The San Jose Sharks failed to get themselves into the playoffs a few nights ago on their own, but thanks to a Colorado Avalanche win over the Minnesota Wild - they are in.

For the fourth straight season, Peter DeBoer and the Sharks are postseason bound. San Jose joins the Pacific Division leading, Calgary Flames, as the only other team in the Western Conference to lock-down a playoff birth.

The Sharks are having a really good season, but they've hit a rough patch since briefly snatching first place away from the Flames. San Jose's allowed 15 goals in its last three games - all loses. They're still without the services of Erik Karlsson and they are working through the Evander Kane tragedy. Yes. it's been a rough patch for the team. For the goalies it's been a rough season - period.

The Sharks are coming off a very lopsided home loss to the Vegas Golden Knights - who are hitting their stride since the acquisition of Mark Stone. Vegas is 9-1 in its last 10 games. This season, Vegas is 2-1 vs. San Jose, outscoring the Sharks 15-6 in the three games.

I forgot to mention - Vegas and San Jose are on a collision-course for an epic first-round match-up.

I'm not trying to pour salt on all these seeping wounds, but Vegas is the same team that ended the Sharks season last spring and they still have San Jose's number. Big time.

Arguably, the Sharks are better suited to beat Vegas this season, but the goaltending is a very real concern. It's the biggest obstacle in San Jose's way back to a Cup Final and the one issue that would leave them as the underdog vs. Vegas - even with home-ice advantage.

Aaron Dell (.890) and Martin Jones (.898) possess a sub-.900 save percentage. They rank among the worst goalies in the NHL in that category. The goals against? Right around 3.00 - for both. Not worthy of any kind of playoff success. The issues were easy to brush off in the first half of the season. Not any more. It's time to be concerned.

Change my mind.

Thanks for reading,
Steve

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