The Sharks have 56 points after 48 games this season, coincidentally the same total after the same number of games last season.
Same team? Same expectations? Waiting for the same fate? Hardly.
That’s where the comparisons end with a San Jose team that is 26-18-4 this season, trailing the first-place Los Angeles Kings by seven points and leading the third-place Arizona Coyotes by three. A February nosedive last season took a 25-17-6 team headlong into the Sharks’ first non-playoff spring in 11 years.
What’s different for these final 34 games? Let us count the ways:
•Everything’s new again: Starting with new bench boss Peter DeBoer, the coaching staff has the team’s attention again.