Holy moly, the San Jose Sharks closed out the St. Louis Blues in six games and, in doing so, made franchise history. We also make history in this podcast by addressing our first piece of listener mail right up front. After that, we talk about the fanwagon that’s forming up in San Jose as well as the challenges of jumping into hockey this time of year (seriously, though, all aboard everybody, you’re more than welcome to join us watching the best sport on Earth). We also address how the Sharks beat a Blues team that wasn’t all the media wanted you to think it was and the amazing match-up with the Pittsburgh Crosby’s Penguins that begins tomorrow night. Colin and Ben are even confident enough to make predictions for the series, but Alex wimps out.

We’re four games into the Blues series now and, like the one against Nashville, the results and effort have been at least a bit up and down. Colin had to work, so Alex and Ben talk about not getting excited when the Sharks went up 2-1 in a Western Conference Final for the first time and how you could see Game 4’s letdown coming a mile away. We also talk about what the Sharks need to do to win the ‘best of three’ series beginning tonight in St. Louis. Spoiler: it involves DeBoer continuing to not panic and riding the guys who got him here.

That was one heck of a week the Sharks had, in finishing off the Nashville Predators in seven games. As Ben likes to say, the Sharks became the first team in NHL history to win 4 home games AND a road game in one series. Too bad about them refs, though. With the #perds behind though (we actually don’t really talk about Rinne’s tantrum), the St. Louis Blues are ahead, a tougher test. We look back and forward in this week’s podcast, recorded before the first game of the Western Conference Finals. Spoiler: We all pick the Sharks to win a long series.

When last we left the Sharks, they’d won the first game of the series. In between the last podcast and this one, there were four games played and we (Alex, Ben and Colin) went through the full gamut of Sharks’ fan playoff emotions: hope, dread, sadness, more dread, and then terror. And that was just games 3 and 4. So, it was with great joy that we observed a crucial non-Sharks meltdown in game 5, led by giant skating douchebag Ryan Johansen. We talk about the rollercoaster and the crucial playoff performances of Joonas Donskoi, Logan Couture, Jumbo, Pavs, Martin Jones and, yes, head coach Peter DeBoer (who’s been pulling all the right levers so far, it seems, certainly compared to TMac, at least). Off to Game 6, we all go!

The #Perds have come to town and now we know that they’ve left with zero wins. That said, we recorded the podcast with only a result in hand, so Ben, Colin and Alex talk about Anaheim’s (over)reaction to 4 straight game 7 losses, comparisons to the Sharks collapse in 2014 (and history as ‘chokers’), and then, yeah, we talk about the Friday night’s win. Pekke Rinne had a bad year, but his series so far is only a touch below Martin Jones’.

Oh yeah, we got our first NHL player follower, too. What a country!

The Sharks will face the Nashville Predators or the Anaheim Ducks, but we spend a lot more time talking about the catharsis of this Sharks’ victory over a depleted Kings team in 5 games. The challenges only get harder as the Sharks move through the playoff grinder. Is Pavelski’s hand ok? I guess we’ll know soon. I had to unexpectedly bail partway through, but Alex and Colin kept things going for a full hour and bully to them. Go Sharks!

The Sharks are coming home up 2-0 and have looked like the better team through the two games…for the most part. The same thing could have been said in 2014, the last time the Sharks went up 2-0 against the Kings in the first round of the playoffs. Alex, Colin and Ben talk about how and why this time might be different. Is it the new C (Joe Pavelski)? Is it Jumbo’s renewed determination and extra rest (and lack of leadership responsibilities)? Is it that our ‘league average goalie’ is better than theirs right now? At least one of those was true the last time the Sharks faced the Kings. Is it objectively silly to have to talk about whether the Kings have the Sharks where they want them by being down two games to none? We certainly hope it is. Go Sharks!

It’s here! The Sharks have made the playoffs and get to face a cupcake better team as was the case two years ago when the Kings reverse-swept the Sharks and my heart. Alex has faith that the Sharks will pull it out while Ben is picking the Kings in six. So go ahead and send your hate tweets to @circlingthecup. Ben runs that account and deserves your scorn. Or maybe he’s just trying to jinx the Kings (editor’s note: it’s both. I think the Kings will win but I would love to jinx them).

Three chances to clinch a playoff spot ended in whiffs and some in the fan base are panicking (as Sharks fans are want to do).  The Sharks aren’t clutch, they say. The Sharks can’t win without Marc Edouard Vlasic, they say. On the other hand, we’d argue that the big problem this week, aside from running into a hot goalie against St. Louis, was a return of mental errors and iffy goalie play. So listen in as we talk about what the Sharks need to do to have success when the playoffs arrive. Hint: some of it is out of their hands.

Three of the top teams in the East have come through the California grinder in the last two weeks and the Sharks acquitted themselves pretty well in dominating them in possession and on the scoreboard. In between a couple of those games, the refs decided to award a win to Arizona, though, so it wasn’t a perfect week. Colin and Ben talk about that and how the Sharks have been managing a deeper bench despite some new injuries as the playoffs approach.