If you can find a team right now who is looking hot, who do you turn to? Is it the Detroit Red Wings? The Washington Capitals? The Pittsburgh Penguins?
No, it's the team that has played an up-and-down season so far. The San Jose Sharks.
Their record since January 15 is 7-0-1, probably one of the best marks in the NHL right now. If not, the best mark. Coming off a 2-0 victory in Boston can certainly feel rewarding to this team.
It's going up right now, but will it be enough to keep them at the top? Well, we shall see. Antti Niemi, Joe Pavelski, and Patrick Marleau seem to be playing well right now but let's see what happens on the continuing circuit of their road trip.
The next couple of games are at Washington, at Columbus, at New Jersey, at Florida, and at Nashville. They have a chance to win at least three of those games. They can beat Washington, but I'm not really sure they can after the Caps whitewashed the Pens 3-0 on Sunday. Columbus has beaten them before and could possible beat them again. New Jersey might be a challenge; they haven't won in Prudential Center yet. Florida is a definite win. I'm not so sure about Nashville, but I'm guessing they will win.
So they have a chance to win at least three. And winning three might be enough to help them get to the top of the division and knock off Dallas from the top spot. But the road is tough, and sometimes this team might slip a few games and fall back again.
The road to the playoffs is now for the Sharks. If they want to get in, they'll need to control their destiny and stay on top of their game. If not, then this team is a potential pretender and we might see this team surprisingly miss the playoffs.
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