Category: NHL

Sharks Win Game 4, Take 3-1 Series Lead

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick was kept busy all night by the Sharks here a shot goes wide in the first period at SAP Center on Wednesday night

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks defeated the Los Angeles Kings at SAP Center on Wednesday, by a score of 3-2. The win gives San Jose a 3-1 series lead, sometimes called a stranglehold. Despite rumors that there would be changes to the Sharks lineup for Game 4, there were none. Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer did not even alter his line combinations. The lack of change paid off. The team as a whole was sharper and more balanced than it had been on Monday. Even when they gave up two goals early in the third period, they corrected quickly enough to hold on for the win. It was altogether an impressive performance.

The fourth line that struggled in Game 3 pulled themselves together and played very effective minutes. After Wednesday’s game, coach DeBoer talked about the line of Chris Tierney, Tommy Wingels and Nick Spaling:

They were excellent. Again, I think with our group, every time this year that we’ve challenged them to be better, they responded and I think that speaks to the character in the room. And those guys I thought were excellent tonight for us. I didn’t hesitate to put them out with four or five minutes left in the game.

All three Sharks goals were power play goals, scored over four power plays. This was a vast improvement over their 0-5 power play performance Monday. The game winner was scored by Patrick Marleau, with additional goals scored by Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski. Martin Jones made 26 saves for the Sharks. Jonathan Quick also made 26 saves, for the Kings. Los Angeles goals were scored by Trevor Lewis and Luke Schenn.

The Sharks spent most of the first five minutes in the Kings zone, but could not find any good shots. Near the five-minute mark, the Kings went the other way, frst two on one, then when Justin Braun caught up to them, three on two. That led to a prolonged attack in the Sharks’ zone. Martin Jones stopped the three shots that came his way, but when the Sharks finally got the puck out it was by icing it. The Sharks were on their heels for several minutes even after that. Their forays into the Kings’ zone were short and not productive. Slowly, the Sharks started pushing back. They were spending less time trapped in their own zone when the 10 minute mark ticked by. But the shots were still 7-2 Los Angeles.

By the time the period ended, the Sharks had corrected that disparity. They saw a good number of excellent chances pass them by, since no one was in the right spot to take advantage of unexpected, glaring opportunities. The shots were 11-8 San Jose, and 9-2 San Jose for the second half of the period. The teams were even in faceoff wins.

Jeff Carter started the second off with a roughing penalty 30 seconds in, against Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The Sharks maintained the attack for a solid 40 seconds and then a crazy bounce sent the puck off the back boards and through the crease, then off a skater and back through the crease, still not going in. This disrupted the play enough for the Kings to clear the zone.

The Sharks retrieved the puck behind their own goal line and resumed the attack. This time the Sharks did not take long. A cross-ice pass from Joel Ward to Brent Burns found him above the left faceoff circle. Quick could not get across in time and Burns’ trademark shot blew by him to give the Sharks the lead. Assist went to Ward and Vlasic.

Before the cheers died down, play had resumed and Jonathan Quick was handling the puck behind his net. Matt Nieto, chasing the puck down, caught Quick in the back of his skates. Both players went down and Nieto went to the box. The Sharks penalty killers started out well and had a short-handed chance half way through the penalty, with Chris Tierney almost skating in front of Quick for a shot before being held up by Kings defenders.

In the final seconds of the penalty kill, Karlsson, Vlasic and Thornton carried play back into the offensive zone and set the Kings spinning for a shift.

Unfortunately, that penalty kill was followed by another less than a minute later. Joel Ward was called for high sticking. The Kings had a good chance about half way through but an overhead clear by Vlasic allowed the Sharks to regroup and change.
The Sharks finished that up with another short handed chanced, and not long after it expired, yet another outrageously improbable missed chance. A Kings skater got tangled up with his goalie and a Shark and all were out of play for several seconds, with the puck sitting in the blue paint. No Sharks skater could get to it, including the one trapped in the body tangle inches away.

The score remained 1-0.

The Sharks drew another power play when Tomas Hertl was tripped next to the Kings net by Rob Scuderi. 39 seconds into the power play, Patrick Marleau sent the puck behind the net to Thornton, who sent it out front for Joe Pavelski. A fast shot as he fell to his knees earned Pavelski his fourth goal of the playoffs.

The game tempo increased after that. The Sharks drove play for a long spell after that. When they did not have th epuck, they wasted little time stripping the Kings of it, or knocking them off of it. Brenden Dillon made Dustin Brown pay for sendng the puck around the boards, and Patrick Marleau added a solid hit or two.

The Kings finally did get some traction in the last three minutes of play, but it did not last for more than a minute. The Sharks were back in the Kings’ zone at 7:30 when Luke Schenn was caught roughing Joe Thornton. The Sharks did not convert on their third power play but the Kings did not take any leisurely skates into the Sharks’ zone either.

The shots for the period were 13-8 San Jose.

The teams picked up where they left off for the third. 1:34 into the period, Jamie McBain caught Joonas Donskoi in the face with a high stick. Five seconds into that penalty, Patrick Marleau stopped the puck with a skate, kicked it to his stick, and put the puck in the net. Assists went to Logan Couture and Brent Burns.

The Kings got on the board just 69 seconds later when Luke Schenn’s shot from the blue line got by Martin Jones. Trevor Lewis was in front of Jones, wrestling with a Sharks defender. As the shot came in, Lewis fell into Jones. Coach DeBoer challenged the goal for goaltender interference but the call stood up. The goal went to Lewis, with assists to Luke Schenn and Kris Versteeg.

The game got a little more interesting at 6:44, when Schenn took a shot through a long line of traffic and beat Jones, closing the gap to one goal. Assists went to Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik.

After that, the Kings tried more of those shots, but Jones seemed to see them better. The Kings kept pushing, they caught up on the shot clock, and as the final minutes ticked away, the game lost none of its intensity. The Sharks spent a lot of time with the puck but they were not getting the shots or the chances they had before. Even with the Kings net empty, the Kings kept the Sharks from taking good shots. The Sharks managed a couple of shots from their own zone but missed the net.

With 18.3 seconds to go, Los Angeles took their time out, then sent six skaters back on the ice for an offensive zone draw. It was to no avail as Game 4 slipped away from the Kings.

Game 5 will be back in Los Angeles at Staples Center on Friday.

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Podcast with Joe Lami: Catch the rundowns of the current playoff series and toughest of playoff series

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On the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Podcast Joe takes a look at each Playoff series as he talks about the tight series and will the Washington Caps take it all. Take a listen below on each match up for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

 

NHL series match ups:

San Jose leads Los Angeles 2-1

Dallas lead Minnesota 2-1

St Louis leads Chicago 2-1

Nashville lead Anaheim 2-0

NY Islanders leads Florida 2-1

Tampa Bay leads Detroit 2-1

Washington leads Philadelphia 3-0

Pittsburgh vs NY Rangers series is tied 1-1

Categories NHL

Sharks Lose Game Three to Kings

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: LA Kings Tanner Pearson (bottom) celebrates his game winning goal in overtime as the Kings take game three 2-1

SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks lost the third game of the Western Conference Quarter Finals to the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 2-1 in overtime. The Sharks still lead the series by 2-1. The game followed a peculiar statistic for the NHL playoff games Monday: all three games saw a goal scored in the first minute of the game, by the losing team.

In San Jose, that goal was scored by Joe Thornton. Anze Kopitar scored the tying goal for Los Angeles, and Tanner Pearson scored the overtime winner. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for Los Angeles, and Martin Jones made 22 saves for San Jose.

Monday’s game was a grueling affair for both teams, with all the regulation scoring coming early in the first period. After that, it was a push-me-pull-you match up and down the ice for more than 40 minutes. The Sharks did a very good job of limiting the Kings’ chances, but they could not take advantage of the chances they had to score. They outshot the Kings 30-24, and in the third period by 9-3.

After the game, Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer said:

Over the second and third, I thought we grabbed it back, did a lot of good stuff tonight. Reality is, they’re a very good team. They’ve got multiple Stanley Cup winners over there.

We knew this wasn’t going to be a sweep. We’re in a good spot, I think we could have won the game tonight too, need to keep rolling out the same kind of game.

Through much of the game, the Sharks played well defensively but were less sharp in the offensive zone. Their power play stood out as being especially ineffective. It went 0-5 while Los Angeles went 1-3. Joe Thornton talked about the fifth power play after the game:

The last one especially, it felt like we were going to get it. The crowd was into it, we were into it, they broke a stick, we got a lot of shots and it felt like it was right there. But unfortunately it just didn’t happen.

Pete DeBoer is not overly concerned about the lack of results on the power play:

We had a lot of good looks, we had a lot of zone time. Because we don’t score doesn’t mean we’re not doing the right thing. That’s how the NHL goes. You’re not going to score on your power play every time. If we weren’t getting in and getting set up and getting looks, I’d be worried.

Did the Kings change their game much after losing two in Los Angeles? Shark goaltender Martin Jones did not think so:

Not really. They have their game plan, it’s crash the net, put pucks to the net. I thought we’ve done a really good job keeping them to the outside. But, yeah, I don’t think too much changed for them.

It took 30 seconds for the Sharks to score their only goal of the game. After pushing the puck out of their own zone, and touching it through the neutral zone with a pass or two, the Sharks’ top line made a couple of moves in the corner and suddenly Joe Thornton was skating behind the net and picking up the puck. He looked for a pass but did not see one so he carried it into the slot and took a shot. The puck went under Jonathan Quick without any fuss. The shot was so subtle that no one reacted for a beat. An assist went to Tomas Hertl.

The Sharks did not convert on their first power play of the game, at 5:33, but the Kings did score on their first, at 7:50. While Tommy Wingels sat in the box for hooking, Anze Kopitar picked up the rebound off of a Milan Lucic shot. A second assist went to Jake Muzzin.

At the half way point of the first period, things were not looking great for the Sharks. The score was tied, the shots were tied, but the Sharks had blocked more shots and the Kings had won 73% of the faceoffs. The Kings were bearing down.

At 11:50, Nick Spaling was called for tripping Rob Scuderi, putting the Sharks on their second penalty kill of the period. The Sharks did kill it off, but Los Angeles managed some good chances during the power play.
By the end of the period, Los Angeles had outshot San Jose by 13-7 but the score was still knotted at 1.

The Sharks started the second period with some energy, and had an early power play when [] went off for []. The Kings’ penalty kill was formidable. They not only prevented the Sharks from taking any shots, they kept most of the play outside their zone.

For the middle half of the period, the Sharks had trouble getting far beyond the Kings’ blue line. Any attempt to dump it in or carry it in was met with fiercely efficient resistance.

The Sharks had another power play at 13:01, after an interference call against Marian Gaborik. This power play was a lot more effective, but still did not score. The Kings still played well in front of their goaltender, blocking shots and crowding any skater that came near the blue paint.

Chris Tierney had a good chance near the 16 minute mark, a point blank shot on Jonathan Quick. Tierney caught a pass as he skated through the slot and tried a reverse shot, but Quick got his body in the way.

In general the second period was a frustrating one, with many missed calls and failed chances. The Sharks gained ground on the shot clock, but saw their power play fall to 0-3. With 2:19 left in the period, the Kings had still only taken two shots to the Sharks’ ten.

With 1:23 left in the period, Chris Tierney was called for playing the puck with his hand. The resulting Kings power play was fairly good, keeping the Sharks on their toes. The Sharks weathered the last seconds of the period and finished the second still tied at 1.

The Kings had six shots during the second period, to the Sharks 11.

The Sharks killed off the last seconds of the Tierney penalty and jumped out to a good start in the third. They put a couple of good shots on net in the first 90 seconds.

The period ground along after that, with neither team making any progress to speak of. At 9:40, Milan Lucic was called for slashing and the Sharks power play had another chance. The first 1:50 of the penalty was all Sharks, with the Kings’ penalty killers unable to change or get control of the puck at all. But the Sharks did not score.

With 5:56 left in regulation, the Kings’ Tanner Pearson put the puck over the glass in the defensive zone. The Sharks had only allowed the Kings one shot in the period to that point, and had taken five. Their power play, however, still could not produce a goal.

Peter DeBoer used his timeout with just under four minutes left, after an icing trapped some tired Sharks on the ice.

With 53.8 left in regulation, Tomas Hertl and Dustin Brown received roughing minors. They went to their respective rooms and the teams finished the period 4-on-4.

Heading into overtime, the shots were 27-22 San Jose.

3:47 into overtime, Tanner Pearson ended it after a miscue on the Sharks blue line by Brenden Dillon. Dustin Brown knocked Joonas Donskoi off the puck and Dillon tried to do the same to Brown. The puck escaped and Pearson picked it up behind Dillon and re-entered the Sharks zone two on one with Vincent LeCavalier. Neither Couture, Wingels, nor Hertl could catch him and Roman Polak could not block his shot. Assists went to Dustin Brown and Vincent LeCavalier.

Game Four will be Wednesday at 7:30 PT at SAP center.

San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa Walsh: Kings fighting for their season; Sharks want to put it to bed soon

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AP photo: The Los Angeles Kings Anze Kopitar gets a congratulation from his teammates after scoring a first period goal that tied up game two of the NHL Playoffs with the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Monday night

On the San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa Walsh the LA Kings aren’t the desperate road team they’ve been here before for example two years ago they were on the ropes to the Sharks 3-0 and the Sharks remember well what happen in that series when the Kings came back and won it 4-3.  It’s two years ago and some of the same players are with these teams so the Sharks are very aware what’s at stake.

The Sharks players so far who’ve been doing some of the heavy lifting in this series Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, and goaltender Martin Jones. Pavelski has helped offensively and in the games in LA he was instrumental in finding the back end of the net for the Sharks. The Kings players that could light a fire are Anze Kopitar, Millan Lucic, and Jonathan Quick at goal. Quick for the first two games was out of position but looks more improved in game three in San Jose not allowing goals in.

Listen Mary Lisa on the SJ Sharks podcast below and each week right here at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

 

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Podcast with Daniel Dullum: Sharks hope to end this one in four games; Hawks Crawford all time winninest goalie plus more playoff news

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AP photo: San Jose Sharks Roman Polak left battles for the puck with the Los Angeles Kings Trevor Lewis right in the second period on Saturday night in game two at Staples Center

On the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs podcast the San Jose Sharks who edged the LA Kings 2-1 at Staples Center to take a  2-0 lead in the first round coming back to San Jose on Monday night for game three can the Sharks who have struggled all year at home win the playoffs at SAP Center?

The Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford surpassed ex-Hawk goalie Tony Esposito for most wins by a goalie in post season with 46. Esposito did it in 14 playoff seasons and Crawford still has more playoff games ahead to notch up the record.

The Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 in game two on Saturday. The Caps now move into position to knock off the Flyers as they’re up 2-0. The Caps had help with goals scored by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

The Nashville Predators took game one of the first round against the Anaheim Ducks 3-2. This series is expected to be a tight and exciting series. The Ducks during the regular season finished up in first place and the Preds finished with a very impressive record at 41-27-4.

The New York Islanders defeated the Florida Panthers to tie the series all up at 1-1 the Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo helped in front of the net stopping 41 shots in the 3-1 win on Friday night in Miami.

Categories NHL

Sharks get first lead and Game 2

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~ (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ LOS ANGELES — San Jose had the first leadoff goal at Staples Center this year, as goalie Martin Jones and the defense in front of him won over the Kings 2-1 Saturday.

Jones was on his way to a shutout until another late game scramble gave Los Angeles a goal.

He has won his last three starts while facing an increasing amount of shots, this latest game turning away 26 of 27 shots. Both teammate Paul Martin and Coach Peter DeBoer talked about his composure. Martin said, “When something happens…not too high, not too low. He’s very focused that way, so I think for us to play in front of him, calms us to know that he’s back there.”

The Sharks captain Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, two points for the second straight game and now has a four game goal streak.

Pavelski scored on San Jose’s first shot of the game for the second game in a row. Teammate Joe Thornton, who returned to the scoreboard, made a quick and close pass to Brent Burns along the side, who made another quick pass to Pavelski. From the center of the right faceoff circle, he shot it into the net with teammate Tomas Hertl in front of goalie Jonathan Quick at 3:37 of the first.

Pavelski and teammate Logan Couture led the first with two shots apiece. The Kings had five giveaways to the Sharks’ one.

San Jose’s Joel Ward had to leave during the second due to a hit, but was able to return later.

The Sharks got a 5-on-3 due to calls against Tyler Toffoli for roughing and Milan Lucic for charging at 8:14. San Jose took advantage 30 seconds later. Quick saved the initial shot by Pavelski, but Couture put in the rebound. Patrick Marleau got the second assist. That gave their fourth straight power play goal and 15th in 19 games. Couture’s last goal was April 5 and also a game winner.

It looked like it was going to be another quiet third.

There were overlapping power plays at 11:28. San Jose’s Nick Spaling was called for tripping and 29 seconds later, the Kings’ Jeff Carter was called for slashing.

38 seconds after the second power play expired, Los Angeles went on the power play again.

53 seconds into the power play, Vincent Lecavalier scored, aided by Jake Muzzin and Tanner Pearson.  

The teams finished with a combined 87 hits, 40-47. DeBoer said, “It was a hard fought game. It was a man’s game out there. A lot of physical contact, a lot of battles; two teams fully invested…”

Los Angeles’ Alec Martinez was out, as were Kyle Clifford and Andy Andreoff. In was Nick Shore, Marian Gaborik, who returned after being out over two months and Jamie McBain. Coach Daryl Sutter said, “…I thought [Jamie] McBain was our best defensemen and that Gabby [Marian Gaborik] was our best winger.” It was McBain’s first career playoff game.

Game notes: In playoff Game 2 comparisons, the 2013 Round 2 game was a 4-3 score. Both teams are now even at two apiece in Game 2’s. The Kings’ Drew Doughty finished with 29:15 of ice time. The margins for missed shots and attempts blocked were 11 (17-28, 13-24 Los Angeles-Sharks). San Jose will head to home ice, starting with Game 3 Monday at 7:30pm.

Sharks stay perfect amidst controversy in Game 1

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(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ LOS ANGELES– The Los Angeles Kings had the first goal, but San Jose had the final say, as the Sharks beat the Kings 4-3 Thursday at Staples Center.

San Jose is three for three at Staples Center this season. When facing Los Angeles in the first round, the Sharks have won all Game 1’s. This was the first Game 1 in the first round at Staples.

San Jose’s Joe Pavelski scored twice for the first time since February 29 and netted the game winner 17 seconds into the third period. He also had the game winner in Game 1 of the 2011 series between the teams.

It was the first win by the Sharks in 34 games without Joe Thornton having a point.

It was a physical first period as expected. Both teams combined for 38 hits. The Kings’ Jeff Carter led with four hits.

Los Angeles scored first for the third time in the three games at Staples this season.

Tanner Pearson got the puck from the boards and passed it to Milan Lucic at the top of the right faceoff circle. Lucic then passed it to Jake Muzzin who came up from behind. Muzzin neared the right of Jones and an early reaction by Jones had him away from the net. This allowed Muzzin to put the puck in behind Jones. The puck then went in off Tomas Hertl’s skate at 2:53.

San Jose then got a power play off interference by Anze Kopitar.

The Sharks took advantage, with Pavelski scoring another power play, this one on their first shot. The play went from faceoff circle to faceoff circle, as the puck went from Logan Couture to Brent Burns behind him to Pavelski, who one-timed it at 6:25. It was Pavelski’s third straight goal in as many games and San Jose’s 14th power play goal in 18 games.

Muzzin led with two shots in the first period.

The back-to-back went to new heights in the second period thanks to penalties, as both teams scored two goals apiece.

The Sharks were at a 33% to 67% faceoff disadvantage after the first period, but off Joel Ward’s faceoff win, Burns scored at 6:50. Then two seconds later, Ward was called for interference.

The Kings would score on that second power play opportunity of the period and the game. It was another deflected goal in the same area as the first. Jeff Carter was against two defenders. The puck hit Burns’ stick, then goalie Martin Jones’ shoulder on its way into the net at 7:30. Lucic and Kopitar got the assists.

The major controversy came when Hertl had a goal waved off for high sticking. Sportsnet’s Mike Johnson was between the benches and said: “Kevin Pollock the referee comes over and says ‘we missed it. What can we do, we missed it.'” San Jose then got their first power play opportunity of the period at 9:47.  

Despite that, the Sharks nearly scored again but were denied twice. Pavelski hit the post, Patrick Marleau got the rebound and was denied by Drew Doughty in the net.

Los Angeles drew another power play at 13:27. 20 seconds after it expired, San Jose got another power play, but the Kings ended up scoring shorthanded. Singlehandedly, Trevor Lewis got the puck in his end, went the other way, Burns dove and Lewis scored at 17:18.

30 seconds later, one second after the Sharks’ power play expired, Hertl ended up getting his goal after a spin-o-rama by Ward. Joonas Donskoi also aided on the play.

Pavelski’s second goal of the game came as a wraparound. Los Angeles outshot San Jose 10-3 in the final stanza.

Game notes: Jones made 21 saves in his first postseason start. The Kings had 20 giveaways to the Sharks’ eight. San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Matt Nieto returned since almost exactly a month ago, after missing a dozen games. Respectively, Vlasic finished a +2, with a team-high 23:23 of ice time, one shot, one hit, one giveaway and three blocked shots and Nieto finished with one shot and three hits. Alec Martinez returned for Los Angeles, finishing with two blocked shots, but was off the ice the final period. San Jose has now won their last four road games.    They will go for five when they return to Staples for Game 2 Saturday, with the puck dropping at 7:30pm again.

Sharks And Kings Preview: Playoff Remix 2016

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By Mary Walsh

photo credit docsportstalk.com: San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton and teammates will be in L.A. to try and take the Kings out of the first round of the playoffs starting Thursday

The San Jose Sharks will face the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, in game one, round one of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They say that lightning does not strike twice. A lot happens in a hockey game, and a playoff series can produce the same result in many different ways. But it is probably safe to predict that the Sharks will not win three games in a row and then lose four. The odds of that happening again are very slim indeed, and I don’t need to be a math genius to know that.

The Los Angeles Kings are probably the best first round opponent for the San Jose Sharks. The Kings are not only a “must play” for any team trying to get through the western conference, they also have a special place in San Jose’s heart. The last two seasons have been dark for San Jose, starting with their humiliation at the hands of the Kings two seasons ago. While the meek of heart would probably want to avoid Los Angeles entirely, few professional hockey players can be described as meek.

Two seasons is long enough to see any team change, even if change is not their objective. The Sharks have made several changes. Head coach Pete DeBoer brings a new angle to the Sharks’ game. The Kings have seen DeBoer’s Sharks several times this season, but they are nowhere near as familiar with them as they were with Todd McLellan’s team. DeBoer has coached against the Kings in the playoffs, when the New Jersey Devils faced them in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final. That was a long time ago, and he has a very different team now, except in one respect: the Kings are still the favorites to win.

Those expectations are a little bit strange. Even though the Sharks were embarrassed by their lost 3-0 lead in 2014, they did beat the Kings three times before losing. The Sharks also won the 2015-16 regular season series 3-2, going 3-1-1. The Kings have a terrible habit of starting slowly, in the regular season and the playoffs. That is a habit that is bound to trip them up eventually. It is far from unlikely that the Sharks could win this series.

The Kings have the home ice advantage over the Sharks, but that advantage has proven to be less and less significant over the past few seasons, not only for the Sharks but for most playoff teams. What has been true for the Sharks over the past couple of seasons is that they play better on the road. It is not a stretch to say that the Sharks have the “road advantage” in this series.

Wherever they play, the Sharks have every reason to be hungrier and angrier than the Kings. The Kings have won two Stanley Cup Championships. The Sharks have not gotten to the Final yet. If NHL parity is not a myth, it is the Sharks turn for a shot.

Both teams have made significant changes to their rosters since 2014. For the Sharks, Martin Jones and James Reimer are a more formidable goalie tandem than Antti Niemi and Alex Stalock were. Jones’ star is rising. He proved this season that he can be a reliable presence in net, and can even steal a game here and there. James Reimer has proven that he can gut out some pretty gruelling playoff games, and he has already turned in some very impressive performances for San Jose.

With Martin Jones in net, the Sharks are starting the goalie who carried them through most of the season with only a few hiccups. That he used to play for the Kings should not be much of a factor, since any familiarity the Kings have with Jones will be matched by his knowledge of their skaters. Jonathan Quick is not exactly an unknown quantity for the Sharks, either. The Sharks know him well from many meetings.

The Sharks have Matt Nieto and Marc-Edouard Vlasic coming back from injury. The last time the Sharks appeared in the playoffs, also against the Kings, the collapse began with the loss of Vlasic to injury. The Sharks have added a couple of veteran defensemen since then, in Paul Martin and Roman Polak, but Vlasic’s importance cannot be understated. The Sharks played pretty well down the stretch without him but they will need all their best blue liners to go far in the playoffs.

The Sharks also have some added depth in the scoring department, in Joel Ward and Joonas Donskoi. Ward is a seasoned veteran of playoff games, and scored timely goals for Washington. Donskoi is going into his first NHL Playoffs, but he has some experience with championship games from his time in Finland. Both players were consistently helpful during the regular season, and as additions to a group that has been to the playoffs together many times, they could be difference makers for San Jose.

Melker Karlsson joined the team last season and showed that he could contribute in the scoring department. He has spent a lot of time this season on the fourth line, but DeBoer’s fourth line is very different from the fourth line that Todd McLellan would put together. It is reasonable to expect more offense and fewer penalties from the likes of Karlsson and Dainius Zubrus.

If there is an x-factor for the Sharks, I would say it is Joel Ward or James Reimer. Any of the rookies could surprise the Kings and all have to contribute to get the Sharks through the first round. But Ward and Reimer both have enough playoff experience to do some heavy lifting. Even if Reimer does not play, he provides an added sense of confidence and security that should permeate the team’s mental game.

On the Los Angeles side, defenseman Alec Martinez and forward Marian Gaborik have returned from late season injuries. The team has confidence in their readiness to play, as they recently reassigned forward Nic Down and defenseman Kevin Gravel to the AHL. Other changes to their roster over the last season include the addition of Milan Lucic, and the losses of Justin Williams and Jarret Stoll. The last two were historically problematic for the Sharks, if in very different ways. Lucic combines some of both of those, as a cagey and tough competitor.

The Kings also picked up some scoring depth in Vincent LeCavalier. LeCavalier is nothing if not streaky but he should not be ignored. He has a lot to prove after his dismal stay with the Philadelphia Flyers. Since he is supposed to retire after this season, he can be expected to give it his all.

For the Kings, I would not identify particular players as x-factors. Rather, their tendency to start slowly should be seen as the critical factor. If they let the Sharks get ahead of them, they might not catch them again. If the Sharks can avoid having key players injured early, the Kings might not need to spot them the lead. They might just take it fair and square.

San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa Walsh: Jones is familiar with old teammates at the Kings

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photo credit USA Today: The LA Kings Dustin Brown (23) scores in the third period on the San Jose Sharks goalie Martin Jones in October 15, 2015 game at Staples Center

On the San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa the advantage that Sharks goaltender Martin Jones has going into the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is that he’s familiar with the opponents the Los Angeles Kings. You can also say that the Kings are familiar with Jones as well. There was also the thought what would have been better if the Sharks got to face the Anaheim Ducks to get to the Kings and what would be better.

The Sharks have a bone to pick with the Kings and this is what they should want for the first round to get right back in there and redeem themselves from getting knocked in four straight games two years ago in post season.

There’s more a whole lot more on post season coverage of SJ Sharks hockey click below to hear Mary Lisa’s commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff podcast predictions with Joe Lami Tue Apr 12, 2016

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photo credit USA Today: The NHL Lord Stanley Cup

On the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Podcast Joe Lami has all your NHL playoff predictions coming into round one of the playoffs. Take listen as Joe counts down the top teams going for the Cup.

Los Angeles Kings vs. San Jose Sharks

Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild

St Louis Blues vs. Chicago Blackhawks

Anaheim Ducks vs. Nashville Predators

Florida Panthers vs. NY Islanders

Tampa Bay Lighting vs. Detroit Red Wings

Washington Capitals vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. NY Rangers

Categories NHL