Blues look for payback in playoffs

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- For the San Jose Sharks to prove that their resurgence was more than a winter anomaly, they must bloom in the playoffs this spring.

"I think our guys know that they've had the best regular season in the history of the Sharks," coach Ron Wilson said. "They also know that the regular season is over."

The second-seeded Sharks will face the St. Louis Blues in the first round with Game 1 tonight.

The teams have a fairly colorful history, including two postseason meetings. San Jose memorably knocked off top-seeded St. Louis in 2000 after the Blues finished the regular season with the NHL's best record.

This season, San Jose finished with the league's third-best record and its second Pacific Division title, while the Blues needed an outstanding finish to sneak into the playoffs for the 25th consecutive season -- the longest streak in major professional sports.

To the surprise of even their coach, the Sharks made a 31-point improvement over last season and cruised to the playoffs. San Jose used the same formula repeated time and again -- speed, preparation, discipline and stellar goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov -- and few teams were able to counter it.

But the Blues have won nine of their last 12 games at the Shark Tank, and they have a history of bitter, physical victories here. Sharks' fans have booed Blues defenseman Chris Pronger every time he touched the puck for the last five years.

"This is a great rivalry," Blues forward Jamal Mayers said, "and I think you see that in the games we play."

"There's a lot of good games between these teams, usually not a lot of mistakes. They're a tough matchup for us, and I think we give them a lot of problems."

Still, the Blues expressed hope they would face San Jose in the first round, thinking the Sharks' young roster might be a good matchup for a team with several playoff-tested veterans. They include Stanley Cup-winning goalie Chris Osgood, who practically carried St. Louis to the playoffs with a 1.97 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage while winning eight games in March.

Both teams enter the playoffs on lengthy winning runs. San Jose finished the regular season 10-2-1, while the Blues went 10-3-2 to hold off Nashville and Edmonton in a lively race for the seventh spot.

"Hopefully they've been fatigued a little bit by what they had to do to get into the playoffs," Sharks center Alyn McCauley said. "But they're a veteran team that's going to know how to get ready for the playoffs. I wouldn't say we're excited about facing them, or any team. If we forget to work hard or play our style, we'll be in trouble."

The teams last met in San Jose on Feb. 29, when Nabokov outdueled Osgood in a 1-0 victory. St. Louis' Steve Martins set up the only goal with a bad pass in his own zone, and he has played in just two games since.

With a roster populated by rough-and-tumble players but few speedsters, the Blues seem likely to counter San Jose's speed with physical play. That's Pronger's specialty, of course, but he's just one part of a tough defense that includes Bryce Salvador and Matt Walker -- better known to St. Louis fans as the Bruise Brothers.

Though Wilson intends to tinker with line combinations if production slips, the Sharks won't change much, because their formula was good enough to win their division.

"We've been relying on everybody through the season, and that can't stop," center Vincent Damphousse said. "We're going to roll four lines and get contributions out of everybody. We've all got to keep working hard and winning battles."