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It’s Go Time

Tonight is the night that will either see the San Jose Sharks fan base increase or severely decrease. The “experts” that talk about the Sharks for the few weeks of the year will no doubt talk about their choking ability in playoffs. If the Sharks win, it will be business as usual in the Bay Area. If they lose, they will be on the wrong side of history and will be forever trolled by LA Kings fans. I think the Sharks stand in a good place to win the series tonight; it’s just a matter of what team decides to show up.

The San Jose Sharks have played two other game sevens at home in their history and have won both. The first was in 2008 versus the Calgary Flames behind the heroics of Jeremy Roenick. The second was against the Detroit Red Wings where the Sharks squandered a 3-0 series lead, similar to the Kings, but came back to win game seven with a score of 3-2. Like those two games, the Sharks have home ice advantage tonight which means they get last line changes. That means when the Kings send out what line they want for a faceoff, the Sharks will be able to counter with who they want to matchup with them. This obviously benefits the Sharks and could be the difference maker tonight as the Kings seem to only have two offensive lines to the Sharks potent three. Hopefully McLellan sticks Pavelski centering the third line, where he has had the most success.

The LA Kings changed their strategy after the first few games in San Jose. They are a typical Darryl Sutter team that is better at the grinding down low type game than a wide-open offensive game. Look at the difference between the first three games and the latest three games. The Sharks are a much more skilled team throughout their lineup while the Kings are a much grittier team. When the game was wide open like the first few games, the Sharks destroyed the Kings. When the Kings forced the Sharks to play a gritty tight-checking game, the Kings dominated. Game seven tonight will be interesting to see what plays out. The Sharks don’t play well against grittier teams (Anaheim, St Louis, LA) unless they can score first to open up the game. If the Kings end up scoring first, Quick might end up being lights out and we will see our beloved Sharks on the wrong side of history for years to come.

Despite the series being tied up at three, the Sharks still hold the advantage with home ice this round – which is what they were fighting for during the regular season. I am still confident they will win this series and move on to play Anaheim….only to try and grind out another series win.

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