Robertus Reviews: The San Jose Sharks

The city of San Jose sits on the golden California shore, south of San Francisco, 2,853 miles from the burgundy couch in Laurel, whereupon Robertus sits, trying to drum up a few dozen words about a Sharks team that looks basically as they did skating off the ice on May 19^th, 2004, as the Calgary Flames celebrated on Shark Tank ice. Not that the San Jose Sharks needed a large roster turnover (a la Pittsburgh) to make an impact in the new NHL landscape. When last the sun shone on the Pacific Division, the Sharks were crowned her champions.

To grasp the key to their success, we must look back eleven years, to the Spring of 1994. The New York Rangers were celebrating their Stanley Cup, young Robertus was strutting around his high school, the San Jose Sharks held the eleventh pick in the entry draft. They selected Jeff Friesen. And then they selected Angel Nikolov. And then they selected Alexei Yegorov. And Vaclav Varada. And Brian Swanson. And Alexander Korolyuk. And Sergei "Ixnay with the ikhailMay" Gorbachev. And Eric Landry. And Evgeni Nabokov. And Tomas Pisa. And, with their last pick that season, David Beauregard. It would be easy to make fun of the Sharks for selecting "Brian Swanson" in front of the 2000 Calder Trophy winner and their franchise cornerstone. Until I realized that 218 players were selected in front of the career .915 goaltender. Some of those 219 went on to become solid NHL players (Radek Bonk jumps off the list). Others went on to become Jason Bonsignore. And this is why we watch.

The Sharks future may not be decided by the moves they made or did not make, but the moves of their opponents. Although face a few question marks on D (withthe offseason loss of Mark Rathje and the addition of question marks), Kyle McLaren and Brad Stuart are a formidable pair at the top of a young and smallish defensive corps. They return assist leader Nils Ekman, goals leader Patrick "The Island of Dr." Marleau, and 40-point man Marco Sturm, and their other forwards are young, quick, or Scott Thorton. Famed Russian-American author and goaltender Nabokov is one of the five best at his position. Although the Sharks are not the best team in the Western Conference, but they are perhaps the best team in the Pacific division, and San Jose sportswriters will get to type "Johnathan Cheechoo (Moose Factory, Ontario)" well into the Spring of 2006.

Post Scriptum: Sports purists have made some noise in the last few years that, because World Series games are starting later in the evening on school nights, fewer children are being exposed to the game of baseball. I'd like to take a moment to make some noise that, because the San Jose Sharks play the bulk of their games at 10 PM Eastern time on work nights, fewer old sports bloggers on burgundy couches are being exposed to Sharks hockey.

Coming Soon! The All Canada Edition of Robertus Reviews, plus Robertus Retires!