As you see, although Anaheim set an NHL record by getting points in 15 straight points to start the season, the Sharks entered Tuesday night's showdown with the Ducks a mere three points behind our pick to win the Stanley Cup. So what magic have the Sharks brought to the ice that allows them to keep being an elite team with little contribution from what was thought to be the first line of Messrs. Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo and Mark Bell?

Starting in net, the early season precincts have voted heavily in favor of Finnish goalie Vesa Toskala. When we last saw young Mr. Toskala, he was getting wiped out by the Edmonton Oilers in last year's post season. He's rebounded nicely from that cracking with a 10-2 won loss record, a 2.06 GAA and a .927 save percentage. He's certainly playing like a $5 million goalie, which would be great except for the fact that his backup, Evgeni Nabokov pulls down that green. Whoops!

Now there is some good news for GM Doug Wilson as he's desperate for someone (do I hear the Bruins?) to take the expensive Russian off his hands. Although Nabokov's won-loss record is just .500 (5-5), his goals against and save percentage are actually comparable to Toskala. But wouldn't you think that Boston might be a tad gun-shy dealing with the same organization that lifted Thornton from them? This tandem's overall play keeps them in every game and occasionally steals one, which is what good goalies do.

Along the backline, the Sharks have always been anonymous but that may be changing over the next couple of years. Only the hockey fantasy players know the likes of Scott Hannan, Kyle McLaren and Christian Ehroff but when San Jose picked eventual 2006 Hobey Baker winner in the second round back in 2003, they got potentially a franchise defenseman. For those who haven't seen him, his greatest strength is his outstanding offensive instincts. Carle loves to jump up into the play and act as a fourth forward. He's an excellent skater and rarely out of position. You could liken him to Scott Niedermayer but that wouldn't be fair to Carle at this point. As a whole, the defensive corps plays smartly, if not physically, and usually limits dangerous scoring chances in front of the net.

Despite Thornton, Cheechoo and Bell's aforementioned struggles, there are some nice success stories along the forward wall. Patrick Marleau, although drafted second overall in 1997 and wearing the captain's "C", will never achieve the notoriety of his better known teammates.

At 27 years old, he's on pace to craft his best season from a production standpoint; he leads the Sharks in goals with 12 and is tied for second in plus/minus rating on the team. His biggest deficiency, inconsistency, has appeared to have been overcome with consistent solid efforts throughout the season's first quarter. Marleau had the bad habit of disappearing from time to time over the first seven seasons of his NHL career; perhaps greater responsibility and maturity has served him well.

The Sharks are renowned for smart amateur scouting and wise drafting, a legacy former GM Dean Lombardi passed along to current GM Doug Wilson. The 2003 Draft may go down as one of the best drafts in Sharks history, in fact, the first round may be unmatched in their legacy as they selected power forwards Milan Michalek and Steve Bernier ninth and sixteenth, respectively.

Milachek is just four points behind Marleau for the team scoring lead and leads the team in plus/minus rating while Bernier exploded on the scene with 14 goals in 39 games last year and is producing at a 70-point pace this season. At this point in their careers, Milachek is the more polished of the two, but any NHL team would love to have these two predators swimming in front of opposition backstops for years to come.

Though we've never been a fan of Coach Ron Wilson, the secret to the Sharks' early season success is that he makes San Jose play like a team. They stand eight games over .500 yet only Marleau is in double figures in goals. They have shrugged off the trade rumors that swirl around the club (with the latest being a Peter Forsberg trade, we're not buying).

In watching them losing to the Ducks last Tuesday, the biggest obstacle this team faces is their lack of physicality, especially on defense. They certainly don't compare to rival Anaheim on the blueline, but then no one does. They were dominated by the larger Ducks in a 5-0 loss, uncharacteristically surrendering a season high 44 shots and were only a threat when they had a two man advantage, "it's hard to say that (Anaheim's) the best team we've played because we didn't play tonight," Marleau dejectedly said in the post game locker room. Thornton agreed with his captain, but put some perspective on a November loss, "they outworked us tonight and they really gave it to us, we've got a long way to go as a team. But I don't think this is a 'message' game, after all it's only our 22nd game of the year."

San Jose lacks that heavy hitter needed during playoff time; Hannan and McLaren are heady, Christian Ehroff and Marc-Edouard Vlasic are just learning the NHL game and remember that they let big Mike Rathje go to free agency because it was felt he was too slow for the new NHL.