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"Holy S---, we are here." The Backstory on Game 1

May 31, 2016, 1:02 PM ET [37 Comments]
Eklund
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"Holy [expletive], we are here."

Those were the words of Brent Burns last night in the San Jose Sharks locker room when explaining the feeling the team had in the first period last night, and why he felt they came out so flat and were steamrolled in the first period by the Pens.

You gotta love Burns' honesty. How much better sports would be if more players and coaches just said what they are feeling without a filter. I am lucky enough to know a lot of these guys away from the rink and when you talk to them off the record you get this kind of stuff all the time. They are taught to suppress these emotions in front of the cameras because they may end up giving someone else "chalkboard" material or saying something which, taken out of context, could give sports talk radio free content for a few weeks.

But you never go wrong with "honest." Especially self-deprecating honest. And that is what Burns was doing. The reality is the Sharks were a bit in awe of their new found surroundings. They spent a solid day talking about it to the media, and when you go back and listen to the Sharks players being interviewed there was some foreshadowing for the first period...And they were even aware of it. I heard Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski and Burns all say something akin to, "This is incredibly exciting, a dream come true..." only to add on at the end: "but of course the work is not done yet. four more wins."

They added the reprise almost out of a sense of obligation. The more they gushed about how awesome this all was the more their media training pulled at them telling them to "stay focused on the task at hand"...another statement many uttered at media day.

The reality is this: These guys are rich and frankly don't want for much. Through talent and work they have earned the right to have lives that afford them whatever they desire. They always say you can't buy happiness, and while that's mostly true, you REALLY can't buy the right to lift the Stanley Cup above your head. So to be taken over by the moment is not unexpected.

The Penguins core has already been to this rodeo. They know what it takes. They know what it's like to win and to lose. They know the trappings of the media circus. Even though Pete Deboer has been through this it really doesn't change the emotions of the players going through it.

The Penguins and their fans were more than ready. The Sharks weren't. The Sharks that have dominated teams in these playoffs only really appeared for the first ten minutes of the second period. In those ten minutes the Sharks made life absolutely miserable for the Penguins. They tied the game, but were it not for Murray could have been up 4-2.

Tomorrow night will be the telling game. We are in it now. All the hoopla goes away in game two and desperation returns and neither of these teams is going to run away with anything. These teams, this year maybe even more than ever before, have gotten to where they are because they are almost impossible to knock out.

I will be back later with a Stamkos update....

Today's on the HockeyBuzzCast we will discuss all of this and more at 1:30pmET

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