The Games.org

Goaltenders

20 Evgeni Nabokov
35 Vesa Toskala


Defensemen

3 Doug Murray
4 Kyle McLaren
5 Rob Davison
6 Josh Gorges
10 Christian Ehrhoff
18 Matt Carle
22 Scott Hannan
44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic




Forwards

7 Mark Bell
9 Milan Michalek
11 Marcel Goc
12 Patrick Marleau
14 Jonathan Cheechoo
15 Ville Nieminen
16 Mark Smith
19 Joe Thornton
25 Mike Grier
26 Steve Bernier
27 Scott Parker
34 Patrick Rissmiller
37 Curtis Brown
53 Joe Pavelski

The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Sharks, along with the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA and Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL are often credited with popularizing teal as a color for American sports teams.

The Sharks started the 2005-06 season slowly. Veterans like Mike Ricci, Vincent Damphousse, Mike Rathje and Todd Harvey were no longer on the team, and the players had a hard time adjusting. Inconsistent goaltending and an inability to score goals dropped the team to last place in the Pacific Division. Shark forwards who'd had career years in 2004 went into slumps, and the defense corps, stacked to the brim up with rookies and sophomores, crumbled down. But it was fairly soon to change.



The Sharks' opponent in the first round was the Nashville Predators. Nashville easily dominated San Jose in the first game, getting four power play goals to beat the Sharks 4-3. However, San Jose quickly regrouped, and led by the scoring of captain Patrick Marleau, won the next four games to eliminate the Predators. New acquisition Ville Nieminen played a huge role for San Jose in the playoffs. In the second round, the Sharks met the Edmonton Oilers. San Jose won the first two games by identical 2-1 scores, but Edmonton's physical play soon changed the tide of the series. The Oilers would rally back, winning 4 straight games to put an end to the Sharks' season.

The season was not a complete disappointment, however. Thornton was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP, as well as the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring, with a total of 125 points. Thornton became the third player in three seasons to win both the Hart and the Art Ross Awards in the same year, following Peter Forsberg in 2003 and Martin St. Louis in 2004. Jonathan Cheechoo also received the Richard Trophy for netting the most goals during the regular season: with Thornton feeding him, Cheechoo scored a total of 56.

Sharks "rookie" Matt Carle was awarded the Hobey Baker Award.