Is this the Year?

Is this our year? It may sound cliche, but many Sharks fans, myself included, say yes. The addition of Rob Blake and Dan Boyle, coupled with the new system of Coach McLellan and the maturation of many of the Sharks young talents has set the stage for a record setting season. I know that in the past, "This is our year" has often been met with an equally strong, and not neccesarily untrue, cry of, "No way, the Sharks are goona fold in the postseason, its what always happens". I have to say, I've reluctantly agreed; in the past the Sharks have struggeled greatly to perform in the playoffs. Almost as if on que, players and coaches alike seemed to fall short of the challeneges the postseason laid out before them. The result has been painstakingly felt by everyone, both inside and outside of the organization time and time agian. This year is differnet though, and for the first time in many years, I feel that might be the truth. For the first time in franchise history, the Sharks have opened their season with a 4-0-0 record, and more impressive than that, the socreline for these games has been an impressive 13-5 (with their first shutout to boot!). The Players who had rough starts last season- Captian Patrick Marleau and Veteran Jonathon Cheechoo- have stepped up in a big way, both opening their accounts for the season with multi-goal games. Equally as important have been the perfromances of some of the younger members of the franchise. Devon Setoguchi, Tomas Plihal and Marc-Eduard Vlasic have all shown that they are not going to be left behind in the points race, scoring goals and making themselves an intregal part of the Sharks "new style". Players who have been consistently good for the team, Joe Pavelski, Milan Michalek, Mike Grier are showing early on that they are not going to start letting down now. In the case of Pavs or Michalek there is also the very real possibility of this being thier "break-out" year. Joe Thornton also, I feel silly adding Big Joe as an "also" in any sentance, has shown that he can, and will, put up BIG points for the Sharks in the regular season, and while he may have critics who would argue he doesn't show up in the playoffs, will McLellan's new system be what he neeeds to finally answer them? Adding the experience and talent of players like Rob Blake and Dan Boyle to the back line, and letting them nurture the skills of some of the D men from last season, nurturing that has already shown payoffs in Christian Erhoff and Douglas Murray, can also only strengthen the overall "package" the Sharks are bringing to the table this year. Last but never least, is the man behind Blake, Boyle, Murray and Vlasic. All but robbed of the Vezna last year by an Eastern bias league, Evgeni Nabokov is one of, if not the best, goalie in the NHL. His performance all through the regualr and postseason of last year was... hell, I can think of so many adjectives i'll just list a few of the most fitting: Dynamite, amazing, incredible, superhumanfastitwassogoodyouwantedtocry. He will no doubt want to secure the Vezna this year, with another equal- if not better- show of demi-god like talent. Bottom line: The Sharks roster looks as good as it ever has going into the regular season, and if 4-0-0 is any indication, they finally have a head coach who knows how to make all of that talent shine. Rosters and statistics aside for a moment though, and one of the largest factors in this years Stanley Cup bid is the taste of defeat. Going into the postseason last year, the Sharks could hardly have been sitting prettier. Pundits from around the league, not just die-hard fans this time, were asking the question of questions: "Could this acutally be thier year?" Having won the Pacific Division, coming within a hair of challenging Detriot for the West, ending the season with an impressive winning streak (thanks largely in part to thier last minute pick-up, all star blueliner Brian Campbell) all of the signs seemed to be pointing to yes. Unfortunately, as many of you reading this know, it was not the fairy tale ending that many had predicted. After eliminating Calgary by the skin of thier noses in a historic game 7 (the first to ever take place at HP Pavillion) , the Sharks went into thier series with Dallas battered and bruised. Dallas proved to be a tougher test than the Sharks expected, although after upsetting the champion Ducks in the first round it's not clear why, they fell down hard, dropping behind 3 games to none. Although it looked for an instant like the Sharks would continue the tradition of 33, they were beaten to the back of the net by the Stars in the 4th overtime of a hard fought game 6. The rest of the years postseason is history, and as scores of Sharks finatics everywhere took razors to thier beards, the bitter taste of defeat was once again in the mouth of San Jose. Morale of the story? The Sharks are sick and tired of proving thier critics right. The dismissal of Ron Wilson, and the subsequent hiring of Coach McLellan, is tantamount to a fresh start for many of the discouraged, disapointed and down-right angry players of last years postseason squad. This is a new year, a new season, a new style of play but not a new team. It is a team that has had enough of coming up short; a team that has the means, or at least the leadership to access the means they've had all along, to carve thier names into history. Watch out Sharks fans, this IS the year.