The Fourth Period Exclusive: Sharks Off Season Report

by FTF Staff on Aug 28, 2010 9:40 PM PDT in Special Features

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Recently, Mr. Plank (Jason Plank) and TCY (Matt Taylor) were added to the staff of The Fourth Period. Throughout the year, the two will collaborate on pieces exclusively for the magazine and the website. In an effort to continue to bring the readers of Fear the Fin the best Sharks coverage, all articles written for TFP Online will be linked here.

Please feel free to discuss the article in this thread, but make sure to visit The Fourth Period throughout the year for more exclusive Sharks and NHL coverage.

San Jose Sharks Off Season Report

Last offseason, San Jose Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson was faced with a roster that failed to advance past the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As a result, Wilson took to overhauling the team, clearing out the bottom six forwards and bringing in high profile goal scorer Dany Heatley from the Ottawa Senators.

Using the momentum from that aggressive off season, the revamped Sharks made it past Colorado and Detroit in the first two rounds of the NHL playoffs, advancing to the Western Conference finals for only the second time in franchise history. However, San Jose was outmatched by a superior Chicago Blackhawks squad on the Western Conference's biggest stage, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions in a mere four games.

The 2010 playoff run would have been considered a failure if the team didn't make it into the final four, and even though San Jose was convincingly swept by Chicago, the loss wasn't viewed as a typical Sharks playoff meltdown. The stalwart play of Blackhawks goaltender Antii Niemi stymied the Sharks potent offensive lineup; coupled with various injuries up and down the San Jose roster, and some questionable goals against allowed by Evgeni Nabokov, it appeared that San Jose was always just one big play away from getting back into the series.

And yet, Wilson still had some important decisions to make heading into the 2010-2011 season.

>> The Fourth Period

Read the rest of the article here, at The Fourth Period.

As always, Go Sharks.

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Editor's Note

The end reads a little wonky because the publish date kept getting pushed back, but you should get the gist of what we were trying to get at.

"San Jose is where I want to be at the end of the day, and there's an opportunity now to make it there. It is where my heart is." - Jamie McGinn, 2/22/10
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by Mr. Plank on Aug 28, 2010 9:41 PM PDT reply actions

Good stuff boys

Thanks for the link

"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you." - Jacques Plante

by AfroPuff on Aug 28, 2010 10:07 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

Good job! :-)

Go Sharks!

by Dmitriy on Aug 28, 2010 10:29 PM PDT reply actions

Great job and Congrats!

by Darthgooch on Aug 28, 2010 10:31 PM PDT reply actions

Question

In the quote below, is “the deadline” referring to the trade deadline, or some other deadline? If we’re talking about the trade deadline, well, that’s not exactly arbitrary, is it?
bq. The blueline is an obvious weakness for the Sharks; Rob Blake was a very underappreciated defensive presence for his two years here, and will be missed. It appears as if Wilson realizes this soft spot however, evidenced by an offer sheet given to Niklas Hjalmarsson. After the sheet was matched by Chicago, Wilson stated in interviews on the radio that he was looking to add another defenseman between now and the deadline in order to replace the loss of Blake. The time line is arbitrary, but the need is not.

And don’t worry guys, there’s hope for us yet.
bq. With a Western Conference Finals appearance under their belts, expectations will remain high for the club as they enter 2010-11 with loads of top end talent up and down the roster.
Go Sharks :D

please to be exiting my eyebrow parade, son. You appear to be raining on it. - CTGray

by ninakix on Aug 29, 2010 3:42 AM PDT reply actions