Sharks Biting to Break the Curse

With their first game of the NHL playoffs tonight, the San Jose Sharks have not yet hired a witch doctor, have not hung a dead goat at the tank, and have not asked Father Guido Sarducci to perform an exorcism.

But they have to break this playoff curse of theirs somehow.

The Sharks, as fans will recall, have brought an elite team NHL into the playoffs for the least four years in a row. And in each of these four years, the team has been eliminated by a lesser club in an early round.

Are these San Jose Sharks playoff-cursed?

"It's a normal conversation to have," goalie Evgeni Nabokov told the San Jose Mercury News. "Because it's kind of true."

Wrong answer, Nabby.

"We’ve been focusing hard on not concentrating on the past and concentrating on the present, defenseman Douglas Murray told the Mercury News. "If they (Colorado) want to look at the past, they can go right ahead. It doesn’t bother us."

Slightly better, defenseman Douglas Murray.

"The character question is on the line yet again in San Jose," NBC hockey analyst and Eurotrash critic Mike Milbury told the Huffington Post. "I think (Joe) Thornton and (Patrick) Marleau and (Dany) Heatley and Nabokov all understand that they need to find a way to dial it up at a time when all the eyes are on them."

Whoa. The Huffington Post has a hockey column?

Game 1 begins tonight at The Tank at 7:30 p.m. PDT. Let's hope the only curses are coming out of the mouths of Colorado Avalanche fans.

 Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who kind of wishes that the Colorado Avalanche had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.

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