Series Thread: Sharks Vs Preds

[sjrules99]

amazing performance by the big guns last night, and htey never let up for basically the full 60. Hats off to Deboer for having em clearly ready to go, and to pavs, who I believe will prove to be the best captain in franchise history. He scores the first goal (and GWG), and the two big ones in game 5, and just comes up big when it matters most, yet then deflects it all in the postgame interview. He has managed to take the C without offending all the older vets. He is a leader through and through.

Stl will be tough. They have 4 good forward lines and lots of speed. The sharks can match it, and I think the sharks top lines are better than the Boos. The boos D is also pretty solid and Elliot can be pretty tough. its a very even series, and it will be much tougher than nash or LA. LA had maybe two good dmen after losing martinez and voynov. nash had the D corps, but a this forward group. Stl has a much complete squad, so I think the depth battle of 3rd and 4th lines, 2nd and 3rd pairings will be the key to the series. Also, the sharks will really desperately need to slow STL down since their best guys are folks like tarasenko, Fabbri, and Schwartz who are very young and very quick. The sharks will need to be physical, and be structured in the neutral zone to slow those guys down. Line after line putting the puck behind the boos D and using the sharks size and strength will give them fits.

Its gunna be a doozy, but this is definitely the greatest opportunity in the history of the franchise to make the finals and win it all. if the sharks play their game, and jones is very good, this is a winnable series!

 

[Cbrower91]

I think St Louis' Top 4 D aren't as good as Nashville, closer to LA's in the first round. Boumiester is horribly horribly overrated. Brian Elliot is average at best and is prone to massive melt downs. St. Louis also struggled badly against a Dallas team with essentially no goaltending Survived against a depleted Chicago roster barely.

If and we all know this is a BIG if San Jose plays like they did that last game, it'll be a sweep. I honestly can see the Sharks closing this out in 5

 

[sjrules99]

I think St Louis' Top 4 D aren't as good as Nashville, closer to LA's in the first round. Boumiester is horribly horribly overrated. Brian Elliot is average at best and is prone to massive melt downs. St. Louis also struggled badly against a Dallas team with essentially no goaltending Survived against a depleted Chicago roster barely.

If and we all know this is a BIG if San Jose plays like they did that last game, it'll be a sweep. I honestly can see the Sharks closing this out in 5

Wow, Love the optimism, but I would expect a much greater challenge. Pietrangelo is obviously very good, but shattenkirk is too, and parayko is dangerous as well. Bouwmeester isnt what he used to be, but I still see him as a pretty solid top 4. I agree that they arent as good as Nash's top 4, but they are better than LA. Doughty is amazing, and muzzin is a reasonable top 4 Dman, but beyond that LA barely had NHL quality. Scuderi is done, the Mc's were both terribad, and schenn sucks too. Stl's D is a hell of alot better than LA's.

Elliot is hit and miss. Agreed. But i remember 2012, when Elliot crushed the sharks giving up 1 or 0 in 3 of the 4 L's, after replacing Halakto start game 2. Elliot can be awesome, so the sharks have to hope he doesnt get hot.

The big difference is the forward group for STL is awesome.

Stastny-Brouwer-fabbri
Backes-Berglund-Steen
tarasenko-Schwartz-Lehtera

That's a deadly 3 line combinations with snipers and speed up and down the lineup. Even the 4th line has quality vet guys like upshall and brodziak. They will be hard to shut down for a complete series. In their 14 games thus far, they have only been held to under 3 goals 5 times (1 or 0 goals only 2x). They are very dangerous offensively, which is why the sharks have to get the puck in deep, wear down stl's top 4, and clog up the neutral zone to stop their speed, and win the game in transition and with possession, cycles, and effort.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Wow, Love the optimism, but I would expect a much greater challenge. Pietrangelo is obviously very good, but shattenkirk is too, and parayko is dangerous as well. Bouwmeester isnt what he used to be, but I still see him as a pretty solid top 4. I agree that they arent as good as Nash's top 4, but they are better than LA. Doughty is amazing, and muzzin is a reasonable top 4 Dman, but beyond that LA barely had NHL quality. Scuderi is done, the Mc's were both terribad, and schenn sucks too. Stl's D is a hell of alot better than LA's.

Elliot is hit and miss. Agreed. But i remember 2012, when Elliot crushed the sharks giving up 1 or 0 in 3 of the 4 L's, after replacing Halakto start game 2. Elliot can be awesome, so the sharks have to hope he doesnt get hot.

The big difference is the forward group for STL is awesome.

Stastny-Brouwer-fabbri
Backes-Berglund-Steen
tarasenko-Schwartz-Lehtera

That's a deadly 3 line combinations with snipers and speed up and down the lineup. Even the 4th line has quality vet guys like upshall and brodziak. They will be hard to shut down for a complete series. In their 14 games thus far, they have only been held to under 3 goals 5 times (1 or 0 goals only 2x). They are very dangerous offensively, which is why the sharks have to get the puck in deep, wear down stl's top 4, and clog up the neutral zone to stop their speed, and win the game in transition and with possession, cycles, and effort.

The blues are definitely not known for a speed game.

They play physical structured hockey with depth in having a goal scorer on each line. But you beat them with speed.

It's how the wild got them last year. Blues played physical and Minny just stuck to their speed game and didn't change and wore them down with their wheels.

Sharks gotta focus on approaching this just like the LA series. The blues also take a lot of penalties which is huge if the PP can get rolling.

Very tough team but if the Sharks can play their type of game and not have letdowns this is a pretty nice match up.

 

[23sharks]

I think St Louis' Top 4 D aren't as good as Nashville, closer to LA's in the first round. Boumiester is horribly horribly overrated. Brian Elliot is average at best and is prone to massive melt downs. St. Louis also struggled badly against a Dallas team with essentially no goaltending Survived against a depleted Chicago roster barely.

If and we all know this is a BIG if San Jose plays like they did that last game, it'll be a sweep. I honestly can see the Sharks closing this out in 5

I hope you're right, but I think St Louis is really good too. Should be a great series.
I figured they'd win by a couple last night.....but they took it to them from the drop and never let up. Was so fun to watch!!!
Have to admit, I didn't have much hope for this season. All of Wilson's moves have paid off, and hopefully they can go all the way.

 

[Cmon_WTF]

The Blues play a very structured game and have the most defensively responsible group of forwards in the game. Elliot is a good goalie but can be pretty weak up high on both glove and blocker side. The PP is going to be important. The Blues have players who are prone to taking dumb penalties, Reaves, Ott, Backes, the Sharks win the special teams battle they will win the series.

 

[Cbrower91]

I don't care how good shattenkirk and peteiangelo are, as Chicago,LA, and Nashville learned you can't lean on 4 guys for 30 minutes a night in the playoffs they will wear down. Tarasenko frighting regular season turns out cherry picking in the playoffs gets you in the doghouse. I think St. Louis probably has better overall forward depth but their D and Goaltending are not

 

[madcap9999]

Sharks have the intangibles advantage in this series. To come back from 2 heartbeaking OT's to win the last series speaks volumes as to how far they're matured. More depth on SJ's side will take its toll on the Blues eventually. SJ wins this in 6 games.

 

[MrFlyingV]

Need a new series thread for the Blues series. Dallas D and goaltending sucked and no Seguin for entire series and it still took them 7. If it wasn't for the Lehtenin meltdown and Dallas scored some of those golden opertunities in the 1st period of Game 7, then we could be seeing the Stars now. The Blues can be had, but the Sharks can be had too if they revert to lazy mode.