And with Pavelski and Couture’s performances in these Stanley Cup playoffs, they established themselves as faces of this team.
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Marleau’s goal, on a 2-on-1 with Couture, left no doubt, as the Sharks improved to 6-4 all time in Game 7s. In the series, Couture finished with 11 points, which set a San Jose postseason record for points in a series.
“We’re used to it”. In a game with a story line for failure primed to go, the Sharks had none of it. Déjà vu got the night off.
While the team did make some changes last offseason – hiring DeBoer, addressing the leadership issue by naming Joe Pavelski captain, bringing in players like Martin Jones, Paul Martin and Joel Ward – the difference this year has been the play of the Sharks’ core, the guys who have been through so many strong regular seasons and so many disappointing postseasons. San Jose destroyed Nashville in the first period, making it clear from the very start of the game that the Predators had no shot. Until Game 7 against San Jose.
Nieto was hurt in the first period of Game 5 as he slid hard into the Predators’ net after he skated from the Sharks defensive zone with the puck. Couture took about half a second to snarf up the gift. Marleau is third, by 44 games.
“That’s what we’re suppose to do”, alternate captain Logan Couture said. “We’re supposed to go out there and lead this team and contribute offensively. We did what we’re supposed to do”. We got pucks behind them and we carried a lot of the play.
Burns will get his chances in this upcoming Western Conference final, and considering he’s generally deployed with powerful offensive weapons, he will be incredibly risky each time he’s on the ice. At one point, the Sharks had led the series 2-0, only to see the series tied at three games apiece. They won the Presidents’Trophy with 114 points after a 51-19-11 regular season and were led by Chris Pronger, who won the Hart Trophy as the league MVP as well as the Norris Trophy as the top defenseman. “They have great habits, they’ve been well coached for a decade by the previous staff that was here”. So, sure, the Blues didn’t allow Burns to personally score, but they didn’t reduce his scoring chances, and that will be a problem if they can’t do so in this series. It was filling in behind them.
“We roll four lines, we roll six D, and I think we have so much trust with each other, that whoever goes over that board, we just have confidence they’ll do the job”, Thornton said.
This wasn’t necessarily the case in several of the Sharks most-crushing playoff defeats in recent seasons.
Old narrative: The Sharks are a team full of gifted players who charge out of the playoff gate impressively, then fade or fall off a cliff when adversity hits, year after year. I mean, they could have saved it for St. Louis, right?
With a team led by talented forwards like David Backes and Vladimir Tarasenko, a deep defense headed by Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk and goalie Brian Elliott, St. Louis will provide a formidable test for San Jose. The Sharks are 8-0 this spring when Pavelski finds his way onto the scoresheet, 0-4 when he gets shutout. “These teams are all good right now, good goalies”. It feels good but we understand it’s a second step. “It feels good but we have to keep going”. Matt Niskanen’s Game 6 and Brooks Orpik’s lack of discipline cost the Caps dearly, as did Nicklas Backstrom’s disappearance in several key moments, though Washington’s top center had two great assists in the Game 6 comeback prior to Bonino’s series-winning overtime goal.
That’d be all for the Predators goals by Thorton and Marleau would make it 5-0.
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“Obviously not the Game 7 you want to have”, Rinne said, via NHL.com. “I wish I hadn’t have done that”.
