Hockey

All thoughts of an NHL best 53-18-11 regular-season record now are tucked away in the recesses of the minds of San Jose Sharks players and coaches. For San Jose, the real challenge is now, namely to erase years of playoff disappointment and produce the Stanley Cup so many feel the club is capable of earning. One can understand the high expectations for the Sharks when you look at core players like Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Devin Setoguchi and Joe Pavelski up front, Rob Blake and Dan Boyle on defense and Evgeni Nabokov in goal.Standing in the way are the Anaheim Ducks, a club that struggled to find an identity for much of the season, but a team that righted the ship to the tune of a 42-33-7 record and 7-2-1 mark in its last 10 games. Anaheim also is a club not far removed from its 2007 Stanley Cup championship, still icing Cup winners in Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermayer, Teemu Selanne, Chris Pronger, Rob Niedermayer, Todd Marchant, Francois Beauchemin and J.S. Giguere.