This was clearly a huge win for the Sharks, who are one win away from downing their in-state rivals and advancing to the second round for the first time since 2013. “That same play where he looks like he’s shooting, shooting, shooting, and he slides it over”. Stats keeping has suggested that just isn’t true. “I haven’t seen a replay or anything”, he said after the game. San Jose has been the better team and, except in Game 3, have survived the L.A. surges that strike terror into most teams.
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What has this meant for the Kings? The chemistry between these two has been remarkable to watch as the year has progressed. Outside of a 30-second stretch in Game 1, the Kings haven’t led in gameplay during the series. That stat isn’t the end-all-be-all of killing off power plays – heck, both of the Kings goals came from distance, certainly not from danger areas. “Obviously we didn’t play our best game”. It was Kopitar’s first goal of the series.
Contrast 2014 to this year’s series.
“You understand that you’re still all right, you still have the lead”, said San Jose’s Joe Pavelski.
“Maybe it was the wrong message (Tuesday); it’s not just the fourth line”, DeBoer said.
And no doubt the two-time champion Kings will be a tough out, but for them to win three straight, it’s going to require a level up in their play as far as spending more meaningful time in the Sharks’ zone.
Los Angeles has to go back to the drawing board to try to solve San Jose’s power play, which was ranked third in the league during the regular season. They can not take bad penalties. Well, besides the obvious calls like tripping or high-sticking, it has been the refs cracking down on physicality after the whistles.
Burns scored early in the second period to make Kings forward Jeff Carter pay for slugging Marc-Eduoard Vlasic in a scrum. Schenn’s goal then turned up the pressure on the Sharks. Over half of those have been on the power play with six total power play goals for the Sharks.
In a game where Los Angeles was expected to perform pretty well considering the stakes on Wednesday night, it’s safe to say that the effort they put forth wasn’t all it could have been. Still, of the series’ total 18 goals, almost half of them have been scored at even strength with eight.
While it’s an edge that the Kings can definitely use to their full advantage, they cannot afford another loss or they will be taken out of this year’s run for the Stanley Cup. If the Sharks keep this up, they’ll have a lot more than winning this first round on their minds. Their inability to address this disadvantage on special teams has definitely jumped out. Ward makes a great play.
Power-play markers by Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski in the middle period and Patrick Marleau in the third was all the Sharks would need on a night in which they suffocated the Kings all night long, giving them very little room to create offense around goalie Martin Jones. While Kings goalie Quick has recovered from a miserable Game 1, he’s remained under assault for three of the four contests.
As a result, Doughty, who ranked third in the National Hockey League in average ice time this season (28:01), picked up the slack, jumping out on the ice for nearly every other defensive shift in the last 23:37 of the game.
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The first period was a fast-paced one, but the scoreboard didn’t show that as both teams were held at bay through the opening 20 minutes without a single penalty.
