Here is a question for the stats guys out there....
Have two teams with a combined point total of 206 (or more) points ever met in an opening round playoff series in the NHL? There are still three games to increase that total but this is where we sit right now with the Sharks and the Kings. It is a classic matchup between rival cities and cultures.. It's the ruggedness of Northern California versus the glamour of SoCal. Silicone Valley versus Hollywood. UCLA versus Stanford. Style versus Substance...
No matter how you slice it...two of the loudest, and most underrated buildings in the NHL. Two of my top ten arenas for certain.
The San Jose Sharks versus the LA Kings.
This Season:
The Kings have held the slight edge this season, winning 3 of the 5 games..1 in OT. The Sharks have won 2, but only 1 in regulation, the other in a shootout. However the Sharks one regulation win came only 8 days ago in the final meeting between these two teams...a 2-1 victory in the tank.
LA has scored 12 goals in the five games while the Sharks have netted only 9...so low scoring, close battles.
Last three years:
Over the last three years these teams have met for 15 regular season tilts. 6 of the 15 have taken extra time to settle. Five of the 6 Shark victories needed extra time. Four were won by the Sharks in a shootout so if you take the shootout away, San Jose has only beaten the Kings 3 times in regulation, and once in OT, over the last 15 attempts..and never convincingly...twice by a single goal and once, way back in November of 2011, by two goals (one of which was an empty netter)
The Kings have only "won" 7 of the 15 overall, but 6 of them were won in regulation. 1 of them by two goals and 3 of them by 3 goals.
Home ice has mattered a ton.
In LA the Kings are 6-0-1 and have outscored the Sharks 28-16 In San Jose the Sharks are 7-1 and have outscored the Kings 21-14
ALL time...
San Jose: 67 Wins LA: 57 Wins Ties: 7
San Jose has scored 388 goals LA has scored 366
All time playoffs.
Surprisingly, these teams have only met twice in the playoffs. Each has won a series.
The Sharks beat the Kings in 6 in 2010-11, AND remarkably, 3 of those 4 victories came in Overtime as well including a 4-3 OT winner in Game 6, in LA, to clinch the series for San Jose.
And of course the Kings won in 7 games last year in what I feel was the best playoff series of the playoffs and should be a great prototype for this epic series. In that series 5 of the 7 games saw the teams combining for 3 goals or less, with four 2-1 games and a 2-0 game. And every team held serve winning all their home games, but perhaps the most memorable moment came in the dying moments of game 7 with Jonathan Quick making several absolutely EPIC saves to preserve the 2-1 victory and the series for the Kings.
Many said they wanted to see the Kings and Ducks meet in round one....I wanted to see the Kings and Sharks again.
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