The San Jose Sharks have been the NHL’s ultimate road warrior this season and will need to pack their A-game when they travel to Pittsburgh to the face the Penguins on Thursday in what could be the Stanley Cup decider.
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“Each individual is different, every team is different”, Martin said.
With only 32 career games played in his National Hockey League career, his stellar play, especially in the playoffs, is already giving him recognition in the Steel City.
Take Pen’s Ian Cole’s first goal, as in first goal in 105 games, regular season and playoffs, which occurred when four Sharks got caught overloading their left side and Cole entered into the zone uncovered with a clear shot on goal.
“We want a Game 6 back here at home”, coach Pete DeBoer said.
The ’42 Maple Leafs actually rallied from a three-games-to-none hole to win four in a row and steal Lord Stanley’s trophy from Detroit.
DeBoer has been in a tough spot in the final before. “We’ve shortened the bench the last two games because we’ve been behind”.
“We’ve shown that all four of our lines can score and be risky”, defenceman Brian Dumoulin said.
After veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury replaced Murray in net to start the third period in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals and almost sparked a comeback from a 4-0 deficit, I was one of many who believed he earned the right to start Game 5. “We’ve battled back, but. when we’ve had the lead (earlier in the playoffs), we know what it feels like and you take a little confidence from it”. They won the next two games but the Kings ended the series with a Game 6 rout.
The Penguins are succeeding because head coach Mike Sullivan has four lines that are producing and a defense crew that has excelled at getting the puck out of its own end quickly and decisively. And the Sharks, of course, frittered away a 3-0 lead in 2014 to Los Angeles.
That approach has frustrated Sharks stars Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, who were rolling along before being stymied for much of the finals. Ward is versatile enough to fit anywhere in the forward rotation, and his arrival as a free agent last summer helped give San Jose the kind of depth up front it has lacked in past seasons. Brent Burns had two assists in Game 1 and hasn’t recorded a point since. He has racked up 17 points, just like Crosby, and scored and assisted during the crucial Game 4 in San Jose.
DeBoer understands the challenge.
“I think our guys are very grounded. And that’s how we looked at it”. “We’re doing some good stuff, but you can’t change the fact that we’ve played behind the entire series, and that’s something that we have to get fixed”. “We’ve got a great opportunity”, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Center.
The Sharks haven’t been able to penetrate the inner slot close to Matt Murray at anywhere near the frequency they were able to terrorize Brian Elliott, Pekka Rinne, and Jonathan Quick.
The Penguins haven’t played from behind in what seems like ages.
Watching the Penguins practice on Wednesday you wouldn’t think they could be celebrating a title in 36 hours time.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins’ plan heading into Thursday’s potential Stanley Cup-clinching game is to remember that the late Yogi Berra was right. “We got to find a way to get some (production) from some other people, too”.
