SAN JOSE — Seven of the Sharks’ first ten games this season are against teams who made the playoffs a year ago. That mark is tied for second in the division, fourth in the conference, and seventh across the league. Head coach Pete DeBoer is not upset with those challenges.
“I think it’s great. That’s what we want,” DeBoer said. “We want our game at that level right off the bat. We’ve seen when it hasn’t been at the right level of [competing] and attention to detail, you lose. You might get away with that against non-playoff teams, but against good teams you’re not going to get away with that.