2011-12 San Jose Sharks season

The 2011–12 San Jose Sharks season was the ice hockey club's 21st season in the NHL.

Offseason
The Sharks, disappointed in their playoff results, traded away two major players of their team to the Minnesota Wild. Devin Setoguchi was traded for Brent Burns, and Dany Heatley was traded for Martin Havlat. Burns was targeted to fill a hole on the Sharks as a shut-down defensive presence. Heatley was traded after posting disappointing playoff results.

Regular season
The preseason was successful, ending in a 5–1–0 record with the only loss came to Phoenix.

The Sharks started the season rather slowly; they gained a win at their opener at home against Phoenix but then lost three straight. Afterwards, the Sharks won the first five games on their six-game road trip. The win at New Jersey came on a shootout, with Joe Thornton participating in his 1000th NHL career game, and the win at New York by a sudden-death goal from Brent Burns, so the Sharks won both games that went into overtime. They ended this road trip with a loss at New York before heading back home for a six-game stand. The first one was a win after shootout against the Pittsburgh Penguins before losing the first game after overtime to Nashville before the next two games were won. The home stand ended with five wins and only one loss, coming against Phoenix. The Sharks took over the first position in the Pacific Division in November and had 13 wins in the books after 20 games. After that, the Sharks lost four out of five with the only win coming to Montreal by shootouts. The Sharks just won one of the next five games, before they went on a four-game winning streak to take the top spot in the Pacific Division over Christmas. December was finished with two losses to Anaheim and Vancouver.

The new year started with two wins on the road, another one at home and the number 1 spot in the division. After an overtime loss at Minnesota the Sharks captured their second shootout victory in a 2–0 win over Winnipeg. January was ended with two shootouts by Antti Niemi and at top of their division. February included a nine-game road trip where the Sharks would go 2–6–1.

The Sharks clinched a playoff spot on the fifth of April - in their 81st game of the regular season - with a 6–5 shootout victory against Los Angeles.

Playoffs
In the playoffs, the Sharks faced the St. Louis Blues, a number 2 seed, in the first round, the conference quarterfinals in a best-of-seven series. The Sharks won Game 1 by a score of 3–2 after double overtime by a goal from Martin Havlát who scored twice, with Andrew Desjardins sent this game into overtime with his goal 5 minutes before the end of regulation. Game two was won by the Blues, who scored once every period, 3–0. St. Louis continued their dominance by posting a 4–3 victory in Game 3, with two of the three goals by the Sharks coming in the waning minutes of the third period. The Blues then won a second straight game in San Jose, in Game 4, by a score of 2–1. The Blues led the series 3 to 1. With coming back over to St. Louis the Sharks went into the third period with a lead, thanks to a goal from Joe Thornton. The Blues answered with two quick goals in the middle of the last period and scored another goal late in the game to capture the series 4–1.

Regular season

 * Green background indicates win (2 points).
 * Red background indicates regulation loss (0 points).
 * White background indicates overtime/shootout loss (1 point).

Playoffs
The Sharks clinched a playoff spot and made their eighth consecutive appearance in the playoffs.

Skaters
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes Updated April 21, 2012.

Goaltenders
GP = Games Played; MIN = Time On Ice in minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime Losses; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; SA = Shots Against; SV = Saves; SV% = Save Percentage; SO = Shutouts; G = Goals; A = Assists; PEN = Penalty Time in minutes

†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Sharks. Stats reflect time with the Sharks only.

‡Traded mid-season

Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Final roster
Updated April 19, 2012.


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Transactions
The Sharks have been involved in the following transactions during the 2011–12 season.

Draft picks
San Jose's picks at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul, Minnesota.