Determining where to place the San Jose Sharks in an NHL power ranking piece has been a nightmare for most this year. It's almost as if there's two separate teams, the one that plays and puts five on good teams in succession and the one that gets shutout twice in a row.
The team with Antti Niemi, and then the team with Antero Niittymaki. The team where Joe Pavelski is the phenom that San Jose expects him to be, and the team where Pavs isn't even in sight. This is the team that lost Joe Thornton to a two-game suspension in the second shutout in as many games, then went ahead without their leading goal-scorer and points leader by dropping five in their next outing without him.
This is a team that has the talent to be the best in the league, but that's where power rankings muck about in the grey area of predictions ... it's hard to put a team like the Sharks near the bottom when they're ... you know, the Sharks. Either way, you can look for them to shoot up this week.
They've won their last two, and will soon face a tough Kings team. A shootout win against the Islanders righted the loss to the Ducks to begin the five-game homestand, and then a thorough victory over the Flames to avenge an earlier defeat look to help the Sharks climb a bit from previous spots. The loss to Anaheim was a rather close affair that will likely also factor into them holding or climbing.
They're as high as thirteen on some rankings, and as low as seventeen on others. We'll take a look at some future rankings as they're released, but you can look for them to move up from seventeen and perhaps hold around thirteen. They have an opportunity to perhaps shoot themselves a few places and get into the top ten on some lists if they best the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.