Sharks defenseman Paul Martin endured Pittsburgh’s collapses with 3-1 leads in the playoffs in both 2011 and 2014 as a member of the Penguins’ blueline and now hopes he can help engineer another one against his old team.
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Note to the Sharks: All it required to trigger the turnaround in those Game 5s was scoring the first goal, San Jose has yet to do that in this series.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan agrees with DeBoer’s assessment. “He was an ass out there running around”. Their playoff run has mostly featured solid goaltending and, until the last week, a knack for scoring timely goals. Put together with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino (like Kessel, brought in by trades) as part of the “HBK” line in March, Kessel has been the Penguins’ most consistent player.
Pavelski has yet to record a point in the series as the San Jose Sharks face elimination beginning in Pittsburgh on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, NBC). “I think our big guys have gotten more shots off and more looks as the series has gone on”.
Nonetheless, the Penguins have surged ahead to within one win of the Stanley Cup, and Crosby, with 17 points in 22 playoff games this year, has been a catalyst for their drive. We believe in the guys we have, and we haven’t given our best game yet. “That’s something that we have to get fixed”. In 2012, his New Jersey Devils were in a 3-0 series deficit against Los Angeles and won Games 4 and 5 to make things interesting. Sheary, rested and still confident after a brief talk with Sullivan, returned to his pest-like self and has scored twice during the Cup final, including the overtime victor in Game 2.
This year Nicoll said she might take it a step farther and not let her husband watch the game anywhere either in case it’s a “household thing”. But 2015 was a different team, as is this one they have together in 2016. “If we see craziness, those people will be dealt with accordingly”. They allowed the first goal all four times and got their only win in Game 3 in an overtime game they never led until Joonas Donskoi’s game-winner. I still think we can play a physical game when we have to. The stellar play of Marc-Andre Fleury kept the Penguins going even if they did not want to play for former coach Johnston. When they led after the first period they were a combined 32-6.
“You’ve just got to capitalize on some of your chances early, so be ready”, Pavelski said. But for a team that will likely have to lean on their heavy-minute players to extend the Cup final to a Game 6, any extra time off is a bonus. Why can’t we be the first team to do it?
“There’s no quit in our group”, DeBoer said. San Jose was expected to do some damage in this series as they have a ton of size and physicality up front but their big five of Brent Burns, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, and Logan Couture have just a single goal in the series and have been completely shut down by the Penguins in the offensive zone. “They slung a lot of pucks to the net”.
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They’ll need to if they want to have another practice. By offering a large selection of inventory to an array of the most exclusive sports, live concerts, theater events and other live entertainment, they have established their place as a reputable source of quality, guaranteed tickets for fans around the United States and beyond. That’s the way it is. “You have to create your own opportunities and when you do that, finding ways to finish it”.
