...in San Jose, anything short of a Stanley Cup is seen as a collapse.

Why, exactly?  The team hasn’t WON a Cup yet!

I’m not sure that Wilson is the best choice for coach, but it isn’t as though San Jose has an illustrious history and record of accomplishment that he falls short in maintaining.  They are year after year a very good team, with a lot of young talent that may someday be the components of a great team, but they haven’t yet given any indication that they are anything other than a very good regular season team without something (be it talent, focus, drive, or experience) that they need to be excellent in the postseason as well.

Why hold the team to standards they have never achieved before?  That’s silly.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/05/08 at 02:14 PM ET

Why hold the team to standards they have never achieved before?  That’s silly.

It’s silly, but once Anaheim took a cup home it changed a lot of the fan perception, I think.

I got nothing against Wilson’s coaching, but I guess losing three consecutive games in the second round for the third year in a row does get tiresome.

Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 05/05/08 at 02:29 PM ET

Well, it’s still silly to hold a team to standards that they haven’t achieved but a team in the same state has...but at least I can see the logic in that.

I’d think it would affect the Kings even more, though.  The team is in the same city, so presumably would have the same revenue base to tap into, and I’ve heard they aren’t hurting too much in terms of attendance, but the Kings are unremittingly awful.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/05/08 at 02:56 PM ET

I’d think it would affect the Kings even more, though.

Yeah, except while the Kings have been geographically close to the Ducks, they’ve been on another planet standings-wise.

The Sharks I think have felt the urgency a bit more, in that they’ve been essentially neck-and-neck with Anaheim since the lockout (I think there’s a handful of days over the past three years that the two teams weren’t within 7 standings points of each other).  Really, I think that’s sparked a bit of the urgency to match Anaheim’s cup count, but I’m speaking out-of-body based on what I see from Sharks fans at BoC.

Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 05/05/08 at 03:17 PM ET

If the Sharks fire Wilson, we can make a vacancy in LA for him. We’d love to make the playoffs year after year!

Posted by theartfullodger on 05/05/08 at 04:08 PM ET

It’s not at all silly to hold a team to standards they haven’t achieved.  In fact, it’d be silly not to expect improvement from your coach and players.

But Ron Wilson isn’t being fired because the Sharks didn’t win the cup.  He’s being fired because the way the Sharks failed to win the cup in the past three seasons has convinced management that he can’t motivate the team to play at a consistently high level when it really matters.  Frankly, that point is pretty tough to argue.

Posted by Ryan from Toronto on 05/06/08 at 04:24 AM ET