My beard held out as long as it could
As I stood there in my bathroom, looking in the mirror and ruefully shaving off my playoff beard after Dallas' quadruple-OT victory on Sunday, I realized something: The Sharks can also look themselves in the mirror now.
I'm sure they're saying the "proper things." You know, the "Oh, we're still disappointed, we had bigger aspirations" standard. And I"m also sure that that's true. No true competitor is ever fully satisfied unless they reach the pinnacle. But after a furious comeback that fell just short in an unbelievably tight series, the Sharks can take some solace this summer from knowing that when their backs were against the wall, they gave it all they had.
The Sharks have been one of the best teams in hockey for the past four seasons, both winning and losing the most playoff games of any team in the NHL in recent years. Big things have been expected out of Joe Thornton and Co. by the hockey world. But they haven't delivered, and this was the year, "they" said, that management would have to consider serious changes if the current group — and Coach Ron Wilson — didn't deliver.
And for the first 10 games of the playoffs, that seemed to be getting more and more likely. They struggled to finish off 7-seed Calgary, and quickly fell in a deep hole against the Stars. "They" would point to the blowing of the 3-0 lead in Game 3 against the Flames and the implosion in the third period of Game 2 against Dallas as evidence that this Sharks team, though arguably the most talented group in the league, didn't have enough of the intagibles that it takes to win in the playoffs.
But I believe — or at least I hope — that the way the team played it last three games will cause Sharks management to a least pause and reevaluate before they press the detonator.
In the last three games — OK, maybe starting in the third period of Game 4 — the Sharks gave every last ounce of energy and effort in an attempt to do the near-impossible. They scratched. They clawed. They gave up the body to block shots. They became the team that they had been criticized by "they" for not being.
Alas, everything they had wasn't enough. Marty Turco (a Stars-record 61 saves) and Brendan Morrow (series-winning goal in fourth overtime, devastating hit on Milan Michalek) were just a little bit better. So the Sharks are doomed to their third straight 4-2 series defeat in the Western Conference Semifinals, to the disappointment of ESPN's Barry Melrose. But the Sharks seemed to mature by leaps and bounds in the waning days of their season. If that same group of guys do that in each and every playoff game next year, Lord Stanley would likely await. The only question is, will they get that chance?
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