Among the features of the 2013-14 NHL schedule is that the San Jose Sharks travel more than any other team, as CSN Bay Area reported on Saturday, July 20. Their total travel miles are 57,612—more than twice the circumference of the earth and almost 5000 more miles more than the next team.
Just what a core of three aging players that will be at least 34 years old by the time the 2013-14 season officially starts October 1. After them, the only players that will even turn 30 before it is over are role-player Adam Burish and Shark-in-name-only Martin Havlat.
That youth will have to not only endure but produce for a team ever-more reliant on its core for production: 19 of 25 playoff goals and 49 of 71 points came from five players, including the three oldest.
Instead of getting a scoring line forward back from injury, they are without him for the third time in three years. They also cannot get out from under his salary cap hit until the season starts, when it will be too late to fill the spot with a free agent capable of handling that role.
But for a couple reserve players, this is the team they are going forth with. We now know what their schedule looks like. The natural step is to predict the results of the season.
Anyone can predict a team's finish—second in the new Pacific Division, fourth-best record in the Western Conference, for the record). However, the slides show seven much more brazen picks.
