San Jose Sharks: Season ends in disappointment, but the better team won

The San Jose Sharks have once again ended their season with disappointment, but at the end of the day, the team that deserved to win came out on top.

For the past 26 seasons, the San Jose Sharks have ended their season with disappointment — either a postseason defeat where opportunity slipped through their grasps or an insignificant season ended without a postseason appearance.

For the Sharks, it’s been more of the latter over their franchise history.

Over the past 21 seasons, Team Teal had made the playoffs 19 of 21 times but only once had they ever reached the Stanley Cup Final. And never once have they ever ended their season with a postseason victory.

But they hoped that things would be different in 2019.

After making some major acquisitions in the form of star defenseman Erik Karlsson and versatile forward Gustav Nyquist, the Sharks made it clear that they were going all in this year. This was the year that things would be different. This was supposed to be their year.

Unfortunately, there was no fairy-tale ending to behold. The Sharks had triumphed in unlikely fashion in each of their previous two playoff series’ but their luck had finally run out. San Jose fell to the St. Louis Blues in six games in the Western Conference Finals and now the Sharks are left with disappointment again.

For the 27th consecutive season, they have failed to finish the job. They have failed to right their wrongs. And they have failed to accomplish the one goal of every NHL team.

Their season has ended in another disappointment.

It’s easy to blame this defeat on external forces such as untimely injuries and questionable officiating, but the fact of the matter is that the better team ultimately won. The Blues outplayed the Sharks — both on Tuesday night and for the majority of the series.

Jordan Binnington was absolutely spectacular in net for St. Louis posting a stellar .933 save percentage over the series’ final five games, including a 25-save outing on Tuesday night. Martin Jones wasn’t the disaster he was at points in the Vegas series, but he just wasn’t good enough to get the job done.

A Sharks offense that looked so promising through the first three games saw their scoring all but dry up over the final three games of the series. San Jose scored just two goals over that three-game period while their opposition scored a whopping 10.

You’re just not going to win games like that.

Sure you could point to the fact that the team was without three of their top offensive playmakers in Karlsson, Tomas Hertl, and Joe Pavelski — but that was just in Game 6. What about in Games 4 and 5 where they scored a combined total of one goal?

The duo of Logan Couture and Timo Meier who had been so good this postseason accounted for 11 points during those first three games and then they simply stopped contributing offensively. They had their chances but came up empty with a big fat zero on the stat sheet for the remainder of the series.

In essence, their scorers stopped scoring and their playmakers stopped making plays.

St. Louis, on the other hand, played the brand of hockey that had gotten them to this point. They were aggressive with their forecheck, controlled the puck, and made use of all four of their lines to keep the Sharks on their heels all series long.

The Blues played as a team and didn’t rely on their top scorers to be the only contributors, a trap the Sharks, unfortunately, fell into. The Blues fourth-line trio of Oskar Sundqvist, Ivan Barbashev, and Alex Steen led the team’s nasty forecheck and contributed a total of eight points throughout the series.

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Meanwhile, the Sharks power play struggled mightily as it had for most of the postseason. After Game 1 of the series, San Jose’s power play was just 1-of-9 as the Sharks just couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities.

The Blues were faster, more physical, and more aggressive and it ultimately showed. The better team won, as much as that might hurt to accept.

So where does the team go from here?

The Sharks have a few major, high-profile players set to hit the open market and they will be forced to make decisions on them very soon. Has Joe Thornton played his final game with the Sharks? How about Joe Pavelski? Or what about Erik Karlsson?

Those questions should be met with uncertainty at this point, but what is certain is the feeling that we are left with now.

And that is the overarching sentiment of despair. A feeling of disappointment — one that’s been associated with the Sharks franchise for far too long. There should be no embarrassment — the Sharks had a great season but the Blues were the better, more consistent team.

But none of that eases the pain of yet another season culminating in disappointment.