Hockey Betting – Sharks Fall Short Again and they Lose . The San Jose Sharks are becoming perennial bridesmaids in hockey betting. The Sharks failed again in the Western Conference finals this year, losing to the Vancouver Canucks in five games. It is the second straight year the Sharks have reached the Western Conference finals only to lose in NHL hockey betting.
Plenty of Blame to Go Around
The Sharks definitely have the talent to make the Stanley Cup finals and win vs. the odds at Sbgglobal but far too often that talent doesn’t show up in the playoffs. In previous years it was Joe Thornton getting the blame but in this year’s playoffs Thornton was excellent and finally started to shed the label of playoff choker. Unfortunately for the Sharks some other players still have that label. The Sharks are paying Dany Heatley more than $7 million per season and he has been a major bust. He has just five career goals in 31 playoffs games. Devin Setoguchi has seven goals in the playoffs but he was very inconsistent. Joe Pavelski was great last year but he was one of the worst players on the ice in this year’s playoffs. Some of San Jose’s players showed up in a big way in this year’s NHL hockey betting including Thornton, who played Game 5 with a separated shoulder and Ryan Clowe who played the entire playoffs with a shoulder injury.
Coaching
Head coach Todd McLellan did a nice job in the regular season but he has n not been able to get his team over the hump in the playoffs. And it was obvious against Vancouver that he was outcoached by Alain Vigneault. McLellan did not have a strategy to counter the Sedin twins when anyone that watches the Canucks knows that the way to beat the Sedins in the playoffs is to hit them. The Sharks tried to play a speed game instead of a physical game against Vancouver and it failed. San Jose has now lost eight of nine games in the Western Conference finals the past two years in hockey betting and McLellan has to take some of the heat. General manager Doug Wilson is also to blame. The Sharks are very thin in defense and they have very few players who will do the dirty work that is needed in the playoffs. A good GM has those types of players on the team.