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.
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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.
Read the rest of the article here, at The Fourth Period.
As always, Go Sharks.
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