I don't start a thread that I expect everybody to agree on, and honestly I'm a little shocked that we have been through this many pages and nobody has ripped the franchise down to the studs. Business wise fine, great, you name it, but as a top team for so long with so many disaster postseasons I don't get why anybody, anybody would call them morally a success.
Cut and dry they are losers in the highest degree that you can achieve in the NHL.
Edit: forgot Edmonton, but at least they have a few championships. But I'd put the Oilers first.
"I don't like that no one has argued so here comes a super inflamatory post to try to rile some people up and get an argument going."
They haven't won a cup. It is what it is. If you follow the team, it's understandable in a lot of ways why they haven't won a cup as frustrating as it is given how close they've come at times. TBH they were unfairly labeled chokers due to the 1 vs 8 vs Anaheim which as a Sharks fan you know is a bit unfair given the numerous injuries they faced down the stretch and the tear the Ducks were on the 2nd half. It was not a true 1 v 8 situation.
Losing to that Chicago team in the Conference finals was fair, that Blackhawks team was f***ing stacked
Losing to Vancouver was such a "Sharks" playoff loss. It was a 4-1 series final but anyone who watched that series know just how close it of a series it was, despite the final outcome, and we got f***ed hard in game 5 with bad calls and some really bad bounces. It is what it is
Losing to a dominant Pens team in the finals sucks too but again, we caught some really shit injuries that was capped off with our best player in Hertl going down and the team fell apart from there.
Winning the cup is arguably the hardest championship of the major 4 sports. You'd think we'd have lucked our way to a win one of these seasons, but the "failure" of the franchise has more to do with the fact they've been in the mix for SO many years. There are a ton of franchises that could be considered failures by that measure given years of post season appearances without a cup (St Louis until this year is a great example). The Sharks stand out simply because they've been in the mix so long, but there are several years where they were a good not great team who just made the playoffs.
The fact they've been relevant this long, with this many legit shots at a cup to me is a success as a franchise. The team constantly finds way to get another shot and at some point the breaks are going to go their way and they will win it all.
The 3-0 collapse vs LA is really the only issue I have with the team over the last 10 years and even that required some shady goals and a major injury to Vlasic. The first round exit to the Blues was not surprising to many who watched the team that season, they weren't that good. The first round exit to the Oilers sucked but again, major injuries played a huge role in that loss and the team would have never made it far anyways. The 2013 series vs the Kings was literally a 1 goal series and came down to a number of bounces.
