Sharks Dubbed as Cup Favourites.

[Shock Wave 0]

I can personally see them making a run for the cup. I think everyone expects a better year out of Cheechoo which equates to a great year for Thornton, thats a lot of offense right there plus throw in Michalek and Marleau among others and offense shouldnt be a problem. Their defense isnt much to write home about defensively but offensively they can put up the numbers plus they have Nabby who, if healthy, should be great between the pipes. I can see them being a favorite in the West.

Edited September 13, 2007 by Shock Wave

[chrisdetroit 189]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=218136&hubname=nhl

"I say this with all due respect to the Detroit Red Wings - they're a great organization - I think we beat ourselves instead of them beating us," says Sharks GM Doug Wilson. "We had an opportunity to put them away and we didn't."

We had an opportunity to put the Ducks away too...and we messed up. 'Close' doesn't count.

oops, just realized i wrote 'Sharked' - hope Matt can edit that.

Defense wins cups. The weak link in the sharks is defence. Hence no cup, It really is that simple. They didn't come that close to beating us. They blew leads in three games. What was the score in game 5? 4-1 without Schneider. They are sorely lacking leadership and the coaching is suspect. They don't scare me at all.

I can personally see them making a run for the cup. I think everyone expects a better year out of Cheechoo which equates to a great year for Thornton, thats a lot of offense right there plus throw in Michalek and Marleau among others and offense shouldnt be a problem. Their defense isnt much to write home about defensively but offensively they can put up the numbers plus they have Nabby who, if healthy, should be great between the pipes. I can see them being a favorite in the West.

Defense wins cups. Period.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Doug Wilson says things like this a lot and then wonders why his teams fall apart. I'll believe the Sharks are true contenders when I've seen they have it mentally and when they've established a good defense. Until then, they're a good team; not a great one.

QFT

We've heard all this stuff before, and the two areas you mentioned are precisely the Sharks problems.

[eva unit zero 271]

I can personally see them making a run for the cup. I think everyone expects a better year out of Cheechoo which equates to a great year for Thornton,

You have that relationship backwards. Cheechoo's success or failure is so directly and unavoidably a result of how Thornton is playing it's not funny.

thats a lot of offense right there plus throw in Michalek and Marleau among others and offense shouldnt be a problem. Their defense isnt much to write home about defensively but offensively they can put up the numbers plus they have Nabby who, if healthy, should be great between the pipes. I can see them being a favorite in the West.

The Sharks need a better defense to compete with the Ducks and Wings; the Sharks are the only team of the three that doesn't have a playoff-proven veteran goaltender behind a very solid defense. Yes, they have a nasty top six....but so did the Wings in the early 90s, when their goaltender was Cheveldae and the best defensive defenseman on the team was Steve Chiasson.

[JayUp88 1]

I think everyone missing the big picture here, how could the sharks not be the cup favorites, They sign the big free agent JR this summer. heck they might as well just hand them the cup already

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

I think everyone missing the big picture here, how could the sharks not be the cup favorites, They sign the big free agent JR this summer. heck they might as well just hand them the cup already

I forgot about that when I wrote my post. He's the only noteworthy acquisition they had in the offseason, and it's amazing to think that now they're supposedly cup favorites because of that.

[StaticWithABeat 0]

I'm not sure I would put them at the Cup favorite at this point, but If their young defensemen progress nicely and Nabokov holds up well I would easily rate them in the top 2-3 teams in the West.

The JR acquisition could be more meaningful than it seems. The Sharks have had Cup-worthy talent since Thornton arrived, they just seem to be missing the postseason motivation...maybe winning JR a Cup will help generate the kind of hunger they've been missing.

[VM1138 1,921]

It's funny how quickly fans forget. The Sharks series was extremely dicey. We did NOT dominate them like so many remember. I don't want to say we got lucky, but it was a closer series than a simple 4-2 series win indicates. They DID improve over the summer.

And let's not forget, everyone here thinks the Wings are going to crush Anaheim (the favorites according to most) because we have a chip on our shoulder. But the Wings are in the Sharks' sights for exactly the same reason.

We have a better defense, but they probably have the better offense.

The main thing that kept us going in the last playoffs was our resilience. We were on our backs through much of the playoffs, but we never gave up and managed to take advantage of mistakes the other team made. What happens if we play a team that doesn't make enough mistakes? Or what happens if our resilience is gone? I mean, last year, our ability to come back and win games was stuff of legends. Can we repeat that?

A lot of teams got better and the Wings status is largely up in the air. I want to be optimistic, but EVERYTHING hinges on the ability of our team to be patient and wear the other team down and take advantage of mistakes.

[toby91_ca 620]

Seriously people, do we realy care that badly that they are considered Cup favorites from ONE SOURCE OUT OF MANY?

I would go one step further and say that I wouldn't care if ALL SOURCES had the same prediction, since it really is just opinion and doesn't mean anything. If it really meant anything, the games wouldn't have to be played.

[eva unit zero 271]

It's funny how quickly fans forget. The Sharks series was extremely dicey. We did NOT dominate them like so many remember. I don't want to say we got lucky, but it was a closer series than a simple 4-2 series win indicates. They DID improve over the summer.

And let's not forget, everyone here thinks the Wings are going to crush Anaheim (the favorites according to most) because we have a chip on our shoulder. But the Wings are in the Sharks' sights for exactly the same reason.

We have a better defense, but they probably have the better offense.

The main thing that kept us going in the last playoffs was our resilience. We were on our backs through much of the playoffs, but we never gave up and managed to take advantage of mistakes the other team made. What happens if we play a team that doesn't make enough mistakes? Or what happens if our resilience is gone? I mean, last year, our ability to come back and win games was stuff of legends. Can we repeat that?

A lot of teams got better and the Wings status is largely up in the air. I want to be optimistic, but EVERYTHING hinges on the ability of our team to be patient and wear the other team down and take advantage of mistakes.

The Sharks lost Hannan and did not replace him; the Wings did the same with Markov. However, the Wings also upgraded on Schneider with Rafalski, and dumped off dead weight in Lang, Bertuzzi, and Calder. The Sharks replaced Mark Bell with Jeremy Roenick, which is probably a wash. So while the Wings were better than San Jose last year, the Wings have if anything widened that gap in the offseason. The Ducks, OTOH, have swapped Penner for Bertuzzi, possibly lost Niedermayer or Schneider, and may not be bringing Selanne back. Assuming Nieds and Selanne do not return; the Ducks are SIGNIFICANTLY worse than last year, as compared to an improved Wings team that nearly beat them last year.

[Shock Wave 0]

You have that relationship backwards. Cheechoo's success or failure is so directly and unavoidably a result of how Thornton is playing it's not funny.

You're right, Thornton will get his points no matter what but last season Cheechoo was taken off of the Thornton line at times and he struggled. This season Cheechoo should be kept on the Thornton line and they will both produce because of it, thats what I meant.

The Sharks need a better defense to compete with the Ducks and Wings; the Sharks are the only team of the three that doesn't have a playoff-proven veteran goaltender behind a very solid defense. Yes, they have a nasty top six....but so did the Wings in the early 90s, when their goaltender was Cheveldae and the best defensive defenseman on the team was Steve Chiasson.

The Sharks might not have the best defense but I personally see Nabokov as one hell of a goaltender, their kinda in the same boat as Pittsburgh but I see Nabby being a better goaltender then Fleury right now. They will score a lot of points and with some good goaltending (which Nabokov is capable of IMO) be kept in the game.

Edited September 13, 2007 by Shock Wave

[Chase 0]

The Sharks might not have the best defense but I personally see Nabokov as one hell of a goaltender, their kinda in the same boat as Pittsburgh but I see Nabby being a better goaltender then Fleury right now. They will score a lot of points and with some good goaltending (which Nabokov is capable of IMO) be kept in the game.

Ive always been a big fan of Nabokov. He is a very fundamentally sound goalie IMO and can win games on his own. He is maybe even underrated a bit.

But none the less, yeah the Sharks will be a team to look out for this year. Now that they have JR, they will have that "win it for JR" mentality. Cup favorites? I dunno... But they will be good again this year.

[Lou_Siffer 1]

The Sharks certainly are not Cup favorites. However, I dont understand why you guys would get on Wilson for those comments about the Wings series. Most of you all make the same exact claims regarding the Wings/Ducks series! (i.e. Ducks only won cause of Niedermayers fluke goal,...Wings were the better team, etc) No different.

Consider the fact the Sharks were actually a little closer to beating the Wings than the Wings were to beating the Ducks...if you look at when the turning point in each series occured.

Edited September 13, 2007 by Lou_Siffer

[OsGOD 3]

Well duh... Sharks are front runners now because they got my man J.Roenick baby!

I wouldn't mind seeing him hoist the cup before he retires..... Go JR

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

I think what's pissing me off is what Doug Wilson said than whatever they ranked the Sharks.

Wilson says "with all due respect" but doesn't really give the Wings any respect or credit. You lost, and the better team won, and that's it. If your team is as good as you say they are then maybe your captain should of stepped up and provided the necessary leadership, your goalie should of made that save in overtime, and whatever player shouldn't have been in the box. I strongly believe a team is just that, a team, and if critical elements of the team breaks down, then it all goes to s***.

Go cry in your pillow Mr. Wilson, you need to stop making excuses for your team and try again this year.

You have to win four hard fought games to win a playoff round; potential to win them means nothing.

Yeah, understandable. Wilson could've had a better choice of words, but he's right to an extent

If Nabokov controls the rebound in game 2 with a minute/change left, no goal for Datsyuk and we're looking at overtime that game. If they didn't screw up in game 4 in the last minute, they go up 3-1 in the series and have a big stranglehold. If Nabokov doesn't turn the puck over on a basic pass in game 5, that game is still tied, and who knows what the outcome might have been. If Grier didn't put the puck in on Hasek's pass goof in game 6 in an empty net, the game is much more interesting...

We obviously got to give kudos to Lang and Datsyuk for capitalizing on those plays, Hasek for shutting them out in game 5, and give the Wings credit where it's due, putting them away, but the Sharks did beat themselves on many instances as well.

Just trying to see it both ways and not be a complete homer.

[kylee 727]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=218136&hubname=nhl

"I say this with all due respect to the Detroit Red Wings - they're a great organization - I think we beat ourselves instead of them beating us," says Sharks GM Doug Wilson. "We had an opportunity to put them away and we didn't."

We had an opportunity to put the Ducks away too...and we messed up. 'Close' doesn't count.

oops, just realized i wrote 'Sharked' - hope Matt can edit that.

will you ever learn Ronnie?

you really beat yourself when Patrick Marleau laid an egg and Joe Thornton was contained.

to be totally honest though,

when i found out the Wings were going to play the Sharks i was pretty scared, especially after game 1 when they got shut out at home.

that was one good series.

[Dabura 12,207]

I like how the rationale is basically "We almost beat the Wings in the second round. We're ready to go all the way now."

Blah blah blah....

[Zion 93]

The Sharks need a better defense to compete with the Ducks and Wings; the Sharks are the only team of the three that doesn't have a playoff-proven veteran goaltender behind a very solid defense. Yes, they have a nasty top six....but so did the Wings in the early 90s, when their goaltender was Cheveldae and the best defensive defenseman on the team was Steve Chiasson.

QFT. Spot-on. I couldn't see the Wings beating them before the playoff series (and again after game 1), but the lack of character (and Marleau's injury) became blatantly obvious as the Wings just didn't give up and continued to play much more physically than I ever could have expected.

The Sharks will be better this year, though. They are fun to watch, too.

[Son of a Wing 1,644]

I think you are all forgetting about their biggest off-season acquisition of all. Brad frickin' Norton! I mean, do you really think Detroit can cope with that loss?

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Im not sure, but if Norton draws into San Jose's top 6, they would have the most nasty defence in the league.

[Opie 308]

Does this changed anything:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Agzq...p&type=lgns

Ozolinsh gets a tryout!

[Duck Guy 86]

sharks will make playoffs but wont win it all.. thats my opinion..