Sharks never really shook late-season slump
Unlike recent postseason failures, there really wasn’t a sense of great despair or utter frustration in the Sharks’ locker room at SAP Center on Saturday night.
The defending Western Conference champs, beat up and goal-starved, were done in six games of the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In spite of logging the second most travel miles in the league (48,872) and having an already short offseason cut shorter with the participation of seven of the team’s key performers at the late-summer World Cup of Hockey, the Sharks found themselves with a nine-point lead in the Pacific Division as late as March 15.
At that point, it seemed likely the Sharks would start a first-round playoff series at home instead of on the road against a higher-seeded team.
[...] San Jose was then in the hunt for the West’s No. 1 seed.
[...] that all changed when the Sharks lost six straight games in regulation from March 16-25, scoring seven goals in the process.
A 5-4 overtime win over the Rangers on March 28 only interrupted the slide, which continued with two more losses immediately afterward.
The Sharks did right their course a bit with a 3-1 finish to the regular season.
[...] two well-documented injuries to San Jose centers — Logan Couture took a puck to the mouth March 25, and Joe Thornton hurt his left knee April 2 — impacted the start of their playoff series against the Oilers.
A few players are sure to extend their season with invitations to the World Championships (May 5-17), while some like Couture, who needs extensive dental work, will remain in San Jose.