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LA rebounds to tie series with a convincing win |
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LA rebounds to tie series with a convincing win
The LA Kings tied the series with San Jose at one game each and have to feel good about the way they have played away from the Staples Center.
Tonight's game belonged to the Kings. If you had to sum up this game in one sentence, it would be that the stars from LA outplayed the stars for San Jose.
The Kings are a team that is full of back end talent and in game two of the series; they played as if they were on the red carpet. Drew Doughty was the game’s first star finishing the night with two goals and two assists, which means he was in on every goal of the 4-0 win.
Doughty was everywhere tonight and played like an experienced veteran not a twenty-one year old who is still learning the game. He not only painted his name on the score sheet he drew the penalty that lead to the King’s second power play goal. He saved a break away with the man advantage when Marleau had a chance for a breakaway. At that point, there was no score and a short-handed goal by the Sharks may have changed the dynamics of the game, and the outcome. You could say it was the turning point, regardless of how subtle the play may have seemed.
Doughty had some help from teammates Jack Johnson who opened the scoring with the man advantage and finished the night with a goal and an assist. Rob Scuderi and Willie Mitchell were both excellent containing the big Sharks forwards and deserve a lot of credit for the Kings victory.
LA preyed upon the weak penalty kill of the Sharks, which has plagued them all year. While short a man the Sharks sit 28th in the NHL at home.
Doughty spoke after the game about why they had power play success “We studied their penalty kill and saw their tendencies and we exploited them. We moved the puck quickly, found the seams, got pucks to the net, and had great net presence. Those are the keys to a successful power play and we have to continue them.”
Special teams for the Sharks were atrocious on both ends. We are used to seeing the penalty kill stumble, but that is often over shadowed by an electric power play. Perhaps the electric bill was not paid because tonight the power play showed some potential and had some good scoring chances, but there was no finish. By the time, the third period rolled around the Sharks just stopped moving their feet on the two chances they had with the man advantage. The wind was clearly gone out of their sails at that point.
The Sharks best scoring chances came in the first period. The Couture line stood out early for San Jose with some good scoring opportunities, but was not able to beat the game’s second star Jonathan Quick. The Kings goalie seemed to fight the puck in the first period giving out some rebounds but that did not last long. Once Quick found his rhythm, life became much more difficult for the Sharks. The few rebounds that were there early disappeared, and when there was a sniff of a second opportunity in front of the Kings net their defenseman were all over them clearing the puck with ease.
“I got a lot of help from the twenty guys in the locker room, a couple of rebounds they cleared out and clearing lanes so I could see the puck they made the game a lot easier for me” said Quick after the game.
At the other end of the rink Antti Niemi cannot necessarily be blamed for the goals against but it definitely was not his best outing. The Kings net front presence was consistent all night and played a factor on the first two goals. Doughty’s second goal of the game was one he should have had but besides that, he did not get much help from his teammates.
All in all the Sharks looked tired and went into spells where they stopped skating. There are a number of things that need to change for San Jose before game three at the Staples Center in LA, but the most obvious is there must be a Thornton and Marleau sighting. These are two players that drive the engine and so far, we have not seen much from them. Marleau has had some jump and has held his own on the draws when Thornton gets kicked out but if this team is going to be successful and advance to the next round the guys that are here to pull the wagon have to show up.
Last year in the post-season, it took Jumbo and Patty a series to find their game. In their absence, Joe Pavelski took over scoring clutch goals against the Colorado Avalanche. The Kings are a better team than the Avalanche and the Sharks will need all their players to step up and play to the best of their ability including their captain and alternate captain. If they wait for round two like last year, it may be too late.
Always showing some optimism, I will point out that down the stretch when the Sharks played poorly as they did tonight; they always found a way to bounce back the next game. Some time looking at video and some tweaks in the game during the regular season worked in the team’s favor and I’m confident that after they look at tonight’s film they will bring a much higher compete level Tuesday in LA.
“I know there is a room full of disappointed players. Sometimes when you’re as bad as we were tonight the picture is a lot clearer then when you lose in overtime. It’s pretty evident and obvious that some guys have to elevate their game. We have some decisions to make. We had to make them earlier in the year and we have to make them now.” said coach McLellan. “If we don’t have a bit of anger and shame lingering around us tomorrow I will be a little disappointed.”
After losing to the Blackhawks 6-3 in March the Sharks were able to rebound with a 6-3 victory over Dallas on the road and after losing to the Kings in a shootout, they were able to beat the Coyotes 4-1 away from the HP Pavilion.
Contenders
Drew Doughty - is an obvious choice for the night’s first contender. He did everything right in game two of this series and it appears that getting beat wide by his close friend Logan Couture was all the motivation he needed to shine tonight.
Jonathan Quick - was great all night sucking in the puck like a vacuum. His rebound control got better as the game went on along with his confidence.
The Kings coaching staff - for exploiting the Sharks weakness on their penalty kill. This team’s best players are on the blue line; why not focus on shots from the point. Three of the Kings’ goals tonight came from defensemen.
Justin Braun - was the only bright light for the Sharks. He stepped into to a tough situation having not played for weeks. It was his first NHL playoff game and he may have been the team’s best player. Coach McLellan used him in all situations showing confidence in the rookie and he did not disappoint. The coach had this to say about his performance tonight, “I thought he was one of our better defensemen. He kept the game simple, he was very competitive, moved the puck, and didn’t try to over handle it.”
Pretenders
Ryan Clowe - deserves to be a contender tonight after taking a penalty in the offensive zone, which resulted in the second goal of the game. He was huge in game one of the series, but it appeared that the three game lay-off caught up with him tonight because he looked rusty.
Joe Thornton - has yet to show up on the score sheet where he is needed, but he also needs to be tougher in front of his own net. On Clifford’s goal, Joe just let him go down low resulting in the icing on top of the cake for LA.
The Sharks coaching staff - have watched the penalty kill struggle but have not changed the strategy. Tonight when they did tweak the PK the Kings had already scored two power play goals.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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