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Sharks Game Day: Gm. 1 Rd. 2 - Three keys to victory in Vegas |
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Game one of the Conference Semifinals begin tonight in the city Frank Sinatra built. Las Vegas, Sin City, a desert oasis filled with glittering lights, over the top casinos, wild night life and billions of earned wages wasted in search of that one big jackpot.
Tonight the San Jose Sharks hit the strip searching for their big jackpot in the form of the Stanley Cup. In their way are the upstart Golden Knights, a story so cool it makes you almost want to root for them. I said "almost."
If the Sharks are going to win this series they need to be close to perfection and play an almost identical game to the one that swept the Anaheim Ducks away in four games.
But before you win four, you have to win one. Here are my three keys to taking the first game of this series.
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Be Relentless - The Sharks pushed the Ducks buttons without ever crossing a line. They played with a cool confidence that frustrated Anaheim throughout. San Jose never took their foot off the pedal. One goal, two goal, heck three goal leads are never safe in the playoffs. Vegas has shown they bend but don't break. The Ducks played into San Jose's tactics and put themselves out of the game. Vegas won't do that. The Sharks will be tested.
Forget their lack of goals in round one - Vegas can score a ton of goals. They used a well-balanced attack to post the fifth most prolific offense (3.27 gpg) in the NHL during the regular season. The Sharks must push the pace and force Vegas into mistakes. Definitely easier said than done.
Playoff Martin Jones - The Sharks netminder has to maintain this insane level of play for his team to have a chance. The only goalie playing better than Jones in the guy he's opposing - Marc-Andre Fleury. Jones can't waiver or even let his game dip even a little. The Sharks may need him to steal a game or two and none better than a game one on the road.
Depth - Marcus Sorensen scored three goals in the opening round. He's tied with Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl for the team lead. Nine players accounted for the Sharks 16 goals against Anaheim, but nine of those goals came from the three guys I mentioned above. Chris Tierney, Mikkel Boedker, Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier contributed one goal combined versus the Ducks. The Sharks need scoring from all four lines to have success in this series, especially opening on the road. Beat Vegas as their own game.
Here are the projected lineups per NHL.com
SHARKS:
Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Mikkel Boedker
Timo Meier -- Chris Tierney -- Kevin Labanc
Melker Karlsson -- Eric Fehr -- Marcus Sorensen
Paul Martin -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Dylan Gambrell , Barclay Goodrow, Jannik Hansen, Joakim Ryan, Joel Ward
Injured: Joe Thornton (lower body)
Golden Knights:
Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Alex Tuch -- Erik Haula -- James Neal
David Perron -- Cody Eakin -- Ryan Carpenter
Tomas Nosek -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- William Carrier
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched: Brad Hunt, Oscar Lindberg, Ryan Reaves, Luca Sbisa, Tomas Tatar
Injured: None
Thanks for reading,
Steve