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Hard to believe any fanbase has enjoyed a more exciting start to the 2013-14 season than that of the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks roared into the start of the season with four straight wins, including two against the rival Canucks, and rookie phenom Tomas Hertl announced his arrival to the league with an exclamation point for the ages.

Yes, it’s a great time to be a Sharks fan.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. After all, the Sharks are notoriously fast starters and the team has completed exactly 4.5 percent of the regular season. There’s a reason why team-record projections and stat calculations aren’t made at this point. Spoiler Alert: Nobody is going 82-0 or challenging any of Gretzky's scoring records.

Then, there are the all-too-vivid memories of the early season magic and subsequent tailspin of just one season ago.

The Sharks rattled off seven straight wins to start the abbreviated 2012-13 season. The chatter that this could be “the year” for the San Jose Sharks has reignited. Last season's playoff man-handling by the St. Louis Blues? Old news. That wouldn't have happened to this year's team. That wasn't "our year," this is "our year."

Then, just like that, a 7-0 January gave way to a 2-10 February and suddenly it became "the year"—but for an entirely different reason.

Sorry to bring the dream-start to the current season to a screeching halt, but any Sharks fan will tell you it’s hard not to be at least a little skeptical. That’s just the reality the team has created for its fans.

But this team feels different. Could this finally be "the year" the Sharks etch their name into the Stanley Cup?

Here are five reasons why you can believe the Sharks will stay hot in 2013-14.