San Jose Sharks Playoff Preview: Things looking bleak against Golden Knights

The San Jose Sharks are just a few days away from the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the team’s outlook against the Vegas Golden Knights is looking rather bleak.

The San Jose Sharks may sit at a record of 45-27-9 and hold 99 points — good for second-best in the Western Conference — but their recent play wouldn’t lead you to believe this.

Before the team’s victory Thursday night over the lowly Edmonton Oilers, San Jose had lost nine of their last 10 as the team has limped its way into the postseason. While much of that has been because of their lackluster play, it’s impossible to ignore the abundance of injuries that the team has had to overcome.

The Sharks have dealt with injuries to captain Joe Pavelski and star defenseman Erik Karlsson while defenseman Radim Simek remains out with a serious knee injury that could even force him to miss part of next season.

The team was dealt another blow against the Oilers when impressive left wing Timo Meier went down in the middle of the game with a wrist injury. The timetable for his return is currently unknown, but a potentially significant injury could be yet another hit to a Sharks team that was once quite healthy just a couple of months ago.

Now, the team will limp into the playoffs — both figuratively and literally — to take on the gritty (not that Gritty) Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights haven’t exactly been on a tear themselves having lost six of their last seven games including an overtime loss to San Jose on March 30th.

Still, their high-octane offense could match up very well with a Sharks team that has struggled with its share of goaltending issues. Perhaps most egregious has been San Jose’s tendency to give up leads early and trail early in games.

They were able to overcome an early 1-0 deficit to Edmonton to secure a 3-2 victory, but there’s absolutely no guarantee they could do the same against a tough team like Vegas.

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The Golden Knights are a very physical team that thrives on their forecheck. They live in the offensive zone controlling the time of possession with their high-powered offense.

If the Sharks are going to have success against the Golden Knights they’re going to need to play at a much higher level than they have been. That will include playing better defensively and not allowing Vegas to capitalize on opportunities in the offensive zone.

That will also include playing Vegas’ game and controlling the pace of play in the offensive zone. The Golden Knights are relatively thin defensively meaning that that could be a weakness the Sharks could look to capitalize on.

But of course, much of their success starts with getting healthy.

Pavelski is already back in the lineup and Karlsson expects to be as well come the start of the playoffs. If Meier could avoid missing any substantial time with his recent injury, that would also be an added benefit.

Perhaps a healthy Sharks team could turn around the team’s recent struggles. Or perhaps the new-found health won’t be enough to right the ship.

For the sake of Sharks fans, let’s hope it’s more of the former than the latter.