Lose-Lose Situation for Sharks in Game 5
(Originally published at Sports Radio Service)
Just one win. It felt like a must-win game for the Sharks, even though the Kings were the ones on the verge of elimination. The Sharks were healthy and confident.
All the Sharks needed was one win after a tight overtime victory on the road in Los Angeles. Instead, they lost two in a row, giving a resilient Kings team more than enough confidence to push through two more wins.
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Sharks Shred Kings Defense to Start Round 1
(Written for The Phanatic Magazine)
If you predicted that the Sharks and the Kings would play seven low-scoring games, many people would have agreed with you. Of the first round matchups in the 2014 playoffs, this one could have been voted most likely to be close.
Instead, it began with the Sharks veering wildly off course and defeating the Kings in two surprisingly lopsided games. Or perhaps it is Los Angeles that went off script, launching into a poorly-planned and even less well-executed improv performance. Either way, it has been a memorable start.
Deja Vu Puts Sharks Up By Two
(Originally published at Sports Radio Service)
SAN JOSE- Sunday, the San Jose Sharks defeated the Los Angeles Kings to take a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Quarter Finals. The game winner was scored by Justin Braun, Antti Niemi made 24 saves for the Sharks, and Jonathan Quick made 33 saves for the Kings on 40 San Jose Shots.
After the game, Mike Brown said:
Games like this, you don’t stop playing, you don’t give up. That’s how the whole series is going to go and you see what happened when we didn’t stop.
We’re planning on low-scoring games and we gotta play solid defensively. So we can’t really look at these two games and think that the series is gonna go this way.
After a 6-3 victory in Game One series, everyone knew that the Sharks would not have to navigate the mental burden of a five goal lead again. It turns out that everyone was wrong. The Sharks defeated the Kings Sunday by a score of 7-2, scoring seven unanswered goals in the second and third periods. They not only took the five goal lead, they held it until the end of the game.
Sharks and Kings Keeping it Interesting
(Originally published at Sports Radio Service)
With arch rivals and married couples, the key to a thriving relationship is continuing to surprise each other. The party line between professional sports teams, of course, is that with all the history and scouting and preparation, neither team will be able to surprise the other. But if that were true they wouldn’t have to play the game, would they?
Sharks As Ready As They Can Be
(Originally published at Sports Radio Service)
The San Jose Sharks finished the regular season with a little bit of everything: an improbable and awful shutout loss to the Predators, a frustrating loss to the Ducks, a lopsided victory over the Avalanche, and a win with some high points against the Coyotes. What does this portend about the 2014 playoffs? Not much for certain, but there are clues.
The team has a roster to make fans hopeful. Tomas Hertl is back, Raffi Torres should be soon. Martin Havlat’s scoring engine is sparking to life. A hat trick against Colorado threw some light on that. Add these pieces to a team that has been very successful without them, and the roster looks pretty hot. (more…)
What Might Have Been: Why the Sharks Wanted to Avoid the Kings
(Originally published at Sports Radio Service)
After the 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators Saturday night, the odds are pretty slim that the San Jose Sharks will face anyone but the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. Facing the Kings carries an expectation of excessive wear and tear. But there are more reasons than that for the Sharks to have preferred a different opponent for the first round. It is worth looking at how they match up against the Kings, as opposed to the Wild and the Stars, the most likely Wild Card candidates.
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