The San Jose Sharks have always been talented over the last decade, making the playoffs in 10 of the past 11 seasons including five straight. However, there has always been a clear system to beat them in the postseason.
When Joe Thornton arrived in 2005, the game-plan for San Jose's opponents was pretty darn simple. Stop Thornton, and the Sharks will be shut-down. After losing four straight games to the Oilers in the 05-06 playoffs the Sharks knew a change would be needed.
The following season the Sharks added veteran power forward Bill Guerin at the trade-deadline. And before getting hurt in game four of the semi-finals against the Wings, Guerin had helped the Sharks to a 2-1 series lead that was almost 3-1 until Detroit managed to pull out a shocking victory to tie up the series. Due to his injury Guerin missed games five and six, which ended up as the worst two games San Jose played all playoffs.
In 2007-2008 Guerin ran for the money which resided in New York with the bottom feeding New York Islanders. The Sharks were now back to square one, trying to add one more supreme talent to help Thornton get the Sharks over the playoff hump.
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Andy Bensch
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