This season I haven’t talked all that much about the Sharks, despite the fact that I’ve followed them pretty closely all year. Part of it is that they have been oddly inconsistent in some respects. Just when I think they’ve either got it all put together or they seem to have completely fallen apart, they have a game or two that defies the trend. But as the stretch toward the playoffs sets in, it bears examining what they’ve done, what they’re doing and how they might fare in the postseason.

Part of the things I wanted to say are covered by Mark Purdy’s recent Merc column in which he evaluates some of the things the Sharks have been doing lately. He notes that they have been uncomfortably lackluster on home ice, despite being pretty solid on the road. Road wins are good, no doubt, especially since they are unlikely to have home ice advantage come first-round time. But the Tank has typically been the one bright spot for the Sharks even when they are otherwise miserable. And on paper they are anything but miserable this year. But their better record away than at home causes concern because in the playoffs you really have to take advantage of the opportunity that home games represent.

Purdy also mentions how the Sharks potent offense from last year has been less than stellar at times this season. I think it’s a bit unfair to compare the dream stretch that Thornton and Cheechoo had last year with this; as good as both players are, Cheech has always been somewhat streaky and Thornton was hurt early in the year plus he also no longer has the luxury of playing in a conference that isn’t used to seeing him so frequently. Other teams have made appropriate adjustments to both players that has impacted their overall dominance. But it is still hard to ignore that it is no longer reasonable to expect that each shift Thornton steps on the ice will result in at least some sort of offensive opportunity if not a goal.

I do, however, disagree with Purdy’s assessment of Bill Guerin. While unfortunate that he hasn’t contributed tangibly thus far, I think he has provided some interesting sparks to the San Jose offense mostly by putting a welcome end to the pass-and-grind fests that the Sharks fall victim to and just hucking the biscuit at the net when possible. Plus his right-handed orientation has helped noticeably with some of those far side digs along the boards and has helped set up plays that at least give the opponents another look to think about. Assuming he can continue to contribute in ways that may not always show up on the scoresheet, eventually the stats will follow.

But thinking about some of the other changes from last season, I think it is safe to say at this point that adding Mike Grier was about the smartest thing they could have done: The guy is quickly becoming one of my favorites. He reminds me of Mark Smith out there in terms of work ethic only with a lot of talent as well. The only real weakness I see to Grier’s game is his finishing: He gets more breakaways and opportunistic chances than any two other players on the roster but those chances don’t wind up as goals as much as I wish. Maybe Grier’s shot isn’t the best in the world but you have to admire his ability to get into situations where he is testing the opposing goalie.

Another guy I started taking notice of this year is Patrick Rissmiller. He seems to be cut from the same cloth as Smith and Grier (although probably falling more on the Smith end of the spectrum when it comes to raw talent) and it’s fantastic to watch him out there busting his tail on the forecheck, through the neutral zone and all the way back low trying to clear pucks from the defensive end. For all the remarkable talent some of the other guys have out there, it irks me to see guys like Clowe and Pavelski coasting—or worse, standing—around in their own end hoping a puck will fall in front of them.

Which is not to say the Sharks have been slack on defense this year. I’ve been rather impressed all season long with how many pucks aren’t ever even getting to the crease because the whole team seems perfectly willing to block shots coming off of sticks. But where their defensive fortitude has been impressive, their ability to handle the fundamental task of clearing the zone has cost them dozens of points against all year. To some extent I chalk this up to a coaching thing: I think someone has told the forwards to spend too much time swinging sticks into lanes and not enough time telling them to get bodies on dudes. It doesn’t matter how diligently you work to cover passing lanes, if you let the point man stand around up there for thirty seconds without challenging him, eventually he will find a play to make and then you have to start all over again.

I’ve said it about a hundred times but the Sharks have always, always been 200 times better when they play physically than when they try to be cute. I mean, the team was specifically built to be imposing since so many of their players are these massive, yet quick guys but they stand there in the defensive zone and wait for the other team to make a mistake? I don’t get it. When the Sharks have their forecheck down they seem to spend hours in the offensive end because they muscle guys off the puck in the corners and keep it deep where they can use their size to protect until something develops. It stands to reason that if it works on one end of the ice, it ought to at least help on the other end.

Speaking of coaching, another thing that has started driving me nuts is Wilson’s obsession with line juggling. Have the Sharks ever had consistent line combinations this year? It’s not like they’ve been wracked by IR-level injuries this year that have forced the changes, but I guess Wilson doesn’t believe in line chemistry because he never bothers to let it develop. Listen, Ron, it ain’t that tough: Guerin, Thornton, Cheechoo; Michalek, Marleau, Clowe; Bernier, Rissmiller, Grier. See how easy that was?

Going back to some of the changes this year, I think we can all safely say that Mark Bell has been a total bust. Even if you’re content to ignore the DUI hit and run (which I’m not), the previous two years had Bell scoring 20+ goals and 40+ points; this year he has eight goals and fifteen points so far and isn’t likely to go on a big run here to close out the season. He’s never been too hot on the plus/minus side of things (suggesting he’s something of a defensive liability which the Sharks don’t need considering the relative experience level of their defense) but his -11 is the worst on the entire team. Why he made it past the trade deadline I’m not sure but I think I’ll be unhappy if he’s still around next season.

When it comes to the goaltenders, the Sharks’ inconsistencies take a turn for the bizarre. On one hand you have Toskala who, before getting hurt was far and away the better netminder with a 24-9 record. At the same time you have Nabby barely putting a .500 season together and yet he hasn’t been that bad, really. For one thing he has had remarkably limp goal support, and if you ignore the last four games he’s had he was 14-16-1 with four shutouts. In fact, of his sixteen losses this year, nine of them have been by either one goal or one goal against (with another goal into an empty net) which means if the rest of the team had done their jobs even just a little bit, Nabby’s record could easily be 18-12-1 or 19-11-1. Heck, the Sharks lost two games 1-0 with Nabby in the net. There is absolutely no excuse for having your goalie keep the opponent to a single goal and not being able to pick up at least a tie.

Granted, Nabokov has also been responsible for a couple of real stinkers, including the 8-0 loss to Phoenix and the 7-4 loss to Calgary but I wonder if Wilson’s strict every-other-game policy had something to do with it. Look at the last week: Nabby is finally healthy and getting regular starts so what does he do? He goes 3-0-1 with three shutouts and gives up only one goal in twelve regulation periods for a .981 save percentage overall. It’s not a simple situation though because Toskala has been sharp all year. Maybe Vesa works better within the switch-off system than Nabokov does or something, but it also can’t hurt that the Sharks’ offense has given him a little more than four goals per game on average to work with while Nabby gets nearly half that. If the team just flat plays better in front of Toskala, it bears investigation as to why that might be.

In the end the Sharks will likely make the playoffs but their position in the post-season isn’t likely to change very much. Unless they get red hot in a big way and Anaheim falls apart as the season winds down, those ten points with only a single game in hand are going to be tough to make up. The only other team they might look to unseat to get a better playoff berth is Detroit, but the margin to overcome is identical there and the Sharks do not have a game in hand over the Red Wings. Plus, both Detroit and Anaheim are tied for the fewest regulation losses in the entire league so it is likely the Sharks will fall somewhere in the middle of the pack and could face a number of teams including Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas, Vancouver or even Anaheim in the first round.

If nothing else, it ought to be interesting.