“Whose fault is it?”

“Who do we get rid of so this doesn’t happen again?” 

A natural knee-jerk reaction from fans and media, after a painful postseason flameout, is to find players and/or coaches to blame for our distress.  The thinking is that something needs to change or we’re doomed to repeat past failures.  The problem with knee-jerk reactions is they mostly lack reasonable analysis.  I don’t claim to be a hockey expert, but I do know that Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are fantastic players, even if they haven’t produced the playoff results that we expect.  I also know that the Sharks aren’t the first team to experience repeated playoff failures.  In fact, there have been other teams who have overcome postseason disappointments to eventually become Stanley Cup champions.     

Before the Sharks, there have been seven top seeds who have been ousted in the opening round, and four of them eventually won Stanley Cups within three years after their ouster.  Okay, that’s not a really high percentage, but the 1994 Red Wings, the 1997 Devils, the 1998 Devils, and the 2006 Red Wings, also had a solid group of good players in the prime of their careers, and instead of trading away key players, they kept most of their group intact. 

The ‘94 Wings team that lost to the Sharks bears the greatest resemblance to the 2009 Sharks.  They were also going through years of playoff futility.  That series loss was the sixth consecutive year they were eliminated, and Detroit fans were bent because their team hadn’t won a Cup since 1955.  The Wings had players such as Sergei Federov, Niklas Lidstrom, Darren McCarty, and Vyacheslov Kozlov.  All players who were also on their Cup winning teams in 1997 and 1998.  Also on that team was Steve Yzerman.  They all love Yzerman in Detroit, but he wasn’t always beloved, because he was a part of the previous playoff ousters.  There were also questions about his leadership.  In fact, when the Wings lost to the Sharks in ‘94, Yzerman was 29 years old.  The same age as Thornton and Marleau.  Sure, those Wings championship teams made some key additions, such as Brendan Shanahan, Kris Draper, and Tomas Holmstrom, but they didn’t upset their core that was still in the prime of their careers.       

The ‘06 Detroit team that won the Presidents Cup trophy and lost to Edmonton in the first round, made it to the conference finals in ‘07, and won the Cup last year.  Nearly all of the key players from last year’s title team played on that disappointing team in 2006.  Guys such as Lidstrom, Draper, Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Kirk Maltby, and Chris Chelios.  They did make a significant addition in Dominik Hasek (although Osgood was clearly the top goalie in the playoffs) after the 2006 season and Brian Rafalski last year, but other than those two, the ‘06 and ‘08 teams were nearly identical.         

The 1998 and 1999 Devils both lost in the opening round despite being the top seed, and went on to win the Cup in 2000.  Again, they mostly stuck with their core players, such as Bobby Holik, Randy McKay, Patrick Elias, Petr Sykora, Scott Stevens, Jason Arnott, and, of course, Martin Brodeur.  There were some good additions (like Claude Lemieux, Rafalski, and Alexander Mogilny), similar to ones that Doug Wilson will have to make, but the key players remained.  They were patient, trusted their system, and didn’t blow up the team.  

What about these Sharks?  Well, other than Thornton and Marleau being 29, Jonathan Cheechoo (28), Ryane Clowe (26, but a free agent), Christian Ehrhoff (26), Marcel Goc (25), Joe Pavelski (24), Milan Michalek (24), Torrey Mitchell (24), and Devin Setoguchi (22) have also yet to hit 30.  The Sharks may have to get a little younger (particularly on defense) and deeper, but Wilson and the organization have always done a pretty good job of developing prospects. 

One player I wouldn’t mind the Sharks dealing is Evgeni Nabokov.  He’s 33 years old and has never been able to put the Sharks on his back in the postseason.  Lesser goaltenders, like Jonas Hiller, have carried their teams to series wins.  Plus, there are enough teams (perhaps the Avalanche) who are looking for good goaltending, that the Sharks may be able to fetch a solid winger or defenseman in return.  The Sharks are deep in goalie prospects, and it’s not like we’ve seen a drop-off from Nabokov to Brian Boucher these last few seasons anyway.    

This team is about the current group of guys who still have the ability to bring a Cup to San Jose.  Throughout this offseason, the Sharks are going to think about the times they were bullied in this series.  They’re going to think about their failures to score and their failure to consistently play with a killer instinct.  They will have plenty of motivation to take into next season.  With most of the key figures intact, and with the addition of a few new faces, they should be poised to make another run at a Stanley Cup next year.  A championship is still very much within grasp.