Loading ...It's very clear no one wants the NHL's regular season to be shortened and at definitely not have a full season struck from the records. A shortened season may have it's benefits, specifically to a team like San Jose.
A lot of the Sharks' success will hinder on Martin Havlat's health. He's proven that he can't stay healthy for a full season over his entire career but that when he's in the lineup he's a valuable asset that makes the Sharks a much better team.
A shortened season means there's less odds of Havlat injuring himself or having any other superstar miss a majority of the season.
The Sharks roster as a whole maybe could benefit from fresher legs.
They've made the playoffs eight years in a row and have advanced past the first round in all but two of those seasons. They made the Western Conference Finals two out of the last three years and most of their star players are no longer spring chickens.
Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle are still stars in the league that produce at an above-average level but they are getting older and coming out of the primes of their careers.
San Jose has always started strong in the regular season only to falter in the middle and have to turn it on in the last third of the season. In this situation, perhaps that lull in the middle of the season doesn't happen because the games will be pretty crucial right from the start.
Antti Niemi notoriously does better when he gets long stretches of games he's able to play in consecutively. In a shortened season, there isn't as much risk to throwing Niemi out for 15 to 20 games in a row because there's no chance he ends up playing 60-plus games total by the end of the year.
These situations are similar with every team around the league but the Sharks may get a little more out of a possibly shortened season, which is looking more and more likely to be the situation with every passing day.
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