The San Jose Sharks are swimming in  unfamiliar territory this late in the season fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot currently sitting in 9th place with for games remaining. Usually they are jockeying for position with the other two division winners and contemplating which players deserve some extra rest down the stretch. The perennial dominating regular season has made the post season s7 straight years and 11 of the past 12 seasons including four consecutive Pacific Division titles.

Eventhough they still have a great chance to make it with only 1 point separating 7th and 9th and only 2 behind Dallas for the division lead it has caused many people in Sharkland to become extremely nervous and frustrated. In particular the local broadcasters who cover the team, check out the heated debate between Sharks color analyst Drew Remenda and senior insider Ray Ratto following their 2-0 loss to the Coyotes last night:

Gotta got love both Drew and Ray getting completely worked up over how putrid this team is play. Can’t say that I blame them it’s absolutely embarrassing for a team with this much talent to go into the tank like this down the stretch. I refuse to write them off just yet because they are still very live and have a great chance to get into the playoff. If they do they would have to be considered one of the scarier lower seeds because they have underachieved; IE the Flyers Cup run two years ago as the #7 seed clinching a playoff spot by winning a shoot on their last regular season game of the year.

I figured this team was in a lul because they realized whatever their record is it’s irrelevant based on all the past regular season success; knowing the team will be judged on what it does in the playoffs. Given that they’ve made it to back to back Western Conference Finals and lost their can’t be maximum motivation during the regular season since it doesn’t mean anything.

But, we are getting to the point of the year where there is no more time to screw around and it needs to be taken more seriously. Now that the pressure is on this should help make for an already entertaining final week of the regular season because if they miss the playoffs it will produce fascinating offseason drama with team ownership & management.

By Chad Margulius