The San Jose Sharks are at a crossroads.

After making back-to-back Western Conference Finals in 2010 and 2011, the Sharks were ousted in the first round this season by the St. Louis Blues, a younger, faster, and hungrier squad. The Sharks squeaked out a 3-2 win in double overtime in Game 1, but lost the next four straight. Overnight, it looked like San Jose’s window to contend slammed shut.

That’s why more than any other team, the Sharks need to trade for Rick Nash.

On Wednesday night the world saw an ugly side of Vancouver. After losing to the Bruins, a couple hundred people, who the police are now describing as organized anarchists masquerading as Canuck fans, started rioting in the streets of downtown Vancouver. It wasn’t a very good representation of Vancouver, which is a beautiful city. The next day the citizens of Vancouver took to the streets to help the clean-up effort. Those are the real people of Vancouver.

Amidst all the mayhem, there was a celebration occurring in the Bruins’ locker room after their impressive series clinching victory. The shots of Kaberle dousing his teammates in champagne made my heart feel good. The cars on fire outside? Not so much.

Not many people (myself included) gave the Bruins a shot after they fell 2-0 to the Canucks, but they rallied back like they did all post-season and became the only team in Stanley Cup history to win three game 7s.

Well, that’s the season. It was fun. I hope you enjoyed it. I guess we’ll all be on our merry way… But wait, there’s the important matter of handing out some hardware for the deserving few who excelled (and a few that didn’t) during the playoffs.

Without further ado, here’s the second annual Five Minutes For Fighting Playoff Awards.

The San Jose Sharks once again failed to make it to the Stanley Cup Final after being a top-seed in the Western Conference. They didn’t lose in horrific fashion, but the result will leave the Sharks with the same empty feeling that they have every year.

It's convenient to label this loss to the Blackhawks as another Sharks’ collapse, especially since they were swept 4-0, but that would be disingenuous. The Sharks may have lost four straight to the Hawks, but every game was close and more than a few could have gone the other way. And this wasn’t some underdog team that upset the Sharks - it was the most complete team in the entire league.

While there is no shame in losing in the Conference Final to a team like the Chicago Blackhawks, this is definitely a bitter moment for the Sharks and their fans, especially since it was all over so quickly.

Now the Sharks head into a summer where they face many big decisions. This team doesn’t need to be blown apart, but major changes certainly need to happen. This is a good team, but one who has failed to win a Stanley Cup despite being pegged by analysts as heavy favourites for a number of years. It may be time for Doug Wilson to realize that the current core of the team just isn’t good enough to win the Stanley Cup.

It’s time to introduce a new segment here at 5 Minutes For Fighting. We’re calling this Point/Counterpoint (What? 60 Minutes already has that? Who cares about that two-bit operation, it'll never catch on). We’ll have a debate on certain subjects. Sometimes the debate will be between Rick and I (hopefully these don’t descend into me calling him stupid for all my counterpoints) and other times we’ll have special guests on to give their opinions. This time the point/counter-point will feature only myself. This is because I’m having an internal battle over one topic of importance: Russia’s vast superiority at the 2010 Olympics. One side of me is examining their team rationally and finding overwhelming evidence to suggest they will cake-walk to the gold medal. The other side of me is desperately grasping at any sort of counter argument to this. My Canadian patriotism is taking over. I’m about ready to go Joseph McCarthy on everybody’s ass. Ring the bell.

Don Cherry needs to be stopped. I can put up with the subtle racism and blatant xenophobia, but I will not stand for his latest verbal proclamation. Last Saturday’s Coach’s Corner featured Don showing clips of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Dany Heatley, while exclaiming this is your No. 1 line Canada. Oh, please.