S.J. again can’t make last leap to win Cup
The question was raised on “Hockey Central” on Wednesday: Are the Sharks the best team of the past 10 years to not win the Stanley Cup?
The Toronto-based simulcast touched off a conversation that can be debated, but the numbers suggest yes, San Jose has been the most consistent winner year after year only to disappoint in the end.
That franchise-long trend continued Tuesday when the St. Louis Blues snuffed the last bit of postseason life out of the Sharks, a team that has played in the Stanley Cup Finals once — and lost — despite reaching the playoffs in 14 of the past 15 seasons.
“It’s a harsh league, and it’s a hard trophy to win,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said after his team’s 5-1 loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
He’ll talk again Thursday when the Sharks hold their annual locker clean-out day, and with another 24 hours to put the frustration into perspective, maybe there will be answers.
This, however, is what’s fact: The Sharks have won more games and compiled more regular-season points than anyone in the league since Doug Wilson became general manager in May 2003. That’s 681 wins in 15 seasons. Subtract 25 won during a 48-game, lockout-shortened season in 201213, and San Jose has averaged 47 wins per season.
With triple-digit point totals representing the benchmark for excellence in an NHL season, the Sharks have averaged 103 points in the past 14 seasons. The team has improved its total in each of its four seasons under DeBoer, going from 98 to 99 to 100 to 101.
The Penguins are the nextbest team in terms of wins since 2003 — and they are 31 shy of San Jose’s total. Pittsburgh has won three of the franchise’s five Cups since 2003. The Red Wings have the second-best point total — 55 fewer — to San Jose since ’03. An Original Six team, Detroit won its 11th Cup in 2008.
Since debuting as an expansion franchise in the 1991-92 season, the Sharks are still looking for that elusive first Cup. They’ve reached the postseason 21 times overall and in all but two years since 1997.
“To get this far, there a lot of things that have to go right. We battled together and came up short,” Sharks defenseman Brent Burns said. “It’s crushing because you come this far and don’t get the job done. It’s not from a lack of effort.
“We took the hard road a lot. That’s the fun thing about the journey, but it’s tough. Tough to not get it done.”
How hard is it to win a Cup? The team that manhandled San Jose from the start of the thirdround series reached the Finals for the first time in 49 years.
When the banged-up and beleaguered Sharks shook hands with the Blues on Tuesday, it marked the fourth time in five conference finals San Jose has gone home one round short of playing for Lord Stanley’s hardware.
“They all hurt,” Sharks forward Logan Couture said. “You get in the playoffs and you believe you can win. There are 16 really, really good teams. Then it goes to eight, then four, and it really becomes a reality. You’re really thinking about it. Yeah, it really hurts.”
It has to hurt especially for Joe Thornton, the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer who was two wins shy of facing East champion Boston, the team that drafted him first overall in 1997 and traded him to San Jose in 2005.
Coming off consecutive summers rehabbing surgeries on each knee, yet still productive in a new role as a third-line center with 16 goals and 51 points in 71 games, Thornton’s future is uncertain because of his expiring contract and whether he even wants to play a 22nd NHL season.
“He’s the face and the heartbeat of the organization,” DeBoer said. “Like all the players in that room, as coaches, we’re disappointed we’re not helping him get there. Because he gives you everything he’s got and should be there.
“He belongs playing for a Stanley Cup, and that’s the disappointing part.”