Flashback Friday: Recalling the 2013-14 lineup

Earlier this week, Fear the Fin played around with the Sharks’ lineup, offering a way too early projection of what the team could look like when it takes the ice in October. It was a fun little exercise in futility.

So, it seems only fitting that for this edition of our Flashback Friday we look at what the Sharks’ lineup looked like heading into the 2013-14 season.

2013-14 Sharks forward projections

Derek Tanabe offered a great rundown of the Sharks’ forward group, including depth that Sharks fans can only dream about today. We’re talking about back in the day when the Sharks’ center depth was so great that Joe Pavelski centered the third line.

Here’s Tanabe’s projections:

Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tyler Kennedy
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Brent Burns
Matt Nieto – Joe Pavelski – Tommy Wingels
James Shepard – Andrew Desjardins – Matt Pelech

Tanabe had Martin Havlat, Raffi Torres and Adam Burish rotating in as needed.

We can start with the fourth line, where Tanabe’s description of Pelech includes: “Last Season: Pelech punched faces; This Season: Pelech will punch more faces.”

In case you’re wondering, Pelech played six games for the Sharks that season and received two fighting majors and a game misconduct in that span.

You can also note that Matt Nieto, yes, we’re talking about Long Beach native Matt Nieto, was only 20 years old at the time, and Brent Burns was playing on Thornton’s right wing, something we’ve explored in a previous Flashback Friday post.

Then, of course, there’s the welcoming of Hertl into the league. The then 19-year-old had just finished a season in the top men’s league in Czechia, where he dominated.

“The most highly-touted Sharks rookie since Couture, there’s a degree of pressure on Hertl largely uncharacteristic of an organization that has subscribed to the Detroit method of allowing prospects ample development time,” wrote Tanabe. “But Hertl’s dominance over a top-flight men’s league and the Sharks’ injuries up front means he’s penciled into the second-line left wing spot vacated by T.J. Galiardi and expected to produce at a Calder-caliber level in protected minutes alongside one of the league’s best playmakers and a burgeoning power forward.”

Little did he know. Hertl burst onto the scene. He scored his first NHL hat trick on Oct. 8, 2013 and tacked a fourth goal on late in the third. For you newer Sharks fans, that’s where the Rooster Trick was born.

2013-14 Sharks defense projections

Tanabe continued his series of looking at the Sharks’ 2013-14 lineup with a rundown of the defense a few days later.

Tanabe’s defense pairings looked like this:

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Matt Irwin – Dan Boyle
Brad Stuart – Jason Demers

Tanabe had Scott Hannan serving as the team’s 7th defenseman.

26-year-old Marc-Edouard Vlasic was in his prime, serving on one of the top shutdown pairings in the NHL alongside Justin Braun. The duo became one of the hardest to play against on any given night.

Little did Sharks fans know this would be their last chance to see Boyle play in teal. The 37-year-old served one more year on the Sharks’ blueline and was traded to the New York Islanders in June 2014.

2013-14 Sharks goaltending projections

In net for the Sharks in 2013-14 was the combination of Antti Niemi and Antero Niittymaki with Niemi serving as the starter.

“Niemi was the Sharks’ MVP. Not much needs to be said beyond that but we’ll say it anyway. For much of February and March, Niemi’s play was the only thing keeping the Sharks at all competitive in the Western Conference as their inability to convert at the other end of the ice caused them to rely heavily on every last save for a chance at victory. Niemi posted a career-best .924 SV% in the shortened season and finished second in Vezina Trophy balloting behind Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky,” wrote Tanabe in his 2013-14 season preview of the Sharks goaltending.

While Niittymaki was supposed to backup Niemi, continuing hip problems forced the goaltender to retire without ever fully finding a place in the NHL. That cleared the way for a great comeback story in Alex Stalock.

At the time, Stalock was a promising Sharks’ prospect who was recovering from a 2011 injury in which an opponent’s skate sliced a nerve in the back of his knee. Stalock spent a few years regaining his game and re-signed with the Sharks in July 2013.

When Niittymaki retired, Stalock took the role of backup goaltender.

Conclusion

In case you’re wondering, the Sharks finished second in the Pacific Division with a 51-22-9 record. But all of that is forgotten because in the playoffs, Sharks fans suffered one of the biggest postseason heartbreaks of the team’s history. That’s when they watched the team go up 3-0 on the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, only to see a reverse sweep that sent San Jose packing.