Ryan Leong: Sharks smell blood leading LA three games to none

Good win by the Sharks, they are my pick to win it all...

Good luck

Ryan Leong: Sharks smell blood leading LA three games to none
- Ryan Leong

Sharks played a great game. Got a few lucky bounces, but they won a game in a building that they haven't won in for awhile against a desperate team. Sickening loss as a Kings fan. Sharks have looked just as impressive as anyone thus far in postseason.

The Kings should have won that game. They had the momentum in OT, but on the other hand, when things are going your way like they are for the Sharks, you get the bounces you need at the right time. It happened for us in 2012 a few times.

The Sharks look really good and they deserve to win this series, but even though i'm not giving up yet, winning 4 in a row is a tall order but it can be done. At least the Kings were able to play their style of hockey last night and looked better.

That was a game that is more typical of these two teams...essentially a toss up.

The Kings should have won that game. They had the momentum in OT, but on the other hand, when things are going your way like they are for the Sharks, you get the bounces you need at the right time. It happened for us in 2012 a few times.

The Sharks look really good and they deserve to win this series, but even though i'm not giving up yet, winning 4 in a row is a tall order but it can be done. At least the Kings were able to play their style of hockey last night and looked better.
- Anjin

I agree, you make your own luck by hard work. SJ is putting it all together this season. Not giving up yet but you start to see how the bounces go and you wonder whether this must be destiny for SJ.

I agree, you make your own luck by hard work. SJ is putting it all together this season. Not giving up yet but you start to see how the bounces go and you wonder whether this must be destiny for SJ.
- arh777

Now you know how I felt about the Kings in 2012.

I agree, you make your own luck by hard work. SJ is putting it all together this season. Not giving up yet but you start to see how the bounces go and you wonder whether this must be destiny for SJ.
- arh777

I don't know about destiny, but this is probably the best hockey team that's been assembled since the 2002 Wings.

Just so sickeningly deep, Wilson deserves all the credit in the world for hanging onto his stars and still developing the youth in the system to fill out the roster.

Couture, Pavelski, Hertl, Wingels, Nieto, Vlasic, Demers....

Trading/Acquiring Thorton, Burns, Boyle, Niemi, Torres...

This really is his team, and it is something to behold.

Now you know how I felt about the Kings in 2012.

- Desert_Dog

Yep, 2012 was a magical run. What I mean by destiny is for this series.
Not sure they can go all the way with their goal tending and D.

"The last time the Kings trailed 0-3 in a series was 2000 vs. Detroit. This was the first overtime playoff game since April 25, 2011 when Joe Thornton's game winner eliminated the Kings from the playoffs. ... The Kings are now 23-26 all-time in overtime in the playoffs ... Teams combined for 98 hits tonight (312 in the series)"

They had a playoff OT game last season...

Stunned and hugely impressed. Nothing else to really say, except that Sutter just can't keep up this time around. At least the Ducks will likely be next on the chopping block.

A little Rough on Stoll... He was the best King for the whole game.

A few thoughts:

-Hannan was our biggest pretender tonight. He left his man open on the 1st goal (although that was a great pass and a fantastic shot) and let Gaborik waltz right in on that 2nd goal. Seriously, how many times has Hannan been a big part of the reason the other team has scored on us? If you look at how long he's played at such a low quality level and how detrimental he's been to our team in so many different scenarios, it's hard to argue he's not the worst Shark of all time.

-Quick needs to worry less about trying to draw a goaltender interefence call and more about trying to stop the puck. I'd have to see a better angle of it but judging from his actions in games 2 and 3 I would say he probably went down a little easy on the Sharks 2nd goal. This resulted in him lying down on the job and being out of position on Nieto's tip when the contact came from his own teammate anyway. That goal could have made the difference.

-Lots has been said about Mike Brown, and how he has "ran the goaltender every game this series" but that is more because the writers/broadcasters are trying to create a storyline. In Game 1, Brown hit a d man into Quick after the d man took the puck from him. In Game 2, Brown hit a guy from a ways out of the crease and the guy flew back into Quick. In Game 3 you could tell every time Brown got close to Quick, Quick started flopping all over the place. Not counting a small bumb or two, Brown never actually "ran" or "hit" Quick that I have seen.

-Speaking of flopping around... Logan Couture. Sharks fans might not know this but there are groups of people who are starting not to like this kid because of his embellishing tendencies. I get it, it hurts to get hit in the head and it's not his fault if he gets cheap shotted. But don't stand there for a second then decide to fall down, then stay down for half a minute and procede to get up slowly waiving your hands in the air demanding a call. In my opinion I can live without that kind of stuff. It almost cost us tonight as there was an odd man rush the other way that resulted in a good scoring chance for LA.

-Glad to see someone call out Stoll, he's had a few different cheap shots against us now. Not sure why he gets as much respect as he does, although he had a nice snipe tonight.

-Marleau's awesome.

A little Rough on Stoll... He was the best King for the whole game.
- vols94

agreed, stoll actually played well this game, not sure i'd label him as a pretender considering he had a bunch of hits and also had a goal.

puck luck continues to surround the sharks in this series. hard to see the kings coming back unless the sharks completely implode.

i was screaming when marleau scored the goal couldn't have come at a better time or against a better team

A few thoughts:

-Hannan was our biggest pretender tonight. He left his man open on the 1st goal (although that was a great pass and a fantastic shot) and let Gaborik waltz right in on that 2nd goal. Seriously, how many times has Hannan been a big part of the reason the other team has scored on us? If you look at how long he's played at such a low quality level and how detrimental he's been to our team in so many different scenarios, it's hard to argue he's not the worst Shark of all time.

-Quick needs to worry less about trying to draw a goaltender interefence call and more about trying to stop the puck. I'd have to see a better angle of it but judging from his actions in games 2 and 3 I would say he probably went down a little easy on the Sharks 2nd goal. This resulted in him lying down on the job and being out of position on Nieto's tip when the contact came from his own teammate anyway. That goal could have made the difference.

-Lots has been said about Mike Brown, and how he has "ran the goaltender every game this series" but that is more because the writers/broadcasters are trying to create a storyline. In Game 1, Brown hit a d man into Quick after the d man took the puck from him. In Game 2, Brown hit a guy from a ways out of the crease and the guy flew back into Quick. In Game 3 you could tell every time Brown got close to Quick, Quick started flopping all over the place. Not counting a small bumb or two, Brown never actually "ran" or "hit" Quick that I have seen.

-Speaking of flopping around... Logan Couture. Sharks fans might not know this but there are groups of people who are starting not to like this kid because of his embellishing tendencies. I get it, it hurts to get hit in the head and it's not his fault if he gets cheap shotted. But don't stand there for a second then decide to fall down, then stay down for half a minute and procede to get up slowly waiving your hands in the air demanding a call. In my opinion I can live without that kind of stuff. It almost cost us tonight as there was an odd man rush the other way that resulted in a good scoring chance for LA.

-Glad to see someone call out Stoll, he's had a few different cheap shots against us now. Not sure why he gets as much respect as he does, although he had a nice snipe tonight.

-Marleau's awesome.
- Sharks_12

Agreed on most points. I think a lot of us Kings fans don't like Couture for the reasons you listed, which I assume is a big reason why a lot of non Kings fans don't like Doughty. Interesting that they both have a tendency to flop and they are friends outside of hockey and grew up playing against each other.

I'm on the fence on your Stoll comments. Excluding the dumb penalty he took, if the rest of his hits are "cheap shots" than he, Burns, Torres, hell even Carter, would be spending plenty of time in the box. It's a hard hitting serious so far, some on the borderline, but nothing too crazy. As for him getting respect, he's great for faceoffs and has a great shot. He also takes way too may dumb penalties. I don't have strong feelings about him either way.

I don't know about destiny, but this is probably the best hockey team that's been assembled since the 2002 Wings.

Just so sickeningly deep, Wilson deserves all the credit in the world for hanging onto his stars and still developing the youth in the system to fill out the roster.

Couture, Pavelski, Hertl, Wingels, Nieto, Vlasic, Demers....

Trading/Acquiring Thorton, Burns, Boyle, Niemi, Torres...

This really is his team, and it is something to behold.
- TommyDeVito

Forward depth is unfathomable. The defense not so much....and that might be the Sharks only weakness. I think there are some teams out there(COL, CHI, ANA) that are much faster and more skilled offensively than the LA Kings that id like to see the Sharks face in a 7 game series before im ready to call them the best team we've seen in over a decade.

I'm on the fence on your Stoll comments. Excluding the dumb penalty he took, if the rest of his hits are "cheap shots" than he, Burns, Torres, hell even Carter, would be spending plenty of time in the box. It's a hard hitting serious so far, some on the borderline, but nothing too crazy. As for him getting respect, he's great for faceoffs and has a great shot. He also takes way too may dumb penalties. I don't have strong feelings about him either way.
- PancakesPenner

Just to clarify my position a little, I agree he did have some good hard clean hits tonight, but I was referencing stuff from previous seasons. I also meant respect not in terms of his skill but him as a person and the style of game he plays, which is something I don't see as being respectable.

Just to clarify my position a little, I agree he did have some good hard clean hits tonight, but I was referencing stuff from previous seasons. I also meant respect not in terms of his skill but him as a person and the style of game he plays, which is something I don't see as being respectable.
- Sharks_12

Ahh, makes sense.

I have to be honest, I like or dislike a lot of teams based on their fans on forums like these and even though we have a healthy rivalry with the Sharks, my dislike for them has slowly started to decrease mostly due to some of the Sharks fans here (except for the troll that I don't even have to name because everyone knows who he is.)

If it ends up being Sharks/Ducks in the next round then I hope the Sharks have success because when all is said and done, the Ducks must lose at all costs.

Cheers

Ryan Leong: Sharks smell blood leading LA three games to none
- Ryan Leong

just to clarify, I put Jarret Stoll on the pretender's list solely for that interference penalty. It's just dumb to take a penalty like that in front of the officials. I know he had a solid game overall.

Forward depth is unfathomable. The defense not so much....and that might be the Sharks only weakness. I think there are some teams out there(COL, CHI, ANA) that are much faster and more skilled offensively than the LA Kings that id like to see the Sharks face in a 7 game series before im ready to call them the best team we've seen in over a decade.
- SimpleJack

Boyle, Vlasic, Stuart, Demers are as good a top 4 as any right now.

And saying those three teams are faster, more offensively skilled teams than the kings makes it pretty obvious you don't know what the (frank) you're talking about.

Kings have been the fastest, most dominating possession team in the league over the second half of the year, and have basically the same roster that won the cup intact. Colorado and Anaheim are not even close to the same caliber of team as LA.

Chicago is close, but still not on the level SJ is this year.

And saying those three teams are faster, more offensively skilled teams than the kings makes it pretty obvious you don't know what the (frank) you're talking about.

Kings have been the fastest, most dominating possession team in the league over the second half of the year, and have basically the same roster that won the cup intact. Colorado and Anaheim are not even close to the same caliber of team as LA.

Chicago is close, but still not on the level SJ is this year.
- TommyDeVito

I've been following the Kings for years now and one thing the Kings are not is FAST. Jeff Carter, and maybe Trevor Lewis and Gaborik, are the only "fast" guys on the team. Kopi has deceptive speed (more quickness/elusiveness) for a man his size but far from fast. The D corp... all slow with the exception of DD.
And it's not a secret that the above mentioned team are more offensively skilled then the Kings. It's not a coincidence that the Kings finish in the bottom 5 of Goals for, for the last several years. COL, ANA, SJ, CHI all have FINISHERS and the Kings do not, for whatever reason, be it the defense-first mentality, or the system, it doesn't make sense to me that these things would stop finishers from finishing, but it happens and will continue to happen. It seems finishers have a better feel for finishing off the rush and the Kings don't look to score often enough off of the rush but rather off a set offense which tends to get stale and stagnant...

The Sharks might have the most underrated D core in the league, it's not weak at all.

Boyle, Vlasic, Stuart, Demers are as good a top 4 as any right now.

And saying those three teams are faster, more offensively skilled teams than the kings makes it pretty obvious you don't know what the (frank) you're talking about.

Kings have been the fastest, most dominating possession team in the league over the second half of the year, and have basically the same roster that won the cup intact. Colorado and Anaheim are not even close to the same caliber of team as LA.

Chicago is close, but still not on the level SJ is this year.
- TommyDeVito

The fact you would even use those 2 words in the same sentence proves that its actually you that doesn't know what the (frank) you're talking about. Of course im aware of the Kings possessions numbers, their league leading CF% over the past few years. U clearly must not understand the difference between that and the extra factor of pure speed and skating ability. Thats why i mentioned the Hawks, Avs, and Ducks. You'd think that if the Kings were as "fast or offensively skilled" as those teams then maybe they might have finished higher than 26th in goals scored? Again, not talking overall caliber of a team, just talking about the speed factor and how it might present a bigger challenge to the Sharks from other teams aside from the relatively slow Kings...