Inside the NHL | Sharks and Bruins prepare for epic battle between league's top two teams

    The San Jose Sharks are coming to town on Tuesday, and many observers are already billing the matchup as a Stanley Cup preview. The Sharks and the Boston Bruins are the two best teams in the NHL, with San Jose tallying 79 points in 50 games and Boston racking up 85 in 54 games, putting them in a virtual dead heat atop the league.
   The Sharks' balanced offense is led by former Bruin Joe Thornton. Known for his ability to distribute the puck, Thornton is third in the league with 45 assists this season and is one of seven Sharks to have tallied more than 10 goals. An efficient power play at 23.2 percent rounds out the offensive package.
    On the other side of the puck, the Sharks have been excellent, allowing just 117 goals throughout the course of the season. No. 1 goaltender Evgeni Nabokov has gotten the majority of the starts, posting a 2.42 goals-against average (GAA) over 39 starts, while Brian Boucher has performed admirably as a backup with a 1.88 GAA and .927 save percentage. The defensive corps is both mobile and very capable of breaking out of its own end with the puck, sending waves of attackers on the offensive. San Jose's top four defensemen each have over 20 points.
    The Sharks are stacked from top to bottom, which could mean a deep run in the playoffs. They play an excellent defensive system under new head coach Todd McClellan, who came over from the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings this season for his first job as an NHL bench boss. He is widely credited for the tight defensive system that led the Wings to their postseason success, and he has established a similar team system in San Jose.
    Yet things seem to be going a little bit wrong. The Sharks have dropped their last three games, including an embarrassing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in which the Blue Jackets stuck it to the Sharks right out of the gate, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes. The recent losing streak is somewhat worrying, though San Jose has just seven regulation losses on the season. The Sharks have struggled lately with giveaways, poor puck control and an inability to finish scoring opportunities. Against the Carolina Hurricanes, they had 17 giveaways, an unacceptably high number for a San Jose team that usually controls the puck very well.
    Even the return of power play quarterback Dan Boyle, expected to provide a significant boost, has proven insufficient. Boyle returned to the lineup for the losses to Columbus and the 'Canes with one assist, a -2 rating and nine shots in 60 shifts. Despite Boyle's presence, the power play went just 2-for-15 against Columbus and Carolina, who are 19th and 22nd in the league on the penalty kill. The Sharks will need more from him and from the power play against the Bruins this week if they hope to beat the league's best team and ultimately be a serious contender for the Stanley Cup.
    The Sharks have a history of playoff success, to a point. Since 1997-98, San Jose has missed the playoffs just once but has won just seven of the 16 series played. The Sharks have made it to the conference championship only once, in 2003-04, when they lost to the Calgary Flames in six games, and they have never played in the Stanley Cup Finals.
    The hiring of McClellan was in part a reaction to the Shark's disturbing tendency to choke in the postseason. Last year, the Ron Wilson-coached Sharks were a trendy pick for at least a conference finals matchup with the Red Wings. They had a difficult time in the first round, beating Calgary in seven games before falling to Dallas in the second round.
    This year's team is very similar in terms of personnel, but Tuesday's matchup with Boston will be a good indication of how San Jose will do down the stretch in the playoffs. If the Sharks can snap their losing streak by beating the Bruins, perhaps they can illustrate to their fans that this season will be different.