002, when San Jose scored just once in their last two games against Patrick Roy? They faced similar troubles against the Avalanche last year, when the anointed Craig Anderson repelled offensive onslaughts in almost every period of every game, often drawing audible groans from the home crowd at HP Pavilion. The Sharks eventually won that series, but unless they can put on a firing squad for three periods like they consistently did against Colorado’s swiss cheese defense, they shouldn’t expect the same results against any team they face in this year’s playoffs.

Any assault they mount on the opposition won’t matter if they can’t hold the fort at the other end.

The Sharks may have found their savior this season in Antti Niemi. After failing to make the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010, GM Doug Wilson began looking for a netminder good enough to replace Nabokov.  He chose wisely. Antti Niemi has been the Shark’s most valuable player this year, rising up from a lackluster start to become one of the league’s stingiest goaltenders. He’s also a proven competitor, playing in every game of the Chicago Blackhawks’ golden playoff run last year.  

In his first season with San Jose, Niemi posted career highs in saves, save percentage, wins, and games played. His $15 million dollar contract extension is actually a bargain considering what he’s accomplished so far this season and that he’s only 27 years old.

His glove is a puck magnet in the final minutes of a game, and he gobbles up loose rebounds like porterhouse steak. He’s also a power-play killing machine, ranking fourth in the league with a .901 save percentage before the All Star break.

Many will argue that Niemi still doesn’t compare to superstar goalies like Pekka Rine, Carey Price, Ryan Miller and Roberto Luongo. To those critics I ask this question. How many championships have those goalies won between them?  The answer is less than Antti.  

Hockey is a team game after all, and none of those goalies had a good enough team playing behind them to win the gaudiest prize in sports. Niemi had the support last year with Chicago, and he finds himself in even better company in San Jose.

The Sharks will use all their depth (they have seven players with 20 goals or more) to tear down opposing walls, but when the puck enters their zone they can take comfort in the fact that they have a wall of their own blocking the net. They’ll outskate, outhit and outshoot the other team on the ice—and may even win the game as a result.

They say in baseball good pitching beats good hitting. That conclusion was reached again last November when the shaggy haired Tim Lincecum was whizzing fastballs past the Texas Rangers as San Jose’s northern neighbors won their first ever World Series title.

But in baseball you need to score runs to win. A little offense is required away the mound. The same can be said about hockey and scoring goals. The Sharks have always been able to do just that, all they needed was someone to keep the puck out of their net.

The grind that the Sharks faced this year, along with all their offensive weaponry are reasons why fans can expect a better result in the playoffs.

But it’s an old foe from Chicago who will be the biggest difference.