Growing playoff beards is a tradition honored only occasionally by athletes in most professional sports (last year, think of a few San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Brett Keisel or even NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson).
But in the National Hockey League, essentially every player starts growing facial hair the moment his team”s playoff run begins.
Recently, the issue for the San Jose Sharks hasn”t been whether its players would have the chance to grow playoff beards, but how large those beards would get.
The Sharks” latest postseason campaign begins tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. It will be San Jose”s seventh consecutive playoff appearance, but the team has had little to show for its regular season consistency.
Though the Sharks were seeded at No. 5 or higher each of the previous six Stanley Cup Playoffs, they”ve only twice made it as far as the Western Conference Finals (losing to the Calgary Flames in 2004 and to the Chicago Blackhawks last year).
The Sharks” all-time playoff series record sits at 11-13, and their recent run of playoff failures has led to the team being tagged nationally as a postseason joke — locally they”re merely considered a disappointment.
The issue going into the 2011 playoffs (just like with every other postseason) is whether this year”s group will finally force the franchise over the playoff hump.
San Jose has certainly seemed to put the right collection of new players alongside its long-standing talent.
Midseason acquisitions Ben Eager and Kyle Wellwood have solidified the backup lines and rookie center Logan Couture has provided a spark all season.
Perhaps most importantly, the Sharks now have a goaltender with a winning playoff reputation. Evgeni Nabokov”s inconsistent play really hampered the Sharks during previous playoff attempts.
Going into the current season, the Sharks signed reigning Stanley Cup champion goaltender Antti Niemi (who almost single-handedly stopped the Sharks” momentum in last year”s playoffs). After getting off to a rough start, Niemi now seems to have recaptured his championship form, which should give the team”s longtime players renewed confidence.
By the numbers, the Sharks 2010-11 regular season (another Pacific Division title, more than 100 points on the season and a No. 2 seed in the playoffs) seems very similar to the previous three seasons, which all ended in postseason collapses.
However, the Sharks are coming into the 2011 playoffs with a different type of poise. San Jose went an incredible 27-6-4 after Jan. 13, going from outside the top-eight to second-best, and is the hottest team in the Western Conference.
As a result, Bay Area hockey fans again have high expectations for their Sharks, but if they”ve learned anything from recent playoff history, they need their team to take it one series at a time.
Which brings us to the first round series against the No. 7-seed Kings. The two teams split their regular season series, each winning three games, with Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick being unstoppable in his team”s wins but laxed in the losses.
The Kings also have a history of postseason inadequacy, making only one Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 43 seasons.
This Western Conference Quarterfinals series should be hard-fought and entertaining to watch.
If the Sharks players focus on getting shots consistently past Quick and killing penalties against them, they should be in good shape to move on. If not, they”ll be shaving off those five o”clock shadows in about a week.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
