Logistically, the Sharks ended up with the best possible
matchup: 60-minute flights, same time zone. Now comes the challenge
of making sure their first Stanley Cup playoff series against the
Los Angeles Kings that begins Thursday at HP Pavilion ends up
better than the matchup against San Jose’s other Southern
California rival did two years ago.
SAN JOSE
Logistically, the Sharks ended up with the best possible matchup: 60-minute flights, same time zone.
Now comes the challenge of making sure their first Stanley Cup playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings that begins Thursday at HP Pavilion ends up better than the matchup against San Jose’s other Southern California rival did two years ago.
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“We know a lot about each other playing six times through the course of the year,” said Sharks captain Joe Thornton, labeling the Kings as “stingy defensively. It’s going to be an exciting series and a great series for California hockey in general.”
The second-seeded Sharks woke up Sunday morning with four possible first-round opponents, then learned at noon they would face the Kings when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks. That guaranteed that Los Angeles, which ended the season with 98 points—seven fewer than the Sharks—would be the Western Conference’s No. 7 seed.
While one Shark played down the significance of playing in cities only 350 miles apart—”We’re not going to use that as an excuse if there was travel, so it really doesn’t matter,” Joe Pavelski said—another did see the upside.
“You don’t have to travel four hours away for your first road game. I think it’ll be nice for both teams,” said Thornton, alluding to the fact the Sharks have had to fly as far as Nashville for a first-round series. “Both teams will get plenty of rest, and rest is key.”
The upcoming series features more than just the basic geographic rivalry, however. Kings general manager Dean Lombardi was part of the original front office in San Jose and held that same job with the Sharks from 1996 until his dismissal in 2003 — the last year that San Jose did not make the playoffs.
This is the first time all three California teams have qualified for the NHL playoffs at the same time. But San Jose learned Saturday night that the Anaheim Ducks, who upset the top-seeded Sharks in the 2009 playoffs, were not a potential first-round foe.
The Sharks will be facing a Kings team without its leading scorer, Anze Kopitar, who had tendons repaired in his right ankle. Still, both teams did have upbeat developments Sunday on the injury front.
Sharks coach Todd McLellan said he expected to have left wing Ryane Clowe in the lineup for the series opener after the rugged left wing missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. And Los Angeles reported that right wing Justin Williams has been cleared to practice Monday after missing the past nine games with a bad shoulder.
San Jose was 3-1-2 this season against Los Angeles, losing twice in shootouts that are not used to break ties in the playoffs.
Like the Sharks, the Kings feature a balanced scoring attack. Six players—Kopitar, Williams, Dustin Brown, Ryan Smyth, Dustin Penner and Jarret Stoll—scored at least 20 goals, though Penner notched 18 of his while playing for the Edmonton Oilers.
The blue line is a blend of young talent such as Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Alec Martinez with veterans Matt Greene, Rob Scuderi and Willie Mitchell. Starting goalie Jonathan Quick finished the season with a 35-22-3 record, .918 save percentage and 2.24 goals against average.
“They’ve got an elite group of players that work together and play really good defensively,” McLellan said. “Their goaltender is tremendous, their penalty killing is exceptional.”
That emphasis on defense means the Sharks need to focus on that same aspect of the game, Douglas Murray said.
“Anytime you play a defensive team, it’s more important to be good defensively yourself rather than worrying about scoring,” he said. “If you open up too much, it gives them their goals and usually you play into their hands.”
The Kings’ penalty kill finished fourth best in the NHL with an 85.51 success rate, setting up a special-teams showdown with San Jose’s power play, whose 23.53 percent success rate was second best in the NHL.
“But I believe the series likely will be won five-on-five,” McLellan said. “Those two special teams may offset each other and you’re going to have to perform five on five and find a way to prevent and score.”
McLellan was asked if he thought last season’s playoffs, where the Sharks eliminated the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit before being swept by Chicago, has his team more relaxed entering this postseason.
McLellan said it was too soon to know because his players had Sunday off, but he also indicated that being relaxed wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“I think a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of nervousness, a little bit of tension, is good for our team,” the coach said. “We don’t want to go into it completely relaxed. We have to understand the urgency.”
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
