There’s really not much to say about the Sharks other than the fact that they’re a great team and they’re going to have a great year.

Last year was a huge disappointment for the Sharks, getting upset by an 8 seed in the first round of the playoffs. I think that the team is keeping that in mind and working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again this year.

We’re actually seeing some of the best hockey in the NHL from San Jose, to me, they’re even more of a team to beat than Colorado is and about the same as Pittsburgh. They have a lot of talent that has been leading them to victory.

Why They’re Winning

The Sharks are winning for one big reason, offense. The Sharks have scored the most goals in the NHL with 56 as of right now.

Another reason that they’re winning is because of their goalie Nabokov, who I think, is one of the best goalies in the world. To me, this is the best combination of winning, a good strong offense with a solid goalie.

However, their offense is being led by 2 key players. Marleau and Thornton both have over 20 points this season. The recent aquirement of Dany Heatly will also help them generate even more offense.

Different Kind of Depth

When you think of depth, you normally think of good rookies that are playing on the lower lines. Like the Red Wings who have between 2-4 rookies playing on a nightly basis.

However, the Sharks are a different type of deep. Since they have a lot of all star players on their first line, they have a lot of average players on their fourth line.

The players that are on the third and fourth line in San Jose would probably be on the second lines of many other teams.

The Sharks are doing what I call “top down” depth. They are making the top very strong and moving the good players down. This creates mismatches on all 4 lines.

They are starting to see this “Top Down Depth” add to more points and better play. There are only 2 players on the team that haven’t tallied a point this season.

Solid Goal Tending

As I said before, I think that Nabokov is one of the best goalies in the league. Not surprisingly, he’s been playing well this year.

Right now, Nabokov is second in the league in save percentage (.921) and 6th in the league in GAA (2.28).

He’s only letting in between 2-3 goals every game, and the offense is scoring a lot more than that. The offense is averaging between 3 and 4 goals every game.

With those two stats, you can see how the Sharks have balanced out their team and also how they are winning a lot of games.

Special Teams

The special team part is pretty boring, so I’ll save you the paragraphs and just tell you what the Sharks are ranked so far this year.

• Power Play – 5th – 24.6%
• Penalty Kill – 7th – 84.1%

As you can see, they’re having great numbers on special teams. This is another strength that the Sharks have.

Potential Weaknesses

I think that the biggest potential weakness is in the defense. It’s not playing horribly, but it is the biggest weakness.

It’s a great thing that they have Nabokov in net, because the average goalie would have let in a lot more shots.

The problem is that even though Nabokov is 2nd is save percentage and 6th in GAA, he’s still faced the third most amount of shots in the NHL.

This means that the defense is letting the other team get too many shots off. It also explains why the Sharks are only 12th in the amount of goals that have been scored against them.

My Prediction

The Sharks are going to have a tough time playing strong defensive teams, like Detroit was last night, however, they are going to win the majority of their games.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win their division and finish first in the conference.

I also think that they are going to go a lot farther in the playoffs then they did last year. There are a lot of things that have to happen.

The offense needs to show up to every game and the defense needs to stop letting so many shots get to Nabokov. If they can do this, they will be a clear leader in the playoffs and may possibly win the Stanley Cup.

It’s too soon to say anything for certain, but this is looking like it’s going to be a great year in San Jose.

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