from Mark Purdy of the Mercury News,

Hold your breath. Twenty-five years of teal-tinted angst and teasing torment could come to an end Wednesday night. The Sharks are on uncharted ice. And it feels ... pretty amazing, actually. Also odd and strange.

Hold your breath. The Sharks, with a defeat of the St. Louis Blues at SAP Center, will earn a trip to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since the team was born in 1991. Shark fans are not quite sure how to approach this. I can tell. One of my Twitter followers says she will spend Wednesday night hiding inside her closet because she won't be able to stand the tension.

Hold your breath. But try to enjoy it. For fans, this will definitely constitute three periods (or more) of apprehension and nerves. So many good Shark teams over the years have never gotten this far. Why not bask in the unease? Would you rather be a fan of the Arizona Coyotes this week?

The Shark players have done this so impressively, all through this six-week skate across nails to reach this point. They have done a good job of staying in the moment, as Joe Thornton says. And they know not to get ahead of themselves.

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