by Daniel Dullum

GLENDALE AZ–The San Jose Sharks after dropping last Saturday night’s game 5-3 to the Arizona Coyotes have put themselves in a difficult position. Sharks head coach Todd McClellan admitted after the game as much also Patrick Marleau. This is new territory for San Jose it’s been 22 years since they missed the playoffs.

What your seeing is the residue of the newly aligned playoff system the NHL adopted which they pick the top three teams from each division and there’s two wild cards. Some folks might say it’s fair and some may not think it’s fair I think it is. It puts more of an onus on winning your division.

It’s makes those western or eastern conference games mean a lot more, that what were seeing there’s quite a logjam in the NHL West and the Sharks let two points get away on Saturday. When your trying to latch onto that last wild card spot that’s a game your going to have to win. Now as McClellan pointed out after the game they have three games left and that’s six possible points and their going to go after them.

The Sharks are going to need some help they just can’t win out and get in, they need some other folks to lose to. There’s still a remote possibility the Sharks can get that eighth spot it doesn’t look good for San Jose right now. When your in that position to win out it’s that pressure where your saying you’ll be able to take one out of three or two out of three, no the Sharks can settle for no less than six points and hope for the best.

On Saturday there were guys out there on the Coyotes who played spoiler playing for their careers or at least for their jobs and it’s a different energy and you know your not going anywhere you might as well be the spoiler and have some fun doing that. What the Coyotes did was they got out took advantage of a couple power plays and they got on the board right away and they kept that confidence up all game long.

Daniel Dullum is a talkshow host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the rest of his podcast below plus his coverage of the Angels Josh Hamilton and MLB