Todd McLellan is a happy guy these days. For the first time since he began coaching the Sharks in 2008, his team is more or less officially expected to lose a playoff series. They will be the lower-seeded team Sunday in Canada when they face off against the Vancouver Canucks, who had the best record in the NHL this season.How big an underdog would he like the Sharks to be?
"I don't know," McLellan responded. "How big are underdogs?"
I guess the next part will be easy, then. I'm picking the Canucks to win in six games.
It's not at McLellan's request. It's because the Canucks have shown over the past month that they can back up their excellent regular-season record. They have a terrific core of defensemen who will give the Sharks fits, a pair of icy-eyed skilled Swedish twin forwards and a gritty American centerman at the top of his game.
Not that Vancouver will roll. The Canucks and the Sharks are the two best teams left in the playoffs. This series is the de facto Stanley Cup finals. And I expect the Sharks to come up just a little short, especially after draining themselves in Thursday's epic Game 7 against Detroit while Vancouver has been resting since Monday.
McLellan, of course, knows exactly what he is doing by casting his Shark men as scrappy, plucky guys whom nobody expects to win. He has never been able to play that psychological card. Ever since the NHL lockout ended, the Sharks have flown the flag as a perpetually underachieving team.
As McLellan noted: "We have this anchor that everybody throws at us, fairly or unfairly."
It's a little of both. The Sharks are the only team in this year's conference finals who were also there last year, which means something. Also, since 2004, just three NHL teams -- the Sharks, Red Wings and Flyers -- have been able to reach the conference finals three times. By comparison, Vancouver hasn't been there even once since 1994. So it's totally wrong to label the Sharks as miserable flops worthy of scorn.
At the same time "... well, any follower of our beloved Los Tiburones can finish the next sentence. For all of their impressive regular-season victories and their better-than-reputed playoff success, the Sharks have yet to reach the Stanley Cup finals. Let alone win the big, silver beer mug. And until they do, they will always have that sentence to finish.
Vancouver, incidentally, is in much the same situation -- although the franchise does have two appearances in the finals. As the only western Canadian team never to win a Cup, though, the Canucks will be feeling the heat from all over British Columbia. Which is why McLellan believes that "maybe we'll play more free" with the Sharks players no longer being reminded every day that they need to validate their promise.
The Sharks have shown the hockey world much fine stuff over the past month. Coming back from a four-goal deficit to win Game 3 in Los Angeles. Grinding out those four one-goal victories over Detroit, including the stomach-acid special Thursday. And you get the sense that, unlike some Sharks teams in the past who seemed to expect that their talent entitled them to win a playoff series, this one understands that it takes sustained effort to get the job done.
Joe Thornton has led the parade in that department, by the way. I stick to the statement that was written here last autumn when there was speculation after Rob Blake's retirement about who should take over the team's captaincy: To me, there is no way the Sharks will win the Stanley Cup unless Thornton is the captain.
So far, he has proved me right. Thornton has led on and off the ice, from his defensive commitment to the calm words in the dressing room before every overtime. He would never concede this, but at age 31 as a husband and new father, Thornton also is realizing that there are only so many kicks at the can left. There is no guarantee the Sharks will ever get a chance again.
His teammates realize it, too. After the Detroit clincher, someone asked Joe Pavelski if he felt a sense of relief.
"There's no relief," Pavelski said. "We've been here before. There's a higher job ahead."
The job is going to be a bear. The Sharks had only one win in four meetings with Vancouver in the regular season, and that was in a shootout. Those two Swedish twins, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, will be making life rugged for the Sharks' defensemen. Daniel is the twin most likely to win the Most Valuable Player award this season. He led the league this season in scoring the first goal of games -- with 12 -- and was a clutch performer.
Meanwhile, Vancouver's leading playoff scorer is Ryan Kesler, who joined Pavelski as the prime heart-and-soul players on the USA Olympic team in 2010. Kesler will plant himself in front of the goal and dare anyone to move him out. Let's just say Sharks goalie Antti Niemi will be growing very acquainted with Kesler's back
The Sharks have a chance to counteract all this if Thornton can get Patrick Marleau to keep raising his game and if Devin Setoguchi keeps firing accurately at the net. But they will need secondary scoring, too, plus more spectacular work from Niemi.
It should be a fun and riveting series. But the underdog won't win this time. Hope that cheery forecast makes McLellan smile.
