A pair of Pacific Division rivals, as well as Stanley Cup hopefuls, will meet tonight in Silicon Valley as the San Jose Sharks welcome the Anaheim Ducks to HP Pavilion.

Both teams made the postseason last spring, but neither lived up to expectations. The Ducks, who became the first West Coast team to win the Stanley Cup in 2007, was bounced out by Dallas in last year's opening round.

San Jose beat Calgary in the first round, but was also knocked out by the Stars in the conference semifinals, marking the third straight year that the Sharks were eliminated in the second round.

A change may have been in order after the team was ousted in the 2007 postseason and Sharks general manager Doug Wilson nearly did fire Ron Wilson, but opted instead to give the head coach a last chance in 2007-08. Shortly after San Jose was knocked out in Game 6 against Dallas, the GM fired Wilson and after a lengthy search selected Todd McLellan as the new bench boss.

McLellan was an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings over the last three years and won a Stanley Cup ring last season with the club. Tonight's contest will mark his first regular-season game as an NHL head coach.

The Sharks will once again be led on offense by centerman Joe Thornton, who has a whopping 302 points in 222 career games with San Jose. He paced the team with 29 goals and 67 assists last season. Thornton is suffering from a sore groin, but is expected to play tonight.

San Jose's biggest offseason addition came on defense when Dan Boyle was acquired in a trade with Tampa Bay. The 32-year-old is known as one of the better offensive blueliners in the game and should help boost the team's power play.

Back in goal will be Evgeni Nabokov, who had his finest season as an NHL goaltender in 2007-08 and was runner-up to legendary New Jersey netminder Martin Brodeur for the Vezina Trophy.

Nabokov posted a career-high 46 wins and his 2.14 goals against average was also a personal best mark. He played well in the postseason, posting a shutout and a 2.18 GAA in 13 games.

Distractions began for the Ducks in the weeks following their championship in 2007 and those issues wound up dogging Anaheim during their title defense season. The main problems involved defenseman Scott Niedermayer and left wing Teemu Selanne, who both contemplated retirement before eventually returning to Anaheim over the course of the season.

That won't be an issue this year as both Niedermayer and Selanne are with the team to begin the season.

As the Conn Smythe winner in the 2007 postseason, Niedermayer is an obvious key for the Ducks, but so is Selanne, who needs to help add some offensive punch to a club that was 28th in the NHL with just 2.40 goals per game last season.

As poor as the offense was for the Ducks last season, the defense was the exact opposite. Anaheim gave up just 2.24 goals per game during the regular season, finishing second behind the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

The top pairing of Niedermayer and Chris Pronger has a lot to do with the defensive success, but No. 1 goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere certainly doesn't hurt the Ducks in their own zone.

The 31-year-old Giguere had possibly his best regular season a year ago, as he went 35-17-6 with a 2.12 goals against average and .922 save percentage. Both the GAA and save percentage marked career bests for the Montreal native.

Anaheim won the season series against the Sharks, 5-3, in 2007-08 and has won seven of 11 and nine of the last 14 meetings overall. The Ducks have also taken eight of their previous 11 contests in northern California.

San Jose has lost six of its last seven season-opening contests, while Anaheim has began three of its last five campaigns with wins.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@