And that is that there is nothing wrong.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman is in San Jose covering Games 3 and 4 between the Blues and Sharks. The Blues have already done that a few times in this postseason against top tier opponents, so they’re more than capable of doing it again. Somebody had to be down 2-1.
“I’ve been around here where the Sharks have been that team that’s expected to go out and win the Pacific and roll through teams”.
“If you look at the games, we’ve done it as a group”, he said.
Look, the Sharks are good. He’ll replace Brian Elliott, who was yanked from his Game 3 start after allowing three goals on 14 shots.
Given all of that, the Sharks can’t be blamed for possibly feeling a little comfortable.
After piling up 25 goals in their seven-game series set against the Stars last round, Blues scorers are nowhere to be found. They don’t have a goal since the second period of Game 1 – a shutout streak of more than 150 minutes – and offensive kingpins Vladimir Tarasenko, Alexander Steen, Paul Stastny and Alex Pietrangelo have yet to log a point.
By the time the game was over, the Sharks had a combined 31 shot attempts that either missed the net or were blocked by St. Louis. Game 2 goes Saturday night in Hershey.
“You don’t win a series until you win a series, and I think everyone in this room knows that”, Sharks forward Patrick Marleau said. We’ve felt like that in each and every series.
St. Louis is sure to make adjustments for Game 4.
“It feels like we need to get us a little bit of momentum changed our way because we’re not rewarded for the work and they are, which is the difference”, coach Ken Hitchcock said. Scottie Upshall, Steve Ott and Joel Edmunson got demoted to the press box while Dmitrij Jaskin, Magnus Paajarvi and Robert Bortuzzo came in.
The Sharks then chased Elliott with a third period goal by Hertl, who took a pass from Pavelski from behind the net and jammed a shot past the Blues goalie for a 3-0 lead. Allen isn’t a true backup goalie, having started 44 games for the Blues this year, including 32 of the Blues first 44 games before he suffered a lower-body injury on January 8. “We honestly believe that he’s the best goaltender in the league”. “For us, we stick to our game plan and play the way we want to play”. Last night the series recommenced at the SAP Center, where the Sharks have been prolific of late. That’s something that no one’s done against us.
For instance, on San Jose’sthird goal, the sequence of inevitablity started with a San Jose dump-in. Thornton got him the puck below the goal line, and he quickly moved in front of the crease and scored on a wrist shot. I didn’t shoot the puck.
“Some guys never learn it, some guys can”t do it, some guys learn it and really become special scoring players. As a whole, they looked out of sync.
“From day one here, the focus is on the moment”, Wingels said.
“I’m going to think about that one”, Hitchcock said.
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“This isn’t the National Basketball Association where if LeBron doesn’t get going in a game, they can at least get him more touches…In hockey there’s such a flow to the game it’s hard to get your top guy always involved”.
