“Our players are well aware, just based on their comments after the game last night, excited to be in the position we’re in, but by no means do we think that we’ve accomplished what we’ve set out to do”, Sullivan said.
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The Penguins have a 3-1 series lead, and they’ve done a masterful job in the first four games frustrating San Jose’s stars at every turn.
DeBoer has been in a tough spot in the final before. He’s often been the first guy that DeBoer sits on the bench whenever he’s desperate for offense, including the past two games, and he’s been a frequent healthy scratch over the second half.
“We have to try to do our best to ignore some of the noise surrounding the group”, said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “We took the approach of, ‘Why not us?’ I don’t care what the record book says, that only one or two teams have come back from this situation, whatever those numbers are”. Why can’t we be the first team to do it?’ But, you’re right to wonder what Wingels’ future is in San Jose. The power play was potent, providing timely goals throughout and the Sharks managed to knock off Los Angeles, Nashville and St. Louis on the way to the final.
The Sharks big guns have shown little bite in the crunch.
– Perhaps they’ve run out of gas or simply had their will broken by the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the San Jose Sharks look to be running on fumes. The defensemen for the Penguins are scoring as well, with Brian Dumoulin scoring one goal and having seven points, and Kris Letang is scoring two goals and having 13 points. 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. We’re doing some good stuff.
Penguins lead series 3-1. “We got a goal from Melker Karlsson (Monday) night”.
The Penguins haven’t played from behind in what seems like ages.
The NHL adds an extra day between games in the Cup final to account for the travel between the cities of the Eastern and Western conference champions. And though they’ve won twice by a single goal and once by two, the Penguins haven’t trailed the Sharks at any point in the 254:53they’ve played in the series. We’ve got to find a way to get some from some other people, too.
“It’s not an easy game”, Couture said. I don’t know what it is. I imagine they would keep playing the same way.
“We like our road game”. “It’s going to take our best, but to be able to go home and use the energy from our crowd is great. That’s exciting for me”.
The Sharks are not in this position because of a bad bounce or calls that have gone against them.
“The people that I respect in the National Hockey League, the people that I lean on – GMs and coaches – all had great things to say about the organization”, Richards said.
Stevens was an assistant for the Devils for two seasons and was a co-coach along with Adam Oates and Lou Lamoriello after Peter DeBoer was sacked midway through the 2014-15 season.
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With the Pens playing so well, they may finally be on the verge of winning their first Stanley Cup since 2009.
