Opening the season Thursday night at the newly named SAP Center in San Jose, the Sharks face the Vancouver Canucks.
If the definition of insanity is described as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result - the San Jose Sharks are insanely optimistic.
Back, in the last year of contracts are 34-year old Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton and the eldest Shark, 37-year old Dan Boyle. In goal is 30-year old Antti Niemi, still in the prime of his NHL career.
Logan Couture, 24, is considered one of the youngest rising stars in the NHL , has scored 30+ goals in 2 of the past 3 years.
19-year old Czech, Tomas Hertl is playing in his first NHL season as is 20-year old Matthew Nieto who played his college hockey at Boston University and the AHL
Drafted in 2011, Nieto is the first-ever Californian picked by the San Jose Sharks and will be the first Shark to wear No. 83.
Forwards Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, Adam Burish and Martin Havlet all look to improve on a second-round exit from the strike-shortened season of 2012.
Scott Hannan, Jason Demers, Justin Braun, Matt Irwin, Brad Stuart and Marc-Edouard Vlasic will protect the goal mouth in front of Antti Niemi who started all but five games last year for the Sharks.
For the past 8 years, the San Jose Sharks have made the Stanley Cup playoffs only to be ousted in either the first or second round with the exception of 2010 and 2011, when they made it to the Western Conference finals where they fizzled out, owning an overall record of 1-8.
The opener for the Sharks begins a season that, come season’s end, will finally bring the Stanley Cup to northern California. Comparatively, with everything else going on in the country, that's something that doesn’t sound too insane.
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