With the regular season of hockey just completed, Bay Area hockey fans are getting ready for playoff hockey.

The setting is all too familiar. The HP Pavilion in San Jose rocking off its foundation with the sound of Sharks fans going nuts over the first faceoff in the 2011 playoffs.

Led by familiar faces in, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley the Sharks are looking to get over the hump and win a Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since becoming a franchise in the 1991-1992 NHL season.

Their opponents are also familiar. The Sharks, who landed the second seed, will face their state and conference rival, the Los Angeles Kings, in the opening round of the playoffs.

One of the lingering questions is the ability of goaltender Anti Niemi to compete in the playoffs for a new team, two years in a row.

Niemi was the winning goaltender in last years Stanley Cup Finals with the Chicago Blackhawks. The team who displaced the Sharks in the Western Conference Finals.

The San Jose Sharks, tired of long time goaltender Evegeni Nabokov, decided to go in a new direction in the off-season and signed last years Stanley Cup Finals winner Anti Niemi to a contract as the starting goalie for the San Jose Sharks.

This is when torture begins to set in for Sharks fans, whether or not Anti Niemi can become the first goaltender ever to win the Stanley Cup Finals with two different teams in back-to-back years.

The hopes are high, and the stakes are even higher for the ownership of the San Jose Sharks and its big contract players Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley.

The fans in San Jose and throughout the Bay Area, are excited for another chance at a Stanley Cup Playoff run, and the expectations are there once again.

Bring home the cup to San Jose.