San Jose Sharks Took Their Playoff Disappearing Act into Summer

For the record, I picked the Sharks to win the Cup last season. I like the Sharks. I thought the Blake and Boyle signings were genius as they brought some talent AND championship experience to a Sharks roster severely lacking in the latter. I thought hiring Todd MacLellan (previously an assistant coach in Detroit) was another brilliant move. Who better to coach your team than the guy who just won a championship with the team you'd likely have to beat to win yours? Most of all, the Sharks had spun their season into the ground when it mattered most the past two seasons. That tendency, surely, was behind them. But, as has become an annual tradition, the Sharks found a way to drown in the 2009 playoffs, being eliminated in the first round by Anaheim in six games. Then it began, again. The incessant "trade Marleau" talk, the "Thornton has no heart" cry, a common phrase most Sharks fans were aching to retire. The team as a whole went into another early offseason, d...