My medicinally-slowed brain forgot the other reason I fired up the ol’ WP Editor: The Sharks.

So we now know that the Sharks are the top seed still standing in the West. You will note that this is the first time such a thing has transpired since the current playoff system was established where the four bottom seeds all upset the top. So the Sharks play Edmonton and the Ducks play Colorado. Edmonton isn’t a bad team by any stretch but they didn’t look too good against the Sharks a couple of months ago (which is the only thing from the regular season I tend to take into account since the Oilers beat San Jose their other three meetings, those were early in the year and two were in shootouts which are a non-factor in playoff games). I will be heavily disappointed if the Sharks don’t take care of business in five games or less.

Colorado/Anaheim? I have no idea. Anaheim beat a very sound Calgary team and they even made the Flames look pretty silly for a big chunk of last night’s game (the Flames went for like 13 minutes without a shot on goal… in their own building) so they have good momentum. But Colorado beat a pretty solid Dallas team quickly and have had a lot of rest (the Ducks get one whole day). I wouldn’t be surprised if it was another seven game series and I wouldn’t mind at all if the Ducks came out on top which would bring a weary Anaheim team into San Jose for an all-California Western Conference finals.

Out East the opposite came to pass where the top four seeds did as expected and since I don’t follow Eastern teams that much you can apply liberal sodium to my predictions but don’t be surprised to see the Senators continue their playoff choking ways and bow out to the Sabres and I fully expect the Devils to make short work of Carolina. San Jose/Buffalo for the Cup? Yes, please.

Also the finalists for the NHL hardware were announced today. The Sharks have a few possibilities: Thornton for the Hart (MVP) and Pearson (Peer-voted Best Player) trophies and Marleau for the Lady Byng (Best Sportsmanship). Considering how rare it has been for San Jose players to even be considered for prestigious awards like this in the past, I think it’s pretty cool regardless of the outcome.

Still, I think the Thornton/Jagr race for the Hart trophy is an exact 50-50 toss up. I might have been able to make a case for Thornton over Jagr until New York’s meltdown in the postseason once Jagr got hurt and proved once and for all what he meant to that team. The Pearson will probably go to whomever doesn’t get the Hart so call those a wash. As for the Lady Byng, Marleau had 86 points and 26 penalty minutes while Datsyuk from Detroit had 87 points to 22 minutes in the box. Brad Richards from Tampa Bay had 91 points to 32 PIMs. I don’t know how the winner of the Byng is determined but mathematically speaking Datsuyk ought to win with a slightly better points to PIMs ratio than Patty.

Back to the playoffs, the best article I’ve read about the upcoming Oliers/Sharks series is the one on NHL.com, but the thing I think they missed is that San Jose will take Edmonton down provided Toskala is better than Manny Legace was for Detroit. The Sharks will score on Roloson, and Edmonton doesn’t have very many terrifying offensive weapons. They try to make up for this with a balanced, consistent attack across all their lines but as long as the young Sharks blueliners don’t make idiot mistakes and Vesa stays sharp, it should be too much for the eight seed to handle.