Author: M Walsh

Sharks Without Hertl for Game 3

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl who sat out game three vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals

SAN JOSE–Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer has confirmed that Tomas Hertl will not play in Saturday’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. He described Hertl’s injury as a lower body one. Of Hertl’s performance so far, DeBoer said:

He’s arguably been our best player for the first two games but injuries are no excuse this time of year, we’ve got someone who will go in for him and we’ll roll out there and be ready to play.

As for who will draw into the lineup, there is little mystery. When Matt Nieto returned to the lineup for Game 2, Dainius Zubrus was the odd man out. He will most likely be back in. On the subject of who will play in Hertl’s spot on the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, DeBoer said:

We’ve got a couple guys that’ve played in that hole before. Melker has before, and so has [Zubrus] played there before. I think the one thing that those two guys… you’ve got a guy that’ll hound the puck and work for it. Those two guys pretty much take care of the rest. I think we’ve got a lot of options there because of who we’re sticking them in with and I think it should be fairly seamless.

Sharks captain Joe Pavelski also weighed in on how Hertl has contributed to the team in the playoffs:

He’s been a big part of this team, especially the second half. You saw the smile on his face the last few rounds. He’s really enjoyed playing, he brings that energy. It’s tough to miss a guy like that if you have to. But somebody steps in, we’ve done it, we’ve done it for a while. We still expect a great effort from whoever comes in in a good role. We haven’t had a ton of injuries so there’s been somebody always ready to step in.

A the dust settles from Logan Couture’s comments on faceoffs, there remains the fact that the Sharks have not been very good in the faceoff circle. Among playoff teams, they have consistently been at the bottom in faceoff win percentage. It begs the question, what does the team do to still win the game, or 12 games, despite rarely starting with the puck? Logan Couture explained: “Get it back right away, put it in good places so we can forecheck and hold on to the puck in their end. There’s a few things you can do off a faceoff or forecheck that can turn the puck over.” So far, the Sharks have not been able to do any of those things very well against the Penguins. They will get another chance tonight.

Something else they will get a chance to do tonight is get back to their game. Apart from moving the puck quicker with simpler plays, thereby improving their execution, their forwards could probably backcheck more aggressively. Some time ago, I asked Sharks defenseman Paul Martin what it is about the Sharks that make them effective defensively:

[Jones] playing the puck, our forwards come back and support us and we rely on them to get out of the zone. I think everyone’s capable on our d-corps. When Roman [Polak] came over he kind of solidified that last pair and Brenden Dillon’s had  a break out year and he’s been great and he continues to improve. And the top four have been around for a while now. As far as experience, with [Vlasic] obviously, he’s a world class player, along with [Burns] they can bring something else that a lot of guys can’t.

I think we all can skate and get around the ice, and the ability to make that first pass out of the zone is big and I think we all understand the way we want to play. We all get along and so that’s big. The chemistry that we have is important.

Ironically, the formula Martin described there, with the forwards being as crucial to defense as defensemen are, pretty well describes how the Penguins have been playing. One has to wonder if it is even possible for two teams to play that way at the same time, or if they must first defuse their opponent’s arsenal.

The fact that Pete DeBoer has been here before, with the New Jersey Devils against the Los Angeles Kings, can only give fans so much comfort: his team forced a Game 6 but did not win the series. Is he hunting with a bigger boat this time?

Stanley Cup Final Preview: Sharks and Penguins

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By Mary Walsh

design presented by penguins.nhl.com: Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks digital preview design

In their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, the San Jose Sharks are in a good position to win, and so are the Pittsburgh Penguins. Not surprisingly, the two teams accumulated were very similar numbers on their way to the Final. Perhaps those are just the kind of numbers winners needed this year. Perhaps they are as irrelevant as statistics from the regular season. The Sharks and the Penguins could play each other four times or seven times, and it won’t add up to the number of games they played getting here. Games, and by association the series, can still be won or lost on a bounce. Either team could have trouble adjusting to a new sort of opponent, a heretofore unseen weakness could be exposed. This is why they play the games, because the NHL can’t award the championship based on past performance. Still, the likeness is uncanny.

Statistically, the Sharks and the Penguins are pretty even when you balance offensive and defensive numbers. The Sharks’ power play has a slightly higher success rate at 27%, with he Penguins scoring just 23.4% of the time. But balanced against the penalty kill, where the Penguins have been slightly better than the Sharks (83.4%-80.4%), the power play difference is even more negligible than 3.6%.

In shots per game, the Penguins have 35.1 where the Sharks have 28. San Jose’s Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns have taken 60 and 61 shots respectively, but Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel has thrown a whopping 73 shots at the net. Again, put next to the shots against per game, it evens out. The Sharks have allowed an average of 27.1 while the Penguins averaged 29.7.

In goals, the numbers are so close (Sharks at 3.5 and Penguins at 3.22) that a counterbalance is hardly necessary, which is a good thing for Pittsburgh since the Sharks have allowed an average of 2.28 while the Penguins allowed 2.39. That gives a tiny edge to the Sharks in the area of goal differential.

The counterbalance actually comes from the fact that the Penguins have shown greater depth in scoring. The Sharks have more goals but they have come from fewer players. The Sharks have seven skaters with five or more goals in these playoffs, and four more with two to four goals. That gives them eleven skaters with more than one goal. The Penguins have just five skaters with five or more goals but eight with two to four goals, for a total of thirteen skaters with more than one goal. It is not a big difference, but neither is the difference between how many goals the teams have scored on their way to the Final.

The Penguins may have an edge in experience because they do have some players who have competed for and won a Stanley Cup in the past. Only the Sharks’ goaltender Martin Jones can say that, though he did so as the backup goaltender. The Sharks have plenty of players with enough mileage that, if they do not know what it takes to win at this level, they will probably learn quickly. I would not put a lot of stock in the “been there” factor.

In goal, the teams have fairly similar situations. Both teams, coaches and players, have talked about how calm and unflappable their young goaltender are. Martin Jones has more NHL starter experience but he is still in his first season. He has not been replaced during the playoffs, he has started every game for the Sharks. Jones put together a .919 save percentage through the first three rounds, with the full demonstrable confidence of his coach and his team.

The fact that the Penguins’ Matt Murray came onto the scene later than Jones should not be held against him. Marc-Andre Fleury was the presumptive playoff starter for most of the season. That Murray had to earn his spot very recently could be an asset if he is still trying to establish himself. The Penguins did experiment, having Fleury start a game in Murray’s place, and Zatkoff started a game before Murray did. Even if any of that undermined Murray’s confidence, he still played well enough to help his team win. His save percentage has been .875. Jones seems to have the edge over Murray there, but those numbers can change quickly.

Ultimately, few of these comparisons matter. All of the games played to this point were conference exclusive. The Sharks’ numbers were against western teams, the Penguins’ against eastern. The Sharks had to defeat a recent Cup winner, and then defeat the team that defeated another recent winner. It would not be outrageous to say that it is harder to score a goal, or prevent one, in the west. But it would be pure speculation since the Final is the only time East meets West. Both teams earned their spot in this series, and the odds are good that they will both bring their best games yet.

Sharks Win Western Conference Final 4-2

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks celebrate their first Western Conference title in franchise history with the Western Conference title Cup on Wednesday night at SAP Center

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, by defeating the St. Louis Blues 5-2 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final. The 4-2 series win represents the first time the Sharks have prevailed in a conference final, the first time they will compete for the Cup.

Joe Pavelski scored the first goal of the game, Joonas Donskoi scored the fourth, Joel Ward scored the two in between and Logan Couture tidied up with an empty net goal. Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice for the Blues late in the third period. Sharks goaltender Martin Jones made 24 stops for the historic win, while Brian Elliott made 22 for the Blues.

It is the third time that some of the Sharks have been to the Western Conference Final, among these is Joe Thornton. He talked about the win after the game:

It’s a pretty cool feeling. Obviously it’s our first time here so it was pretty neat to get this done at home. Fans here have waited so long, 25 years, and we’ve waited” here he turned to verify with Patrick Marleau, “18 years or so. So it’s a great feeling. And this team, we’ve always said we’ve got a deep team and we truly believe we’ve got a deep team. And you saw tonight all twelve forwards played big parts, all six D played big parts and Joner played great. This is really truly a team effort from top to bottom.”

Patrick Marleau said he does not wonder why this group has made it so much farther than previous Sharks teams:

“We’re just enjoying the ride right now. We’ve had some really good teams over the years but like Joe was saying, this team’s a little bit different. The confidence we built over the regular season and now in the playoffs. I think winning on the road helped us get close as a group during the regular season and it carried over into the playoffs so far. Just having each other’s back out there and working for each other.

Head coach Pete DeBoer said that he believed this team could get this far right at the start of the season. This, despite or perhaps because of their troubled recent seasons:

They were coming off a down season but they were coming off a decade of great hockey. They had been well coached. Todd McLellan and the previous staff are as good as there are in the business. These guys had a great foundation. Right place, right time. Everyone was ready for something a little bit fresher and newer, not anything that much different. But that and the additions Doug [Wilson, Sharks GM] made, it just came together.

“I inherited a similiar team in New Jersey when I went there. Same type of thing, they had missed the playoffs for the first time in a long time the year before I got there. I think when you go into that situation, when you have really good people like there was in New Jersey when I went in there, like there was with this group. They’re pissed off, they’re embarassed by the year they just had and they’re willing to do and buy into whatever you’re selling to get it fixed again.”

Today I heard someone suggest that the other three teams in these conference finals get more air time than the San Jose Sharks do because there is nothing controversial about the Sharks. They are not swapping their goalies around, they are not switching their lines around, their star players are not underperforming, there is no supplementary drama. They just go out and do what they are supposed to do. But for fans of this team, this playoff run has been very dramatic, very suspenseful. They may be cheering like mad in the audience, but there are a lot of fans just holding their breath through every game.

The Sharks played up to that hum-drum reputation when Joe Pavelski got credit for the first goal of the game just 3:57 in. Assists went to Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl.

Apart from the last half minute of the period, the Sharks won the first period handily. Those final thirty seconds were getting out of hand, as the Sharks failed to clear several times and had the puck snatched away from them a few more. But they were saved by the bell and came away form the first with a 1-0 lead and a 9-5 shot advantage.

Seconds after that shot, play went the other way and the Tierney line wrought some havoc in the Blues’ zone. A Brent Burns shot went off Joel Ward’s stick for his fifth goal of the playoffs. Assists went to Burns and Tierney.

The Sharks earned their first power play when Troy Brouwer took an interference penalty early in the second period. San Jose’s power play did not convert but did bump their shot count to 13 without alowing the Blues to take a shot before close to the five minute mark of the period.

Scottie Upshall, back in the Blues lineup after sitting out the last three games, caught Tommy Wingels in the face with a high stick at 6:08 and drew blood, earning himself a double minor.

The four minutes of power play time seemed to lull the Sharks into complacency, or else it galvanized the Blues. The Blues took a couple of short-handed shots and the Sharks had more trouble getting through the neutral zone than they had previously. They accomplished the most immediate goal: of maintaining a two goal lead.

That was not enough for coach DeBoer. He used his timeout with just over five minutes left in the period. The Sharks had been scrambling and the Blues were making up ground on the shot clock. The end of the second had that in common with the end of the first: the Blues pushed the Sharks and Martin Jones had to make a few more stops. The Couture line had a good shift in the final 20 seconds but the Blues outshot the Sharks in the second, 11-10.

That second line picked up where they left off to start the third period, crowding into the Blues’ zone and making Elliott stop a shot from close in. It took them a few more shifts, but they finally caught what they were hunting: a third goal. It was only part of the Couture line. Ward was on the ice momentarily instead of Donskoi. As a result, he scored his second of the game and seventh of the playoffs. Assists went to Couture and Patrick Marleau.

The crowd went a little bit crazy. Richard Dean Anderson was shown helping duct tape Sharkie’s drum back together in one of the tunnels.

The Blues ruined the shut out with 8:21 left in the game. Vladimir Tarasenko got his first point in the series by way of a goal. Assists went to Jori Lehtera and Colton Parayko.

At 15:35, the teams were both penalized after a scuffle by the benches. Tommy Wingels (slashing) and Kevin Shattenkirk (cross-checking) both went to the box for two minutes. The Blues pulled Elliott for the additional skater and Tarasenko made a game of it with a second goal at 16:25. It squeezed through a gap between Jones’ blocker and the pipe. Assists went to Paul Stasny and Alex Pietrangelo. The Blues tried the same shot again a few seconds later but Jones adjusted.

The Blues continued to push right to the end of the period, until Logan Couture was able to put the puck in the empty net.

The Sharks will play the winner of the Eastern Conference Final in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday.

Blues Turn Tables On Sharks, Tie Series With 6-3 Win

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: St Louis Blues Jori Lentera (12) scores in the first period against the San Jose Sharks in game four at SAP Center on Saturday

SAN JOSE-Saturday’s Game 4 of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals was a complete reversal of Thursday’s 4-0 victory for San Jose. The St. Louis Blues tied the series 2-2 with a 6-3 victory, beating the San Jose Sharks in all three zones. The Blues’ power play went 2-4 while the Sharks’ power play went 0-4. Troy Brouwer and Kyle Brodziak each scored two goals for the Blues, with Jori Lehtera and Alex Pientrangelo adding to the tally. For the Sharks, Joe Pavelski, Chris Tierney and Melker Karlsson scored.

Oddly, the Sharks won on the shot clock and in the faceoff circle, the same way the Blues won those in the previous game. The fact that the Sharks were not shut out seems like a negligible detail.

It was the first time in these playoffs that Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer decided to pull goaltender Martin Jones from the game and put backup James Reimer in. It was a stark contrast to the consecutive shutouts that Jones pulled off in the last two games. On the performance of Jones, Sharks forward Tommy Wingels said afterwards:

We hung him out to dry tonight, he made some big saves there and he gave us a chance. We kept giving them more opportunities, odd-man rushes and guys alone at the net. So that’s certainly not on [Jones] at all, it’s on every guy in front of him.

It is anyone’s guess whether we will see these teams bring their best game to the same game in this series. The first game may have been the closest we will see, as each subsequent game has shown one team or the other at their best and the other very much not so. Of the Sharks’ performance Saturday, forward Logan Couture said: “We weren’t ourselves early. When you give a good team a two-nothing lead, and you give up a short-handed goal, that’s pretty much it.”

Tommy Wingels went into some detail about what the Sharks did wrong in this game:

We got away from our game. Our game is going north with it, it’s making plays where we’re there, it’s gettin pucks past their d-men, through the neutral zone and in on the forecheck. We got away from that, we turned pucks over, we turned it into a track meet for the first twenty, thirty minutes.

The only change in either lineup from Game 3 was Jake Allen, replacing goaltender Brian Elliott in the Blues net. After the game, Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock talked about the decision to put Jake Allen in net:

He gave us exactly what we needed. He’s a competitive son of a gun and we needed a battler in there. We needed somebody to really help us play better defense. And we played with more passion in front of him in our own zone because I made the goalie change. And I had to make that decision. But I just felt like we were allowing them too much easy space with [Elliott] in there. And [Elliott] was getting bombarded and we needed to just dig in a little bit deeper defensively if we were going to have a chance in this series.

Almost four minutes in, Roman Polak took a shot from the blue line that looked like it was in, at least from one end of the rink. A section in the audience got half way to their feet before seeing that it was not a goal. The crowd was ready and confident that any Shark could score from anywhere. The game did not fulfill their expectations.

Instead, five minutes in, the Sharks took the first penalty, a tripping call to Brent Burns. Before that power play was over, the Blues had taken the lead. The goal was Troy Brouwer’s, with assists to Robby Fabbri and Paul Stastny. Coach DeBoer challenged the play as offside but the goal stood up and the Sharks lost their timeout.

Shortly after the half way mark of the first, matters got worse for the Sharks. Jori Lehtera took a shot that Jones stopped, and the rebound went to the other side of the crease, where Robby Fabbri was waiting. Jones got across and stopped two shots, but a third rebound went out front to Lehtera, who put it under a prone Brent Burns and into the net.

The Sharks had their first power play a few seconds fater that, an interference call on Paul Stastny. The first power play unit did not look their worst, but they were not as sharp as they have been. The Blues took advantage of some poor passes and overdressed plays and killed the penalty. The second unit had no more success, and only a little less time. The first unit went off the ice with just under a minute left in the power play.

The next power play came with just 21 seconds remaining in the period, and it went to the Blues. As they waited for a delayed slashing call on Vlasic, another shooter drew Jones away from the net and got the puck behind him. Burns was there again he knocked the puck away.

Just over half way through the Vlasic penalty, Logan Couture put the puck over the glass and gave the Blues a two man advantage for 48 seconds. The Sharks survived both penalties and got a round of applause for it.

Their next power play, though, earned applause only from the Blues fans in the building.
Jaden Schwartz and Kyle Brodziak escapaed through the neutral zone with the puck, attacking two on one against Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Schwartz passed and Brodziak shot at the far corner on Jones, scoring his first of the playoffs short handed at 6:09, while Kevin Shattenkirk sat in the box for interference. An assist went to Jaden Schwartz. Their escape was explained by Joe Thornton after the game: “It was going to [Pavelski] and Pav thought [Couture] was behind him so he let it go. But it was just one of those plays where usually we make that happen and it just didn’t.”

The Blues’ second even strength goal came just after the half way point of the second. This one looked a lot like the previous one, when Jones had to get from one side of the net to the other and ended up too far from the center of his crease, giving [] an open net to shoot at. After that fourth goal, Peter DeBoer did the same thing Ken Hitchcock did in Game 3: he replaced the goalie. James Reimer hit the ice for the first time in the playoffs.

A minute or so later, a puck hit the netting above the Blues net, which caused the official to blow his whistle. When the puck landed, Hertl knocked the puck inth=o the Blues net. That got a reaction out of the Blues and got ?Hertl all tangled up in a scuffle. Oddly, the officials felt that Thornto ought to go to the box, along with Brouwer, both for roughing, but not each other.

The Four on four play seemed to favor the Sharks, or maybe it was the Blues sitting back on their 4-0 lead. In any case, the penalties elapsed and the score was still 4-0.

As the second wound to an end, the score stood at 4-0 and the shots were 21-15, both in favor of the visitors.

1:05 into the third period, the Sharks pushed back a little. The Thornton-Pavelsk-Hertl line worked their way into the offensive zone, accompanied by the Sharks wrecking ball defenseman, Burns. Burns took one of this familiar skates around behind the net to loosen things up and then made his way back out to the top of the slot. This all seemed to be a distraction as the puck got back to Joe Thornton while Joe p/avelski was making his way to the net.Hertl was already there, possibly screening Allen’s view of Thornton’s pass to Pavelski. It was Pavelski’s tenth goal of the playoffs, Thornton’s 11th assist and Martin’s 4th.

The Blues put the kibosh on the Shark’s excellent third period start when Joel Ward put the puck over the glass at 3:48. Just seven seconds into the power play, Troy Brouwer put the puck around Reimer, off the post and in. Assists went to Alexander Steen and Paul Stastny.

The next attack came the Sharks’ third line of Chris Tierney, Joel Ward and Melker Karlsson. It started with an uncustomary skate deep into the offensive zone, by Justin Braun. That set off a chain reaction that had the Blues scrambling around the energy and quickness of Tierney and Karlsson. They put at least four shots in the direction of the net before one went in at 6:57. The goal went to Chris Tierney with an assist to Melker Karlsson.

The Sharks had another power play at 7:07, but all they got for that was some padding for their shot count. Yet another power play came their way at 10:51. Stastny was in the box again, this time for tripping Chris Tierney. Still the Sharks power play could not launch.

With more than four minutes left, DeBoer pulled Reimer for the extra skater. All that accomplished was the Blues’ sixth goal into an empty net.

With Reimer back in the net, a good push by San Jose’s third line resulted in the Blues’ scoring an own goal while trying to clear Tierney’s pass out of Karlsson’s reach.

With 2:11 left, after a group discussion around the faceoff circle, Brenden Dillon and Carl Gunnarson came to blows. The crowd deemed Dillon to be the winner. Both players left the game. Alexander Steen and Tommy Wingels also received ten minute misconducts.

The final shot count was 34-27 San Jose.

Game 5 will be in St. Louis on Monday at 5:00 PT.

Sharks Shut Out Blues Again, Take 2-1 Series Lead

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Joonas Donskoi (27) takes goes for the victory lap from the Sharks bench after scoring in the second period in game three of Thursday night’s game at SAP Center

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks took a 2-1 series lead over the St. Louis Blues with a 3-0 victory in San Jose. It was the first time that the Sharks had two consecutive shutouts in the playoffs, and the first time in a Conference Final. Though the Sharks looked unsteady in the first few minutes of the game, they made the most of their chances and limited the Blues to not very good ones.

Two goals came from Tomas Hertl, with the middle tally from Joonas Donskoi. Martin Jones made 22 saves for the Sharks. David Backes led the Blues in shots, and Brian Elliott made 11 saves on 14 shots before being replaced in the third period. Allen made two saves in relief.

The Sharks did not get off to a good start. That may be an understatement, as they looked like they are on a penalty kill when they were at even strength. The first line to muster any offensive zone time in those terrible five minutes was the fourth line. After that, the second line spent some time there, and the others followed suit. After almost seven minutes of play, the Blues had three shots to the Sharks’ 1 but that does not express how unbalanced the game had been.

The ten minute mark seemed to be the witching moment for San Jose, as the team found their legs and started launching some concerted attacks on the Blues net. Nick Spaling backed up a little too close to Blues goaltender Brian Elliott, but even though Elliott advertised the contact by throwing his mask off, no penalty was called. Later, Marc-Edouard Vlasic had a near miss but the pass was just out of reach. The Sharks almost made up the difference in shots by the end of the period. San Jose also had three odd man rushes by the 12 minute mark, while the Blues had none.

The changes to the Blues lineup showed some promise early. Dimitri Jaskin and Colton Parayko had some strong shifts in the Sharks’ zone later in the first period.

The Sharks were still trailing on the shot clock, 3-7, when a ragged-looking odd man rush by the Sharks’ top line put the puck in the back of the net. Joe Thornton picked the puck up in the neutral zone, and made a short pass to Joe Pavelski as he crossed the blue line. He quickly sent the puck in across the slot, where Tomas Hertl was headed. Hertl gathered the puck up and shot it by Elliott for his fourth goal of the playoffs. Assists went to Pavelski and Thornton.

At the end of the first, Alex Pietrangelo was called for charging and the Sharks started the second period with 1:57 of power play time. Nothing came of it, but the Sharks looked very composed. The Blues, by comparison, failed to take advantage of some fast and loose plays that left the puck up for grabs. Still, the Blues were leading in shots four minutes into the second, 9-8.

The Sharks finally caught the Blues on the shot clock with their second goal of the game, and Joonas Donskoi’s fourth of the post season. Logan Couture carried the puck into the zone and sent a pass back to Donskoi as he crossed the blue line. After looking like he might pass it to another skater in the zone, Donskoi took the shot from high in the slot. Marleau was right in front of the net and Elliott probably did not have a clean view of the shot.

The Blues had their first power play of the game at 15:01 of the second, when Couture went to the box for high sticking Patrick Berglund. The Blues held the zone very effectively and added a couple of shots to their tally but did not change the score.

Early in the third period, the Blues put fierce pressure on the Sharks, adding three shots in the first three minutes and getting the Sharks a little off balance. Six minutes into the period, the Sharks still had no shots on goal.

That first one was a doozy, as it gave the Sharks a 3-0 lead. Tomas Hertl’s second goal of the game was scored with a very simple shot from close in, that went under Elliott. Joe Thornton got the puck to him with a pass around the boards, which he picked up behind the net and skooted ot in front for the shot. Assists went to Thornton and Pavelski. After that goal, Jake Allen took the Blues net.

The Blues pulled Allen as well with over five minutes left in the game. They were able to hold the zone for about 30 seconds before sending it over the blue line themselves. Jones made some good stops but after about a minute of six on five play, the Sharks drove the game back into the neutral zone and took a swipe or two at the empty net. Logan Couture missed one, Tomas Hertle had one blocked. To their credit, the Blues did not give the Sharks much time for those shots.

With just 44.4 left in the game, Alex Pietrangelo went to the box for elbowing. The Blues kept their net empty and held the Sharks’ zone pretty well with the extra skater, but they could not break the shutout.

Game Four will be Saturday at 4:15 PT in San Jose.

Sharks and Blues: Western Conference Final Preview

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: St Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott stops a shot from the San Jose Sharks Patrick Marleau 12 as Blues defenceman Cotton Parayko 55 watches on Sunday night in the third period

The Western Conference Final is upon us. Past results reveal that the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues have followed very similar paths to this point, and neither team is a clear choice for favorite. Even intangibles cannot give us a hint. Both San Jose and St. Louis are hungry for success. The Sharks have never made it to the Stanley Cup Final, and the Blues have not been there since 1970. They both unseated recent Cup winners in the first round. They both defeated up and coming teams in the second round, by the a five goal margin, in the seventh game. The likeness is uncanny, and utterly proper. The final teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs should be equals, it is only right that the results be entirely unpredictable. The results of the Stanley Cup Final could be easier to predict, especially with the Eastern teams taking such heavy casualties after just one game. I predict that the Western team will win the Cup, and that team will be from a city named after a saint.

A glance at the current NHL Leaderboard shows three Sharks leading in playoff scoring categories. In points, goals, and assists, Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns top those charts. Logan Couture is in the top three in all of those categories, while Pavelski and Burns are top five in two. The Blues have two players in each of these categories, with Vladimir Tarasenko listed in the top five in points and goals, Robby Fabbri top ten in points and assists, and David Backes ranked fifth in goals. The teams are pretty close when it comes to high ranking for their top scorers.

Those numbers tell us which players the opponent will zero in on defensively. They also tell us, by omission, which players previous opponents probably spent most of their defensive energy on. For the Sharks, Joe Thornton did not rack up quite as many points as he might be expected to, especially being one of Joe Pavelski’s linemates. Joel Ward fell from fifth to eighth on the team in goals. Tomas Hertl dropped from fourth to ninth on the team in goals. Patrick Marleau should have produced more, especially since he spent so much time not on a line with Couture or Thornton. I say that because he should have been able to slip under the radar of the Kings or the Predators, if the top lines drew top defense away. So either Marleau did get the defensive attention he can deserve, or he just was not playing that well. Either way, he is one who could suddenly start producing in this series.

Even if underproducing players do not break out, how many goal scorers has it taken to get the Sharks this far, compared to the Blues? The Sharks have seven players with three or more goals in these playoffs. Apart from the league leaders mentioned above, the Sharks have four goals from Marleau, three each from Thornton, Chris Tierney, and Joonas Donskoi. Joel Ward, Tomas Hertl and Melker Karlsson have two each. Matt Nieto and Tommy Wingels each have one tally.

For the Blues, eight players have scored three or more goals. Tarasenko has seven, Backes has six, Troy Brouwer has five, Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund each have four, while Robby Fabbri, Jaden Schwartz and Paul Stasny each have three. Seven more St. Louis skaters have one or two goals. During the regular season, Tarasenko also led his team in goals, and the rest of the top six were essentially the same as they have been in the playoffs: Backes, Brouwer, Fabbri and Steen.

Though none of the Blues defensemen can challenge Brent Burns in the scoring department, St. Louis has gotten more points from their defense than the Sharks have. They have four defensemen with four or more points, Kevin Shattenkirk leading there with ten points. The Sharks have four defensemen with three or more points, Justin Braun and Paul Martin having just three.

The Blues have three more goal scorers than the the Sharks have, but the Sharks have scored .28 more goals per game. The Blues have given up a few more goals (2.43) than the Sharks have (2.33), if you go by games played. One could argue that the Sharks should not have it held against them that they did not give up goals in games they did not play by defeating the Kings so quickly. But since the Blues and the Sharks will play the same number of games in this series, games played is probably a better measure than total goals against.

The Sharks’ 30.9% power play is the best among teams in the final four. The Blues are right behind them with a 27.5% success rate. The Sharks’ penalty kill is a couple of ranking spots higher than the Blues, with San Jose at 82.3% and St. Louis at 79.5%. Either of those special team rankings could be reversed in the course of a single game, so again the teams are darn close.

The Blues gave up more shots (31.3) per game than the Sharks did (28.5) , but not many more. The Blues played Chicago and Dallas, while the Sharks played Los Angeles and Nashville. The habits of their respective opponents may have skewed those figures. During the regular season games, the Sharks consistently outshot the Blues, but usually by a fairly small margin.

In the playoffs, faceoff win percentages are be heavily influenced by the opponent, but it is still worth looking at. The Blues have been better at 50.7 % than the Sharks at 46.2%. Both teams were better during the regular season, but the Blues were a little better there too at 51.3% to the Sharks’ 50.7%. Thornton and Hertl are the only Sharks who have won better than 50% of their faceoffs in the first two rounds, and Hertl has only taken 20 draws. For the Blues, Paul Stastny, David Backes and Jori Lehtera took the lion’s share of faceoffs in both the regular season and the playoffs, and all three are over 50%. Paul Stastny won an impressive 59% of his draws in the first two rounds.

Could it come down to goaltending? Brian Elliott gives the Blues and edge in save percentage (.929-.918), Jones has the edge in goals against average (2.16-2.29), and they each have one shutout. Elliott is the more seasoned starter, but he has never gotten so far in the playoffs. Jones has seen his team win a Cup, but was only there as a backup. Both teams have above-average backups, but only the Blues’ Jake Allen saw any ice time in the first two rounds. Again, and again and again, the Sharks and the Blues look so close on paper that neither clearly has an edge.

The victor will be the team that bests their best first.

Sharks Finish Off Preds With 5 Goal Shutout

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski scores first goal of the game in the first period against the Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne and Shea Weber at SAP Center Thursday night

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks came up with a resounding Game Seven win against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. The 5-0 victory means that the Sharks will advance to face the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference Finals. It is somewhat surprising that both of the NHL’s 2016 Western Conference finalists won their second round series in Game Sevens by a margin of five goals. After the Blues defeated Dallas on Wednesday 6-1, the odds had to be long against the Sharks accomplishing a similar feat a day later. But they did.

It has been a while since the Sharks went to the Conference Final. The Sharks’ Logan Couture offered an insight into how he is approaching the next step:

My first two years we made it to Conference Finals, you think it’s easy. You think it’s going to come every year and it doesn’t. So I think it makes you realize that you’ve really got to take advantage of the chances that you do. When you get there you have a very good team, you’ve got to take advantage of it.

A 5-0 victory was not what anyone expected between San Jose and Nashville in Game 7. The teams were pretty well matched through six games, and had fought their way to a third overtime period once. Martin Jones played well, but only faced 20 shots, 12 of those coming in the third period. Nashville’s Pekka Rinne was relieved half way through the third period. The Sharks’ best players were their best players, while Nashville’s were not. Sharks goals came from five different players and the power play to boot. Logan Couture set a new franchise record for points in a playoff series with his eleventh on Thursday.

After the game, Joe Thornton pointed to the Sharks’ depth as key to the win and the series success:

We roll four lines, we roll 16. I think we have so much trust with each other that whoever goes over that board we just have confidence will do the job. You saw it tonight.

A quick look at the game stats reveals a comparatively flat ice time distribution for the Sharks forwards. Thornton saw the most ice time at 17:04, while Dainius Zubrus had the least at 12:58. The confidence and trust that Thornton describes seems to be well placed. None of the lines looked particularly vulnerable against the Predators on Thursday.

It was hard to reconcile the Sharks team we saw Thursday with the one seen in Nashville on Monday, when the Predators came away with the overtime win in Game 6. Logan Couture explained:

I think guys just wanted to get out there and put that game six behind us and move on and we were saying just establish the forecheck, get it in on their D. Make this building tough to play in like it’s been in the past and that’s what we did.

Tommy Wingels was back in the lineup after sitting out two games. He had a nice breakaway early in the first. His shot bounced out of Rinne’s glove for an enticing rebound, but no one was there to take advantage of it for the Sharks. That was slightly anomalous for the first five minutes of the game, as the Sharks outshot the Predators 6-1. The teams spent the majority of that time in the Nashville zone.

The Sharks got their first power play at 8:22 of the period, at which time the Predators still only had one shot on goal. It was a cruel but bloodless penalty for the Predators: Viktor Arvidsson went to the box for sending the puck over the glass. The Sharks had a hard time getting their power play rolling. In the first 12 seconds, they struggled to keep the puck in, then the Predators sent it onto the bench and they just could not get things going.

25 or so seconds later, Thornton made a pass from the half wall to Marlowe on the goal line. Marlowe made a quick pass back up to Pavelski in front of the net and Pavelski put it home on the far top corner. It was Pavelski’s ninth goal of the playoffs. Assists went to Marlowe and Thornton.

The Predators took their second shot some time in the tenth minute of the period. They still had not taken a third when Marc-Edouard Vlasic knocked the puck off a Nashville stick. Melker Karlsson picked it up and sent Joel Ward in on a breakaway. Ward skated around defender Roman Jossi, then delayed long enough to draw Rinne out of the crease, and put the puck behind the goalie to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead. There were just over three minutes remaining in the first. Assists went to Melker Karlsson. It was Ward’s second goal of the playoffs.

With 1:38 remining in the first, Nashville’s Shea Weber went to the box for interference against Dainius Zubrus, giving the Sharks a second power play. The Sharks did not score, leaving just 22 seconds on the power play to start the second period.

At the end of the first, the shots were 17-3 San Jose. In the faceoff circle, the Sharks imnproved significantly over previous games in this series, winning 67% of the draws.

The Sharks did not score during those last 22 seconds of power play time, but 14 seconds later Logan Couture picked up a misplayed puck and skated in to score his seventh of the playoffs.

The Sharks followed that up with a tremendous couple of minutes, capped by an attack from San Jose’s fourth line that had Pekka Rinne all out of sorts. A couple of chances found Rinne out of his net but the puck bounced over the cross bar each time.

Five minutes into the second period, the Sharks were leading by three goals and 13 shots. Twelve minutes in and the Predators were looking completely overmatched. The Sharks did not exactly ressemble the Globetrotters but they were moving the puck around the Nashville zone without much resistance at all. Nashville blocked their shots and kept them away from rebounds, but that seemed to be all they could do.

At the end of the second period, Mattias Ekholm was called for cross-checking Tommy Wingels, so the Sharks started the third on another power play.

32 seconds into that power play, the Sharks entered the zone four on one. Logan Couture had a chance to carry the puck into the slot and take a shot. The puck hit Rinne’s pads and stalled just outside the goal line, and Joe Thornton was right there to touch it in the rest of the way. It was Thornton’s third of the post season, and Couture received the only assist.

If a three goal lead is dangerous, then you could say that Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture put the game back into the safe zone fifth goal at 3:54 of the third. A quick pass up ice from Joonas Donskoi sent Marleau and Couture away on a two on one. The Sharks skaters played the puck back and forth and got Rinne sliding across. Marleau put the puck over him for his fourth of the playoffs.

Carter Hutton came in to replace Rinne after that.

With 5:26 to go in the game, Sharks defenseman Justin Braun was called for interference, giving the Predators their first power play, but it did not change the outcome.

The Sharks will start their series against the Blues on Sunday in St. Louis at 5:00 PT.

Sharks Thump Preds 5-1

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski and teammates enjoy the jubilation after Pavelski’s goal against the Nashville Predators in game five at SAP Center Saturday night

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Sharks roundly defeated the Nashville Predators by a score of 5-1 on Saturday. Most of the games in this series, including the triple overtime Game 4, have been much closer than that. On Saturday, it certainly seemed that the Sharks had no interest in any more overtime. They kept playing right up to the final horn.

Two goals came from Joe Pavelski, one from Melker Karlsson, one from Logan Couture and one from Patrick Marleau. Joonas Donskoi and Justin Braun each had two assists and Maetin Jones made 24 saves on 25 shots. The lone Nashville goal was scored by Mike Fisher, while Pekka Rinne made 23 saves on 27 shots.

Game 5 of the series is one the Sharks won and the Predators lost against their respective first round opponents. For them to repeat the pattern in the second round allows for tempting parallels. Nashville’s head coach Peter Laviolette was asked about how that first round experience can apply to this second round.

I think any time you’re in playoff hockey, experiences that you gain, good and bad, you learn from them. Just because we did something last round…. we gotta put the work in and make sure that we’re playing the game with the attitude that we need to be successful. So, yeah, we can take things from that but we’ve got to change our mindset here.

Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer made a few changes to his lineup before the fifth game of their series against the Nashville Predators. He replaced forward Tommy Wingels with Dainius Zubrus, and recomposed the fourth line to include Zubrus, Melker Karlsson and Nick Spaling. Patrick Marleau moved to the second line with Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi, and Joel Ward played with Chris Tierney and Matt Nieto.

Of the changes to the second line, DeBoer said after the game: “I thought it was Patty’s best game of the series and that line was excellent all night. Some changes work, and tonight that change worked.”

DeBoer also explained the other changes to his lines, which hinged somewhat on the performance of Chris Tierney:

I think there was a couple of things. I think the play of Tierney, I think he has been playing well. I felt he could jump into that third line role. Spaling’s naturally a center, that allowed him to get back into position. But we’re not comfortable making that move unless Tierney’s playing well and he has been playing well.

The end result of all this was a 5-1 win, giving the Sharks a 3-2 series lead over the Nashville Predators. The Predators were in this same spot against the Anaheim Ducks in the first round. They came back to win games six and seven. After Saturday’s game, Predators head coach Peter Laviolette talked about what a team can learn from that sort of comeback:

The first few minutes of the game looked like a Predators penalty kill, the Sharks spent that much time in the offensive zone. After six inutesm the shots were 7-1 Sharks. By the ten minute mark, the Predators had closed the gap to 8-3 Sharks. The Sharks were shooting a lot in the first period.

That new line scored the first goal. Donskoi got control of the puck in the left corner, and danced around with it a bit, finally heading behind the net. The Predators didn’t quite buy it but they bit enough and started to follow him. He made a quick backhand reverse pass in the direction of Logan Couture, who was below the faceoff circle. Patrick Marleau was also closing on that spot and as the puck came between two defenders, Marleau put it in the net. It was Marleau’s third goal of the post season, and Donskoi’s third assist.

The Predators tied it at 15:40 after Colin Wilson’s pass from behind the net found James Neal on the inside edge of the faceoff circle. Neal had to reach for the puck so his pass was not very hard, but it got to Mike Fisher by the blue paint. Fisher had an open net with Jones high in the crease.

The Sharks took the lead back at 17:21 with a goal from Joe Pavelski. The Sharks circled the net with passes, from Thornton to Burns, to a wide shot collected by Hertl to the left of the net and passed back around the boards to Thornton. They repeated the same cycle a couple of times, with any strays cleaned up by Marc-Edouard Vlasic at the other point. After this routine had time to hypnotize everyone, Thornton changed it up and sent the pass to Pavelski, who was hanging out in the slot. His one timer went home for his seventh goal of the post season, with assists to Thornton and Vlasic.

At the end of the first, the shots were 13-11 Sharks.

35 seconds into the second period, Logan Couture took advantage of a Predators turnover in the neutral zone, and skated in all alone. He made a few quick moves with the puck and, when Rinne came out to meet him a little bt, he went for a back hand that went through the five hole. It was Couture’s fifth goal of the playoffs, with assist to Donskoi and Justin Braun.

The Sharks took the first penalty of the game when Brenden Dillon was called for interference.

Jones stopped a shot from the blue line in the first few seconds. Spaling cleared 30 seconds in, and the Sharks changed penalty killers. Around 1 minute in, the Sharks cleared it again. A few seconds after the next faceoff, the Sharks cleared it again, and a few seconds later, again. Then they knocked it down into the Nashville zone while still in the neutral zone. Almost as soon as the penalty ended, the Sharks were back on the attack in Nashville territory.

The Sharks got their first power play of the game when Roman Josi went to the box for interference on Logan Couture. The penalty came with just 46 seconds left in the period. The Sharks did not need that much time. Joe Pavelski scored just nine seconds into the penalty, off a pass that came from Patrick Marleau behind the net. It was Pavelski’s second of the game.

Ryan Johansen did not like any of that so he tried to bait Paul Martin. Martin did not respond, and eventually Johansen’a antics got him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with just 12.5 seconds left in the period.

The Sharks did not start the third on a power play, because with 2.1 seconds left in the second, Joel Ward received a 4 minute minor for high sticking. So the Predators started most of two minutes with the man advantage almost two minutes into the third. The Sharks killed it off, but near the end of it Logan couture blocked a shot that seemed to sting.

He was back out for his next shift.

The Predators finally caught the Sharks on the shot clock with 5:41 left in the game, when the teams were tied at 23. The Sharks did not let up either, and continued to launch serious attacks on the Nashville net.

With 3:59 left in the game, the teams played four on four for just under a minute before the Sharks had a four on three power play.

Ryan Johansen went off for unsportsmanlike conduct, for two minutes and a ten minute misconduct. Also gone for ten minutes was Mike Ribeiro. Joe Thornton went to the box for two minutes for slashing. 57 seconds into the four on four, Nashville’s Anthony Bitetto went to the box for tripping.

That left just over one minute for the teams to play at even strength. The Sharks scored again with 49.7 seconds remaining in the game. Carter Hutton, now in goal for Nashville, was a little late getting back to his net after playing the puck behind the net. Melker Karlsson took a quick shot as he to the crease. Assists went to Chris Tierney and Justin Braun.

Final score: 5-1 Sharks. Game Six will be in Nashville on Monday at 6:00 PT.

Sharks Hang On To Beat Predators 3-2, Take 2-0 Series Lead

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

USA Today photo: San Jose Sharks Martin Jones stops a shot by the Nashville Predators in game two at SAP Center on Sunday

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Sharks took a 2-0 series lead with a 3-2 victory against the Nashville Predators. Four of the goals were scored in the second half of the third, three of those in the final three minutes. It was not the Sharks’ best game, defensively or offensively, but it got the job done. After the game, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said as much:

We won and in the playoffs you’ve got to win all kinds of different ways. I really liked our first period. I thought their desperation level was just a little bit higher than ours in the second and third. I think that’s what you saw, and rightfully so. You got a team that is facing going down two game and no one wants to lose the first two game of a series. We knew their desperation level was going to be high and we found a way to weather it and Jonesy was fantastic and the important this is we won.

The win was significant also for being a home game. Not only have the Sharks been better on the road, but the Nashville Predators have too, at least in the first round of these playoffs. The Sharks were out shot and out hit on Sunday but they won where it mattered. Goals were scored by Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, and a game winner from Joe Thornton. Martin Jones made 37 saves for the win. Mattias Eckholm and Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne made 22 saves.

Craig Smith was back in the Nashville lineup after missing Game 1. The first period did not look anything like the first period of the first game. This time, both teams started fast and earned chances early. They were slim chances, with no one having much room to choose a shot or get in position to make a play.

The Sharks were the beneficiary of that speedy play, in the form of an early power play. Roman Josi was called for cross-checking Chris Tierney at 6:24. The Sharks’ power play started out very well, with the Predators giving San Jose plenty of room to get set up. A rather cavalier behind-the-back pass from Joe Thornton to Logan Couture exemplified how composed the Sharks were with the man advantage. Yet that excess of time and space did not benefit the Sharks in the most practical sense: they did not score.

At even strength, the fourth line was very effective, making the Nashvile defense burn a lot of defensive fuel and block shots.

The Sharks went on the penalty kill at 13:38 when Joel Ward was called for tripping. Karlsson got the first clear, Couture the second, Dillon a third. The Predators got three shots through to Jones but he stopped them.

As the first ended, the Predators led the Sharks in shots by 10-7. That count did not include the ten shots that Nashville blocked. The Sharks had blocked five.

The Sharks started the second mostly trapped in their own zone. When they finally escaped, they came out with their best chance to that point. Couture and Donskoi went fast down the left wing and Couture managed to get a shot off. Rinne kicked out a rebound but Donskoi could not elevate it enough to beat Rinne’s right pad.

As the second period wore on, the Predators dominated on the shot clock and continued to block shots. By the 13 minute mark, Nashville had 11 shots to the Sharks’ 4.

At 15:16, the Sharks were penalized for too many men on the ice. The penalty kill started out fairly chaotic, with a snarl of bodies just in front of the blue paint. Finally they got untangled, with broken sticks sliding around and no one really able to control the puck. From that helter-skelter start, the Sharks pulled off another kill that ended with a short handed chance. Matt Nieto and Marc-Edouard Vlasic made a nice play but Rinne stopped them.

The Predators took their own too many men penalty shortly thereafter. Trying to avoid the call, Roman Josi tried to get off the ice by climbing over the wall in front of the Sharks bench. That did not pass muster. After the game, DeBoer was asked about the incident: “I’ve never seen that before. 25-30 years of hockey, and I’ve never seen that situation before. I don’t know, it’s a good question. I’m assuming it’s a rule, that they’re not allowed to change into our bench.”

32 seconds into that power play, a Brent Burns shot produced a rebound for Logan Couture to put away. Couture had been lurking around behind the net, making an inconspicious pass or two, then moving in front of the net just as the puck made its way to Burns. Burns did not have to wait long after receiving the puck from Thornton before taking his shot. Pavelski deflected the shot which created a rebound for Couture, who had an open net. It was Couture’s fourth goal of the playoffs. Assists went to Pavelski and Burns.

At the end of the second period, the Sharks led 1-0, despite their shot deficit of 16-25 for the game. The Sharks had blocked ten shots in the second, while the Predators had blocked twelve.

The Sharks found themselves short handed again 6:34 into the third. Brenden Dillon was called for roughing. He Just 23 seconds into the kill, Marc-Edouard Vlasic was hit in the head by a Shea Weber shot. He stayed down for a spell before returning to the bench. He did not go to the room.

At 12:56 of the third, Nashville tied it up. Mattias Eckholm took a shot from the blue line, just as three skaters converged in front of Martin Jones. The shot went just wide of Jones’ glove.

The Sharks got it back at 17:23. Thornton skated into the slot and passed the puck to Matt Nieto on the wing. Nieto waited until the last moment to take a shot. Rinne stopped the shot but it bounced off of a Nashville skater and landed in front of Joe Pavelski. He put it where it belonged. It was an unlocky bounce for Nashville, especially coming so late in the game. Assists went to Nieto and Thornton.

The Predators responded by pulling Rinne with more than two minutes to go. They sustained pressure for about a minute before a puck went over the glass and Nashville used their time out. When play resumed with a defensive zone draw for the Sharks, Pavelski controlled the puck and passed it out of the zone. Joe Thornton was on his way through the neutral zone when Pavelski’s pass found him. Thornton took his time and put the puck in the empty net.

Nashville responded with a furious attack on the Sharks’ net. With just 1.6 seconds to go, Ryan Johansen scored, making Thornton’s empty net goal the game winner.

The series now moves to Nashville for Game Three on Tuesday at 6:00 PT.

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In case you missed the black cat tale from Game 1, you can read the updated version with video at NHL.com here: Sharks working to find home for ‘Joe Paw-velski’

NHL Playoffs, Game 1, Round 2: Sharks Take Preds Down 5-2

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Joel Ward 42 celebrates scoring goal with teammates in third period in game one at SAP Center

SAN JOSE– The Sharks beat the Nashville Predators in the first game of the NHL’s Western Conference Semi-Finals. The Sharks won by a score of 5-2, with goals from four different shooters. Logan Couture scored a power play goal and an empty netter. Tomas Hertl, Joel Ward and Tommy Wingels all added to the tally. Mike Fisher and Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne made 33 saves on 36 shots. Martin Jones made 29 saves for the Sharks on 31 Nashville shots.

The Sharks looked tentative in the first period, as did the Predators. Perhaps the teams were feeling each other out, perhaps the Sharks were rusty and the Preds tired, but not very much happened in the first period. By the third period, the Sharks were firing on all cylinders and running away with the game. Sharks fans can only hope this is indicative of how the team will play this series.

The game was uneventful until one of the Nashville skaters tripped over a breaking Sharks and fell into Pekka Rinne, taking out the goalie and his net. That play was reviewed but no goal was awarded.

The next noteworthy event was a penalty called against Melker Karlsson for hooking. The Sharks’ penalty kill started pretty well, with play moving out of the Sharks zone and into the Predators’ zone for a good part of a shift. Nashville eventually made it back in and stayed a spell but the Sharks did not give them much to shoot at. Nashville had a couple of better chances just after the penalty expired but the Sharks kept the puck out of their net.

The Sharks made a good push during the final minutes of the first period, hemming the Preds in and evening up the shot count. For most of the period, the Sharks trailed in shots by a few. At the end of the period, the Predators led 12-11, but the score was still tied at nil.

The second period started out stoppage-heavy. It seemed like one every 10 seconds but that probably was not the case. At 2:45, Matt Nieto was called for tripping Colin Wilson, which the crowd booed with gusto.

The Sharks’ penalty kill looked like it would be successful, with the Predators being evicted frequently from the offensive zone. In the final seconds of the power play, the Predators took the lead. Mike Fisher caught a pass from Ryan Johansen and held the puck for a moment while drifting backwards into the faceoff circle. He took his shot and it went by three Sharks, including Martin Jones.

The Sharks’ first power play came from an interference call on Eric Nystrom at 5:31. The Sharks’ power play did not score but it was a sight to see. The Predators got the puck out in the first 10 seconds and then not again until the last few. The Sharks put a lot of shots at the net, though few got through. The penalty killers blocked a lot of shots and looked weary by the end of it.

Trailing by a goal, the Sharks did wake up. The Predators did not have a shot on goal [between 11:03 and 2:11 left.], and then they had two before the period ended.

Fifty seconds into the third period, Ryan Johansen was called for holding and the Sharks went on their second power play. This power play did not start up as well as their first power play. It took the Sharks good forty seconds to finally get set up, and then Nashville booted them out after just a couple of chances. The second unit came on (Ward, Vlasic, Hertl, Donskoi and Martin) and changed things up. They started by carrying the puck over the line instead of dumping it in. After that, they survived a broken stick, holding the zone while it was replaced. As the penalty time ran down, Joel Ward took a pass from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and sent it along to Tomas Hertl. Hertl was posted at the corner of the net and quickly put it past Rinne to tie the game. Assists went to Ward and Vlasic.

Ward picked up another point almost ten minutes later, when he took a pass from Joonas Donskoi as they skated into the zone. Ward had enough space to duck one way and go the other, freezing Rinne at the top of his crease. Ward then put the puck behind the goaltender, who reached back with his glove and either missed the puck or knocked it in. It was Ward’s first goal of this post-season, with assists to Donskoi and Brent Burns.

Things deteriorated from there for Nashville. With 4:40 left in the game, Calle Jarnkrok was called for high-sticking Donskoi. Seconds into the power play, Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski skated in, moved the puck back and forth a couple of times, and scored again. It was Logan Couture’s goal, that he lifted lightly over Rinne’s pad from close range.

Nashville pulled Rinne with more than two minutes left, and with just under two minutes left, a bouncing puck went over Martin Jones to bring the Predators back within a goal. They kept their net empty. A few seconds after the next faceoff, Logan Couture took advantage of that and restored the Sharks’ two-goal lead.

Tommy Wingels added yet another, in a similar manner but on the other side of the ice. After that, the Predators put backup goaltender Carter Hutton in the net to prevent yet a third empty net goal.

The final shot count was 38-31 Sharks.

Game Two will be on Sunday at 5:00 PT at SAP Center in San Jose.