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Arizona Coyotes 2015 Opponents: San Jose Sharks

By William Grigsby

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The Arizona Coyotes already have some history with the Sharks

They are a team we have a big rivalry with, and that won’t change. 

We take a look at the coming season:

 Today we look at: San Jose Sharks

2014-15 record: 40-33-9, 5th in the Pacific, Didn’t make the playoffs

How the Arizona Coyotes did: 4 games, 1-3-0

Schedule this year against the Arizona Coyotes: Thur 1/21 Home, Sat 2/13 at San Jose, Sun 3/3 at San Jose, Sat 4/9 at San Jose

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Notable additions: RW Joel Ward, G Martin Jones, D Paul Martin

Notable subtractions: G Antti Niemi, D Scott Hannan, D Matt Irwin

Coached by: Peter DeBoer (1st year)

Who’s in Net: 

After trading Antti Niemi to Dallas, the Sharks have a new net-minder. They handed over the reins to Martin Jones, whom they acquired from Boston after they traded Lucic to the L.A. Kings. The Sharks have a talented, young goaltender who will be shouldering the starter load for the first time, between the pipes. While nobody denies his skills, he’s still unproven over the course of an 82-game season and the playoffs.

Quick thoughts about the Sharks:

  • DeBoer led New Jersey to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. That was his first season with the Devils, one year after they finished 11th in the Eastern Conference, and missed the postseason.
  • The Sharks are not used to missing the playoffs, and should be a hungry team with capable veterans this season.  Many of those vets spoke about being embarrassed in missing the playoffs. Then there was the captaincy thing with Thornton… that was a mess.
  • They need to get their home-ice advantage back. San Jose was always a tough place to play. They had the 6th worst home record last season. That improves, or they will be fishing this summer.
  • Finishing 15th in goals-for (2.73) and 24th in goals-against (2.76), won’t get you to the playoffs in the always competitive Western Conference, both have to improve this season.

Why the Sharks will win the Stanley Cup:

They have a ton of talent, but the blend between the veterans and young players needs to have better karma. They just don’t seem to have the chemistry right.  If new coach DeBoer is a Chemist, perhaps they can mix the right chemicals without exploding the lab. I don’t envy DeBoer, his work is cut out for him.

Why the Sharks won’t win the Stanley Cup:

So much about this team feels like it needs a complete over-haul.  There are so many rough edges, and things don’t seem to fit together.  They could get into the playoffs, but don’t have a Stanley Cup feel about them. They may not even make the playoffs again this season.

Three Things We Like About You:

  1. We have a lot of respect for Joe Thornton. He is the type of hockey player who would fit in well with our “pack” mentality, and just comes to work with his lunch pail getting the job done game in and game out. Dave Tippett would probably love to have a player like him on his club. Dylan Strome thinks he can emulate Big Joe, that is yet to be determined.
  2. We like it that you’ve been around since 1991 and still no Cup.  That way it doesn’t make us feel so bad that we don’t have one yet.
  3. That Sharks logo is pretty cool, the arena nickname of ‘shark tank’ is over the top. A lot better than the forerunner in your area, the California Golden Seals Those uniforms were a piece of work.

Three Things We Don’t Like About You:

  1. We gotta say that Brent Burns’ look is something right out of Grizzly Adams. Not sure if it brings fear to his opponents, but he is quite a hockey player.
  2. That Shark Tank goal horn is so annoying. It sounds like a fog horn on steroids.
  3. That Joe Pavelski absolutely owns us. He is a Coyote killer to the extreme. Every time we lose to the Sharks (and that seems to be too often) there was Pavelski somehow either scoring, or involved in the scoring play. He’s a nemesis we can’t shake. Maybe we’ll figure him out this season, or if he were not able to play for some reason, that would be good too.

Prediction:

We think that there are a couple of teams ahead of you in the tough Western Conference that you can possibly slip by and get into the playoffs.  That might be the extent of it, and it is more likely that a first round knockout will be the outcome. As a Shark, that has to bite!

Next: Arizona Coyotes Rookie Training Camp Standout - *POLL*

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