Following Wednesday’s 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues in Game 6 of the Western Conference final, the Sharks were constantly pointing out that there’s still work to be done after advancing to the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.
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The Sharks have been on a mission this spring, exorcising demons in Round 1 by ousting the Kings in five games, going the distance to eliminate the Predators in seven games in Round 2 and now taking out a Blues team that ended the season of the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks.
Joe Pavelski has been getting it done.
When discussing the Blues’ coaching job, one must at least allude to the looming Kirk Muller, the longtime National Hockey League player and current assistant. There’s a reason why the Sharks have won numerous Dick Dillman Awards, which annually recognize the league’s best PR departments: Emmert always goes above and beyond in his efforts to work with media and get stories on his team in front of readers’ eyes.
SAN JOSE Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and the rest of the San Jose Sharks gathered around the Campbell Bowl for a celebratory picture after winning the Western Conference final.
“It hasn’t really sunk in”. “It’s a good feeling”.
For the first time in franchise history, the San Jose Sharks are heading to the Stanley Cup Final. Thornton had with seven assists and at least one point in the final four games. Hertl had three goals and two assists. Both Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture are the present and the future of this San Jose Sharks franchise, and they have proven it with their incredible production in the 2015-2015 regular season and the 2016 postseason. The three have been together since January 9 and all three complement one another well.
Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about Thursday. They finally have substantial goaltending and clutch players. Without Vlasic’s ability to shut down Tarasenko and other top scorers faced this postseason the Sharks wouldn’t be at this point.
Jones hasn’t let bad goals bother him. When you think the first-year starter is going to implode, he comes back with a stellar performance.
Overall, Tampa Bay is a respectable 7-4 in their past 11 meetings with the Penguins, according to the OddsShark NHL Database, including three wins in Pittsburgh, while Vasilevskiy’s strong performance has lifted his career record against the Penguins to 5-3. It was one of their last games under coach Mike Johnson, who was sacked December 12.
Something that’s particularly interesting is that the Sharks don’t just respond after a loss, they have typically bounced back emphatically.
Ward gained inside position on Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to redirect a soft wrist shot by Sharks defenseman Brent Burns from the right point past Elliott at 5:02 of the middle period.
Thornton assisted on Pavelski’s goal to set the tone just 3:57 into the game. Game1 will be on Monday night if the Lighting win San Jose will be at home, if Pittsburgh wins San Jose has to go across the country to play game 1 in Pittsburgh. They’ve converted on 27 percent of their advantages with 17 goals in 63 power-play opportunities. And Steve Ott brings me something that helped me feel better knowing that he is the guy coming out of the lineup if I can play. These guys (fans) have been waiting 25 years for this and some of us have been waiting a long time too.
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This Sharks team possesses a key element their teams of years past have lacked: a killer instinct.
