It has become an annual event on the calendar: Winter turns to spring, and the San Jose Sharks sink slowly to the bottom of the playoff ocean, never to be seen when the Stanley Cup is awarded in June.
San Jose has found many ways to lose games and series it should have won in recent playoffs, but none compares to Sunday night's backbreaking, 1-0 overtime loss at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche.
San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle scored the only goal of the game when he accidentally backhanded the puck into his own net just 51 seconds into overtime. Rookie Ryan O'Reilly was given credit for the goal. If ever an overtime loss felt like sudden death, this was it.
The Sharks did everything but score in this contest, dominating all facets of play. They outshot the Avalanche 51-17 in the game, including 21-3 in the second period and 21-4 in the third period. In total, the Sharks took an incredible 93 shots at the Colorado goal (22 shots were blocked and 20 went wide of the net) in nearly 61 minutes of play. But they could not solve Avs goalie Craig Anderson, who was named the game's first star and earned his first career playoff shutout.
The players in the San Jose locker room were stunned.
"It's pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a player, putting it in your own net but," a solemn Boyle said after the game. "I was trying to go hard around. I don't know if it hit a stick or what."
"I was watching the puck and seeing how he hits the puck, it's supposed to go around, my eyes go around and all of a sudden it hits the shaft and goes in," said Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov. "I don't even know where it went in, to be honest with you. I know it went somewhere between the pads and the post, so short side, but what can you do?"
This is not the first time players have hurt their teams by putting the puck in their own net in the playoffs.
In Game 7 of the 1986 Division Final series between bitter rivals Edmonton and Calgary, Oilers defenseman Steve Smith accidentally shot the puck into his own net by banking it off Edmonton goalie Grant Fuhr. Smith was trying to clear the puck out from behind his own net with the game tied 2-2. Smith's gaffe proved to be the game-winner as the Flames won the game, 3-2, and the series, 4-3, ending Edmonton's two-year run of championships.
The Montreal Canadiens, led by rookie goalie Patrick Roy, won the Cup that year. The Oilers, led by Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri, captured the next two Stanley Cup titles, giving them four in five seasons. It is more than possible that Smith's mistake cost the Oilers a chance at winning five straight Stanley Cups.
In 2008, Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury knocked the puck into his own net after making a save on Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It turned out to be the game-winning and Cup-clinching goal, as Detroit won the game, 3-2, and the series, 4-2.
Both of these examples can provide hope for the Sharks. Smith went on to play more than 800 NHL games and won three Stanley Cups with the Oilers. Fleury rebounded the next season to lead the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they faced and defeated the Red Wings in seven games. This time, Fleury made two big saves in the final seconds of the deciding game to preserve the victory for Pittsburgh.
But the Sharks have yet to prove they have the resilience that Smith and Fleury showed. In fact, San Jose has been considered a Stanley Cup favorite each year since the lockout but it has yet to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs.
The Sharks' post-lockout playoff history has been one of underachievement and frustration:
Even before this year's playoffs started, experts were questioning the Sharks' ability to come through when it really counted.
Hockey analyst Mike Milbury told a conference call of NHL reporters before the postseason: "The character question is on the line yet again in San Jose. I think that Thornton and Marlea and, Heatley and Nabokov all understand that they need to find a way to dial it up at a time when all the eyes are on them. And they've been close in the past. They've got a pretty good team there. Obviously, they've kind of run through the regular season. But the questions will be answered now. And if they're not answered in a positive fashion, I can't in any way fathom that this team wouldn't be severely altered."
Sharks coach Todd McLellan laid it on the line after Sunday's loss when he said, "It is what it is. We didn't beat their goalie; we found a way to beat ours. We've been beat by some bad bounces in the series but I expect our will and our character to come through to overcome it."
Do the Sharks have enough will and character to overcome yet another playoff stumble? They will find out quickly.
If the answer is yes, the Sharks come back and win this series before going on a long playoff run. If the answer is no, we will see a different roster in San Jose come October and the Sharks of the late 2000s will go down in NHL history as just another tease.
