by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–Goaltender Antti Niemi’s rest in game six was not as much a benching as the San Jose Sharks wanted to see what backup goaltender Alex Stalock could do with the team in front of him. If you look at the corp of the team they were young players who all played with Stalock coming through the minors in Worcester the older corp had played with Niemi.

The move to put Stalock as starting goalie in game six was more to spark the team than bench a goalie. Now game seven is on the line and the Sharks basically have to go with the guy who brung you, he’s the number one goalie and he has been all year and if you play Stalock in game seven what does that say to Niemi your number one goalie someone that they have to start in game seven.

The Sharks are hoping that Niemi has one of his stellar games, he’s been had and he’s been standing on his head and he played a great game and he just can’t allow anything soft in game seven. He can play a hot game in game seven in the best of the seven series and Niemi has to go out there and do it.

Blalock kept the Sharks in the first period in a half of game six he kept them in the game, and he made some stellar saves. The Sharks feel more comfortable with going along with the puck than Niemi who is more a stay at homne guy and Niemi doesn’t have the stick handling skill that Stalock has so they went with Blalock in game six.

Stalock played a great game and the second goal was actually him getting pushed in. By the NHL rules thats an illegal goal that should have been a no goal it was counted and there’s nothing you could do about it and the whole team in front of him was upset. They were all pinching and trying to have an extra rush in the offensive zone and he burned on the odd man coming in because everybody was jumping in.

It’s great when everybody jumps in and everybody controls the puck but when everybody jumps in and you give up the puck and they all gang rush you the other way you can’t fault them in any of those as far as goals one, two, three and four.

You also have to give credit to the coaching of the L.A. Kings to come back like the way they did and that goes to head coach Darryl Sutter whose been around a long time and he really knows his hockey. He knows his players how not to fall into the trap. I absolutely enjoy all of his media time, his interviews their very quick and controlled with an answer or their very witty .

Sutter doesn’t give away too much it’s enough to make you wonder to ask “what did he just say” he’s not really straight forward he’s real vauge. He knows what to say and not what to say. He knows how not to fall in the traps of his answer of a question that he doesn’t want to answer, he’s a very smart hockey man.

Larry Leavitt does Stanley Cup Playoffs commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com