The San Jose Sharks have found themselves on the outside of the NHL's playoff structure looking in since the 2018-19 season. The team that once had control of the Western Conference when Joe Thornton was the game's premier playmaker, has struggled badly for six consecutive seasons.
However, there are changes in San Jose that have allowed this team to climb significantly in the NHL. The biggest change is the addition and remarkable growth of young star Macklin Celebrini. He has become of the game's elite players in his second year and the Sharks have grown considerably.
As the Sharks prepared for their Saturday night home game against the Nashville Predators, they had moved into the No. 2 Wild Card spot with 79 points. That's the same number as the Predators and Los Angeles Kings, but both the Preds and the Kings have played 75 games while the Sharks have played 74 games. Under the NHL's standards for playoff standings, the team that has played the fewest number of games will have the advantage in the standings.
However, once the regular season is complete and all teams have played 82 games, the first tiebreaker is regulation wins. At this point, the Predators have 25 regulation wins, one more than the Sharks and six more than the Kings. That makes the Saturday night game in the Shark Tank incredibly important to both teams.
Sharks have become dangerous offensive team, but facing the Avalanche is a brutal matchup
The Sharks have been able to grow significantly this season because of their ability to play in the offensive zone. Celebrini has been mentioned as a potential Hart Trophy candidate (Most Valuable Player) because of his growth this season. Celebrini is an exceptionally quick skater and he has excellent instincts when it comes to following the puck and making the quick recovery.
He has scored 40 goals and added 65 assists, and he is fourth in the league in scoring behind superstars Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon. He has the ability to get free in the scoring zone and get his shot off quickly. He has taken 260 shots on goals and connected on 15.4 percent of his shots. He has scored seven power play goals and four game winners.
Celebrini is the key to the attack but he is not a one-man team. Will Smith has had an excellent year with 22 goals and 32 assists for 54 points. He is the team's second-leading scorer, and Alex Wennberg is right behind with 17 goals and 34 assists for 51 points.
Veteran Tyler Toffoli is a proven scorer who has netted 18 goals this season. However, goaltending is likely to be an issue for the Sharks. Goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Yaroslav Askarov are going to have to compete against the best offensive team in the league in the Colorado Avalanche.
This is a huge mountain for the Sharks to climb and their offense will have to be at its best against the most explosive team in the league.
Standard for Sharks is not winning the series
While there have been 1-8 upsets int eh Stanley Cup playoffs, those usually involve veteran teams that have been to the playoffs before or at least have a number of veteran players that won't be overwhelmed by the situation. That was the case in 2023 when the eight-seeded Florida Panthers defeated the top-seeded and record-setting Boston Bruins. The Panthers had Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour along with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Sharks don't have that kind of veteran talent, so it's not a matter of finding a way to beat the Avalanche. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky wants his team to grow, and it can do that by winning one or two games in the series. They can become one of the teams to beat in the future, but coming up with a way to get the best of the Avs in a best-of-7 series appears to be out of reach.
Just playing in a series like this will help Celebrini and Smith in the future when they face the most important games or advance to the postseason in 2026-27
Second-round would be brutal against Stars-Wild winner
There is one thing that could take this series away from the Avs — injuries
If Nathan MacKinnon, Marty Necas and Cale Makar suffered key injuries early in the series for the Avs and the Sharks were able to seize momentum against Jared Bednar's wounded team, the Sharks would go from one brutal matchup to another.
The Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild had brilliant regular seasons and tried to chase down the Avs. The Wild slowed down in recent weeks, but they are also an explosive offensive team and could find their stride. The Stars are a more complete team with one of the league's best goaltenders in Jake Oettinger.
The Sharks would need to get nearly every conceivable break in order to have a chance against either team. While the Stars-Wild winner could be thrilled to know that the Avs did not survive and would come into this series overconfident, it's not enough. The focus would be intense knowing that a victory over the Sharks would lead to a spot in the Western Conference Finals.
Playoff matchups against the Avs and then the Stars-Wild winner would be nightmarish for the young Sharks.
