(Ed. Note: It’s an Olympic year in the NHL. So, naturally, we decided to use the trappings of the Winter Games to preview all 30 teams for the 2013-14 NHL season. Who takes the gold? Who falls on their triple-axel? Read on and find out!)

The San Jose Sharks had a weird year.

For much of the 2013 campaign, they were inconsistent, and amazingly so. They swept the first month, winning all seven games they played in January, and looking like one of the league's elite teams. But seven games later they were back to .500, following the seven-game winning streak with a seven-game losing streak. After that, they settled into a routine of being completely unpredictable. Some nights they looked like one of hockey's best. Other nights they did not.

All that in mind, it was no surprise when Doug Wilson looked to be selling the team off at the trading deadline and admitting they weren't contenders. But as it turned out, that's not what they were doing. They were simply regrouping, speeding the team up, both in terms of personnel and system. The moves paid off big-time in the playoffs, as the Sharks completed their first sweep in franchise history.

They wouldn't escape the second round, but Sharks fans still have reason to be optimistic this season. They seem like a new team, and with Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic growing into elite NHLers, the Sharks look like they're going to remain a contender for some time. What does this year have in store?

Patrick Marleau completes the sweep for San Jose.

Not a lot of changes for the Sharks this offseason. Most of their big moves happened late last year, like when they moved Brent Burns up front, getting a power forward as a result. Those are tough to find.

Suffice it to say, the Sharks didn't look as in need of a makeover after the postseason, and Doug Wilson made just one noteworthy change this summer as a result, acquiring Tyler Kennedy for a second-round pick, in effect to replace T.J. Galiardi, whom the Sharks moved to the Flames.

Forward: San Jose's greatest strength is up the middle. Few teams have the horses to hang with a depth chart of Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, and Joe Pavelski.

Thornton remains the leader of the bunch, both in spirit and in letter. He wears the "C", and he was the top scorer last season with 40 points in 48 games. He'll skate on line 1 with giant mountain man Brent Burns. The two are huge, and nigh impossible to contain.

What's more, they may not even be San Jose's best line. Couture leads the next wave in more ways than one -- the second centre over the boards, but also seemingly ready to take over as San Jose's top guy. His 21 goals last season were tops on the club and he finished just three points back of Thornton's team scoring title. This could be the year he surpasses Big Joe, especially if he continues to skate with the speedy Patrick Marleau. The two can fly.

That's a great formula for the Sharks. Their first line is massive. Their second line is slick. And their third line is no slouch either, led by two-way terror Joe Pavelski, who isn't quite as offensively gifted but may be the hardest of the three to win a shift against. When McLellan shortens his bench to three lines, there's no respite from San Jose's attack. And when he shortens it to two, that's no picnic either.

With Marty Havlat injured, as usual, Tyler Kennedy and Tomas Hertl are likely to be the other two wingers on the top two lines to start the season -- Kennedy looks to be getting slotted on Couture's other side -- and you can expect Pavelski to skate most regularly with Tommy Wingels. When he returns from his ACL tear, Raffi Torres will slot somewhere into the top nine as well, perhaps back on the Thornton line, bumping Kennedy and Hertl down a notch each.

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