|
|
Quiet Night Sharks prepare for Round 2
No hockey tonight so one can think about things.
The LA Kings are gone in five games, and between the Sharks and the St. Louis
Blues, "exorcising their demons" easily wins the Over-used Metaphor In A Hockey
Blog competition for the week. Sharks fans can live with that, we're tired of
hearing that "c" word. About 90% of the smart people pecked either the Kings or
the Chicago Blackhawks to represent the Western Conference in the Finals and
have some serious splaining to do. Somebody new will go in a few weeks, it
might as well be us. But that's getting ahead of things.
The Sharks'
victory came on the eve of St. George's Day, and as the dragon-slaying pros
remind us, when one is down there is another to deal with very soon. You can
argue whether the Sharks match up better against the Nashville Predators or the
Anaheim Ducks. I'd consider it a wash considering that all three teams were
wildly inconsistent over the season.
Both the Ducks and the Preds have
good defense, better depth than the Kings, and questions in goal. The fun stat
to argue about: the Ducks weirdly led the league in penalties per game,
penalty-kill percentage and power-play percentage during the regular season.
This should make for some fun times with the officiating if they win on
Wednesday night.
Goaltender Pekka Rinne of the Predators carries a
lifetime 10-5-4 record against the Sharks, but his overall performance this
season was very average with a 0.908 save percentage. How much of that is due
to Nashville's new coach, Peter Laviolette, incorporating a less defensive
system and how much to Pekka Rinne getting older?
Anaheim has Frederik Andersen and John Gibson to
choose from in net. If coach Bruce Boudreau is true to his baser instincts,
given any reason he'll dump one and start the other. Maybe even make the change
during the National Anthem. Along with the irritatingly affected way Dan
Rusanowsky keeps saying "Pek-ka REEN-yay" whenever he gives a Nashville score
this is a reason to hope that Anaheim is the Sharks' opponent. Then again, if
Rinne is beatable let's beat him.
This will be a tough series for the
Sharks. Both teams are physical and they haven't beaten each other up nearly
enough in the first round. Either way, the Sharks are learning they can win
with Peter DeBoer's system. Sharks in seven.
Contact Ken at at
kensmyth@letsgosharks.com
|
|
What did you think of
this article? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|