After outshooting the Preds 17-3 in the first, the Sharks continue in the second as Logan Couture steals the puck and finds the net for his seventh of the postseason and a 3-0 San Jose lead.
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“Guys just wanted to get out there and put that Game 6 behind us – move on, ” Couture said. When he scored Thursday’s third goal early in the second period – the goal that surely cemented in Nashville’s mind that this was going to be a very long night – Couture completed one of the great series ever played by a San Jose Shark. Four St. Louis forwards – Alexander Steen, Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz and Patrik Berglund – totalled 122 man games lost during the season. A Sharks win in Game 7 against Nashville means the season is a success and a huge page is turned. Both the Blues and Sharks took it to their opponents on the scoresheet, outscoring the Stars and Predators 11-1 respectively over the two days. Then they went the distance against the Nashville Predators. “You’re not just here to watch the big guys play, you’re here to contribute and you’re a big piece of this”. They play the same way, nearly an identical way to each other, so it’s an interesting dynamic. In three trips to this round, San Jose has three wins and 12 losses.
But here’s the more relative fact: With Cup favorites such as Chicago and Anaheim and Washington already eliminated, any of the four teams left in the Stanley Cup tournament could win it.
In closing out the Predators, the Sharks were relentless from start to finish. “I think it started this morning, led by our leadership and the veterans in the room, and everybody just followed”.
They kept the pressure ramped up, and struck again late in the period to double their lead on a beauty of a goal by Joel Ward. Marleau passes to Couture on the 2-on-1, back to Marleau and he roofs it.
After Marleau made it 5-0, with the shots 26-9, Rinne smashed his stick over the crossbar and skated to the bench, appearing to pull himself from the wreckage. “I wish I hadn’t have done that”.
What do you know? Couture had a back-breaking goal in the opening minute of the second period that made it 3-0.
And if he’s the poster boy for the second chance that comes with the so-called “second season”, he’s not alone.
And hopefully they have a critical enough eye to recognize that the Predators’ inglorious end absolutely does cancel out the impressive run that came before.
“Tonight, we did a great job”. While we may be big fans of Pawcho as a team, we also understand we don’t have brand recognition for easy sales. Tickets for the series go on sale Friday at noon. Carter Hutton only faced one SOG in 16:06 TOI, giving you a good idea of how over that game was by then. They have shown this postseason that not only is that window still open, but that this might be the team to take advantage of it. “They just wouldn’t go away”.
The Sharks did to Nashville what they hadn’t been able to do in their 25-year history, which is win a Game 7 by a comfortable margin.
Wingels, dressing for the first time since Game 4, played on the fourth line with Dainius Zubrus and Nick Spaling. Thomas Hertl scored four goals in his third National Hockey League game. F Craig Smith returned to the lineup for Nashville after missing Game 1 with a lower-body injury. San Jose has more weapons than St. Louis, which gives them the slight edge. Boudreau was asked if it was the toughest Game 7 loss of his tenure with the Ducks. They’re different. For me, it’s two teams that play similar games in the East and two teams that play similar games in the West. Pittsburgh and Tampa are built a little different than us and San Jose are.
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Of course it doesn’t work that way, hence the dishonesty, but they could have clinched their series with 85 percent of that performance, and won 4-2 rather than 5-0. D Petter Granberg, C Cody Bass, LW Eric Nystrom, LW Pontus Aberg, LW Austin Watson, RW Gabriel Bourque did not dress for Nashville.
