Sharks double down on ‘now or never' mantra with Erik Karlsson trade

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SAN JOSE -- For someone who just threw his house and car keys into the middle of the table, Doug Wilson sounded remarkably chipper during his conference call with the continent's finest shinny pundits.
 
I mean, generational defensive players come on the trade market all the time, he must have figured, and winning a bidding war with other frantic general managers is just something we all do before breakfast.
 
But if acquiring DE (as in defenseman extraordinaire) Erik Karlsson was worth the bother of caravanning the entire San Jose Sharks roster from its practice facility to SAP Center, as well as dragging media relations director Ben Guerrero from his honeymoon to run the presser, Wilson and all available spokesmen needed to sound like they’d just twinned pocket aces.
 
After all, as Sharks coach Peter DeBoer kept saying in front of the Flight Path Center on Thursday afternoon: “Our window is now. This is our opportunity. The time is now.”
 
And if that wasn’t sufficiently clear, DeBoer added: “We have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Not many teams can say that when a season starts, and a lot of different things go into that. But we’re in a position to do that now, and there’s no sense not saying it.
 
“We brought the players over [from the practice facility] to meet with the staff and all the people who have devoted their entire working lives and careers to doing one thing -- winning the Stanley Cup, and we’ve never gotten it. We have that chance now.” 
 
“Now,” of course, is the operative word, as it implies the added phrase “or never.” It raises PSI to the level of expectation, and outsiders tend to think that expectations break rather than steel wills.

[RELATED: Sharks' projected roster after Karlsson trade]
 
But the calendar says what it says, and the key members of this team are at the stage where tomorrow is someone else’s problem. Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun are in their 30s, and Logan Couture turns 30 in March. More than that, they have played nearly 6,000 games between them, so even if age is just a construct, mileage isn’t.
 
That Wilson, and DeBoer, were both so forthcoming and even repetitive with that message indicates there will be no hiding from it. The Sharks have spent six draft picks on Karlsson and Evander Kane, meaning they essentially haven't just made this about “now,” but doubled down on it.
 
Indeed, they not only forcibly inserted themselves toward the front of the line of contenders, they made sure that Vegas, which went to the Stanley Cup Final last year, didn’t become the prohibitive favorite in its second year of existence.
 
“It’s not about that, though,” DeBoer said. “I know what you’re saying, but it’s really about what this does for us and our chances.
 
“And just doing this doesn’t mean it’s done. We have to play better, we have to be better. Washington had so many chances to win in the last decade, but they had probably their worst team in the last 10 years and won it all. And Vegas did what it did in their first year. This gives us our best chance, I think. Now we have to go do it.”
 
Karlsson’s reaction was more measured, even morose at times, and while it's never helpful to judge someone’s true feelings via press conference, he sounded both unprepared and unhappy to be leaving the toxic cleanup site that is the Ottawa hockey team.
 
“I don't think that I could have ever prepared for this,” he said from Ottawa. “That's why I don't have anything written, I haven't really wrapped my mind around what is really going on. I think it's been happening really fast, even though there's been noise for a year now.

[RELATED: Karlsson mum on signing with Sharks]
 
“I wish we were standing here in different circumstances. It's an emotional and sad day. I don't think that I've ever in my wildest imagination thought that I would ever leave this place. But, unfortunately, we're here under these circumstances and, again, that's not something I'm going to go into detail about.”
 
When Karlsson clears the immigration hurdles and gets to California, one suspects his mood will brighten. Kane got away from a bad team in Buffalo, and his first experience as a Shark was being picked up at the airport by Thornton. By that transportation standard, Karlsson’s ride should be provided by the Plattner-Wilson Livery Service and better have cold drinks and top quality nibbles in the back seat.
 
Because after that, Karlsson and his new mates all will be eating at the table of expectations, and these will have only one item on the menu.
 
Win, or fail. It doesn’t get any more linear than that.

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