San Jose Sharks Still Hungry After 13-3 Start

The San Jose Sharks enter Tuesday's game against the Predators with an astonishing 13-3 record, and a 9-0 mark inside the HP Pavilion. 

Past Sharks teams may have been prone to falling off and taking satisfaction out of such a great start.  But this season, the Sharks have been adamant about improving their game despite being atop the standings in the NHL.  

Jamie Baker, former Shark and now color analyst alongside Dan Rusanowsky on Sharks radio, put things in perspective during the wrap-up in Phoenix.  He said the team is "in a great position because they are 13-3, but they know they have things to work on."

Sure, it would be great if the Sharks were getting shutouts every night and scoring five goals, scoring on every power play and killing each penalty.  But if that were the case, it would be extremely difficult for this Sharks team to keep that level of play going all season. 

As a matter of fact, they haven't been playing top-notch hockey in most of their wins.

The Sharks enter their game Tuesday 19th in power-play percentage, only cashing in 16.2 percent of the time. An awfully low percentage for a team that was among the best in the league last season, and which brought in Dan Boyle and Rob Blake to enhance the unit. 

The defensive play has at times been sketchy. Douglass Murray and Brad Lukowich have been responsible for some terrible giveaways.  And in the most recent game in Phoenix, the Sharks took five minor penalties while down by a goal in the final two and a half minutes of that game, including Dan Boyle's double-minor for an errant high-stick.

However, that pretty much ends anything negative you can say about the Sharks so far, a little over a month into the season.

The reason this team has been able to sprint from the gates to such a large lead in the division is because of their ability to keep playing their game.  In years past, it seemed like goals scored against the Sharks would put a damper on the team and they would over compensate to try and bounce-back. 

However this season, the team has had a cool and collective manner no matter what the situation.  Despite their performance in Phoenix, they rank fifth in the NHL in average penalties per game with 12.4 per game—while the Flames, the Sharks' opponent on Thursday, average nearly 21 penalty minutes a game.

Another reason the Sharks have been able to keep the W's rolling this season is their scoring depth.  Last year, Joe Thornton led the Sharks in scoring by an enormous, 34 points.  However this season, Thornton trails Marleau for the team lead as he has 13 points to Marleau's 16.  The Sharks have seven players with ten points or more, two of which are defensman, Christian Ehrhoff and Dan Boyle.

After a little over a month into the season, the Sharks are sitting pretty atop the NHL standings.  While writing this article I was trying to think of some under-performing players and some over-achieving players for the Sharks, but the scoresheet is so balanced there isn't anybody in particular to key in on.

That's why this team is different.  Last year you could easily say that the Sharks' best player was Joe Thornton and worst (that saw significant minutes) was Matt Carle.  I know some reading this would be looking for Alexei Semenov. 

But this year, that's not the case. Each player on the team is contributing and so far they have been dominant.  Yet, the team is not satisfied, which is one of the reasons I don't see this team going on many losing streaks of more than two games, if any.

Let's face it—they're only going to get better, Torrey Mitchell hasn't even played yet.  Nabokov is hurt, Cheechoo is hurt.  The team is still building chemistry.  If you think this team is good now, just wait to January and you'll see just how good the Sharks really are. 

Right now, the Sharks are just getting started.