Joe Thornton.

BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

Patience.

The San Jose Sharks have bought it with their regular season play, and tested it with a series of playoff flops that have led management, many believe, to give this leadership group one more crack at the post-season.

Starting this week, patience runs out.

"There were many different roads the organization could have gone down after last year," said veteran defenceman Rob Blake, who joined San Jose last season as part of the solution, only to become part of the malaise in a first-round exit at the hands of Anaheim.

"They’ve been patient. They brought in a big name in Dany Heatley, made some changes… but that patience does run out.

"It’s a great opportunity, but you’re not always going to be in this situation."

The Sharks have won the Western Conference again — for the second year in a row — and will take on Colorado in Round 1. But regular season conference titles won’t even begin to answer the questions surrounding this bunch.

Let’s start with this one: Can a team this good never get to a Stanley Cup Final?

Can a player as dominant all season long as Joe Thornton is, never get his shot at lifting Stanley over his head with the cameras flashing, a la Ray Bourque in Colorado?

Steve Yzerman played 12 seasons for the Red Wings before finally getting his team into a Stanley Cup Final in ’95, then winning one in ’97. Prior to the Olympics, the former Red Wings captain took Thornton aside, sharing some inspiration with a fellow superstar facing the demons about whether or not he has what it takes to be a champion.

"He just kind of shared his experiences on how some of us have to wait a little longer to get a chance to win it," Thornton recalled recently. "(Yzerman) just said, ‘You have to believe in yourself, believe in your teammates, and you’ll eventually win it.’"

Eventually of course, is a relative term.

If Thornton, alongside longtime Sharks and pending unrestricted free agents Patrick Marleau and Evgeni Nabokov, don’t get this Sharks club at least into the Western Conference final this spring, it’s a good bet at least two of them will be chasing a Cup in a different uniform next season.

Because the patience for early playoff exits is eventually going to run out in San Jose.

"That’s a good thing," argues Thornton. "It means you’re doing something right in San Jose — people expect big things. But I don’t think it’s just San Jose in that category. A lot of teams are in that category."

In games 67-72 of the season, San Jose lost six straight. As they fell for the sixth time in Edmonton to a 30th place Oilers club on March 21, you could hear the snickering across the league.

Here come the Sharks. Getting ready for the playoffs.

"We were pressing," recalled Blake. "You could see: We got down one goal in Edmonton and right away we were trying to get it back. Now we’re down two. The big thing we talked about is patience.

"Look at our lineup. If we need 58, 59 minutes to score the goal to win the game, we should be very patient that way. You’ve got to wait for them," he continued. "Systems and everything? You’re 70-80 games in — you’d better know your systems. Being patient enough to play the right way; don’t cheat and try to open things up."

Thornton, as you’d expect, will take that late-season skid and try and make a positive out of it. As if this team needs any more lessons from the school of hard knocks.

"I think it maybe bonded the team a little bit tighter, going through the adversity like that," he said. "Now, we’re well rested, more focused. In hindsight, we might look back and say that’s one of the best things that could have happened to this team."

Hopefully not THE best thing.