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Series Thread: Stanely cup finals Pens Vs Sharks

sjrules99

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hahaha, yeah, im devastated that the pens won, cuz I will be out of town for ever home game :-(...

So I expect the sharks to win in 5, quite honestly. The pens have a reasonable set of forwards with sid, gino, kessel, horny, hag, rust, bonino, and kunitz. They have a solid top 9 and cullen fehr and co are a solid 4th line as well. That said, I feel the sharks have just as good a forward crew, so I would call the forwards a wash. The sharks though have a giant edge on D and in net. The pens ride letang and daley and with daley out, they have a very suspect D. Maata is struggling a bit and then its lovejoy, schultz, doumelin, and cole. Thats a pretty thin D, and if the sharks are physical on letang, they can punish him, and expose the pens D. The Goaltending is two rooks, so who knows about it, but I think the sharks major edge on the back end and in structure gives them the big advantage.
 

SJVP408

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These Pens are deep with their forwards so I'll be scared anytime that Polak/Dillon pairing is on the ice. Not sure how DeBoer is going to 'hide' that shaky D pairing. PIT transition game is deadly so I think the Sharks have to keep it simple through the neutral zone - no neutral zone turnovers. Quickly get it through and work the dump and chase. Work their defense down low and force their centerman to help behind their own net which can slow their breakout whenever Sharks lose puck possession.

How well does that Murray goalie play the puck? If he isn't good at playing the puck then it makes all the more sense to dump and chase.
 

madcap9999

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Hope it's SJ in 6 so they win it here - nothing like winning at home. So tired of seeing teams win the cup on the road and all you hear are boos and crickets.
 

sjrules99

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So, what are your keys to the series???

here are mine:

1. Grind them down. The pens are fast up all around but small and young on the back end, and smallish up front too. If the game is open and there's lots of space, that favors pitt. A dump and chase, grinding game favors the sharks. We have the size, skill, and experience on the back end to handle that kind of game. The pens are ill equipped. Letang, Pouliot, Schultz, and Maata are all 204lb or smaller, and only Ian Cole and Lovejoy approach 220. the pens biggest forwards are malkin and fehr at 212, and malkin obviously doesnt play a board game. On the other hand the sharks have a forward on every line 220+ (jumbo at 225, patty at 220, ward at 225 and zubris at 225) and big D (polak at 235, burns at 225, dillon at 225, and even vlasic and braun are respectable at 205 each). the little pens have the advantage against the sharks D in a speedy game, but ff the sharks play a heavy forecheck, puck behind the D game with 4 guys back always, the pens will spend all their shift working hard in their own zone and will fail to get any speed or transition attack. Also, the pens rely so heavily on letang, so hitting him every time he touches the puck is gunna lead to his tiring, and a wave of powerplays when the young pens D starts to panic, cheat, and reach with sticks since they will be outmuscled.

2. Score on the PP. If the sharks get their forecheck game going, they will draw alot of calls. They need to punish the pens accordingly.

3. Good structure. The pens are shifty and have great speed and forward depth. Clogging up the neutral zone, blocking shots, forcing them to the outside, and playing a solid structure will squash the pens, just like they squashed terasanko.

4. set the tone on shift one and score early in games: If the sharks score early, they will be able to shake Matt Murray's confidence, as you know he's gunna be nervous and hasnt been tested all that much. Also, they will get the pens out of position looking for offense and can get transition goals when the pens cheat in the neutral zone.

5. be patient. Grinding it out, playing good structure, and the like requires patience. the sharks need to stay out of the box by not going for too much all the time. Jones is calm and patient himself, so just follow his example. Use the body, use the brain, and the sharks should win easily.

My prediction: Sharks in 5.
 

Cbrower91

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Letang and Bonio both missing from pens practice which means they are banged up, I think Letang is not going to have a fun series with Hertl and Thornton crushing him. Plus any dman who's been logging big minutes against the Sharks have paid for it
 

Cbrower91

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I'm fairly confident the Sharks are going to win. I don't think the Pens defense or Murray stand much of a chance, the pens D is primarily small and mobile, but not really heavy. I think the Sharks first PP against will be telling on how the series go, wether it's a 5 game or 6. Only concern is going to be 3rd line match ups.
 

Cmon_WTF

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I'm going with Sharks in 6. I think they will split these first two in Pit and then game 5 will be the one brain fart game they seem to have every series.

IMO the forward group favors Pit a little but dmen, coaching, PP, and team system favor the Sharks. Goaltending is about even. The Sharks system is designed to neutralize fast teams and when they are not careless with the puck the pull it off to a T. Sharks limit their turnovers and they will take the series.
 

sjrules99

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I'm going with Sharks in 6. I think they will split these first two in Pit and then game 5 will be the one brain fart game they seem to have every series.

IMO the forward group favors Pit a little but dmen, coaching, PP, and team system favor the Sharks. Goaltending is about even. The Sharks system is designed to neutralize fast teams and when they are not careless with the puck the pull it off to a T. Sharks limit their turnovers and they will take the series.

Agreed, while the pens have the forward advantage, the sharks have a gigantic D advantage. I mean, the pens after letang are really so-so. if the sharks punish letang, the pens will be playing 3 on 5 all series. Vlasic and Braun are shut down studs, and martin-burns are a fearsome pair. Only dillon and polak are the achilles heal, so I expect they will see closer to 10min/gm rather than the usual 13-15. Burns may get one or two extra minutes with pickles and braun picking up a minute or two as well. Dillon and polak are ill equipped to handle undersized speedy forwards. I figure that deboer will try to hide them a bit. usually, the team with the best D wins (see chicago with keith, seabrook, hjalmarsson etc or the kings in 2014 with doughty, voynov, muzzin, martinez, scuderi, etc). The sharks D is much deeper, and I see that as the key difference, and triply so if the sharks can really pound letang, get the puck behind him, and grind him out.
 

sjrules99

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Just for fun, player by player matchup with each player ranked 1 to 10:

Top 9 forwards:
1. Sid (9) vs. Jumbo(8): Pens +1
2. Gino (9) vs. Cooch (8): Pens +1
3. Kessel (9) v. pavelski (9): even
4. Bonino (6) v. marleau (7): sharks +1
5. Hagelin (6) v. hertl (6): Even
6. Hornqvist (6) v. ward (5): pens +1
7. Kunitz (6) v. Donskoi (5): Pens +1
8. Rust (5) v. tierney (4): pens +1
9. Sheary (4) v. karlsson (3): Pens +1
10 4th lines are even

Net result: Pens +5

Defense:
1. Letang (10) v Burns (10): even
2 vlasic (9) v. dumoulin (5): sharks +4
3. martin (7) v. maata (5): sharks +2
4. braun (6) v. lovejoy (5): sharks +1
5. Polak (3) v. Schultz (3): even
6. dillon (3) v. cole (3): even
Net score: sharks +7

Golatending:
1. Murray (6) v. Jones (7): Sharks +1
net: sharks +1 (this is tough call, but jones has more age and experience, so I feel he has the slight edge)

Net result: sharks +3. Thats a close series, but the pens have the slight edge up front, but are crushed on the back end. The top matchup on D of burns v. letang is reasonably close, but then the rest of the top 4 for SJ is way way better. The bottom pairs are a wash, but the pens advantage up front is never by much. none of the matchups highly favor pitt, and some, as I ranked them, could be argued.

Coaching may be advantage sharks, but both are 1st year with their teams,and both have been great since mid year, so I figure thats a wash.
 

mr.hockey4242

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I'm a little nervous with how confident you all seem to be in the Sharks lol. Definitely think they can take this series but many seem pretty outright convinced and it's gonna be a battle.
 

sjrules99

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I'm a little nervous with how confident you all seem to be in the Sharks lol. Definitely think they can take this series but many seem pretty outright convinced and it's gonna be a battle.

Oh its definitely gunna be a battle. When facing a team with probably the best player in the world, and gino and kessel not far behind, its gunna be tough. Not to mention a norris trophy caliber guy in letang. It wont be easy, but the sharks D corps is so much better than pitt, that unless letang pulls a doughty/chara/keith and the sharks march to the box, the sharks should be able to handle pitt's good forwards. Braun and vlasic are the big difference in the series. They are amazing at both ends, and it's gunna be hard for pitt to match the D, especially without daley.

Pitt scores a ton in transition, so the sharks could also beat themselves, with irresponsible turnovers at the blue line, bad passes in the offensive zone that feed the rush the other way, and forwards getting caught too low. However, the sharks generally don't do those things regularly, and if Pitt is in a dump and chase game, the sharks have a massive advantage. Deboer knows this, and knows that if the forwards backcheck hard, and there are always 4 or 5 sharks back in the neutral zone, then pitt will not get the transition goals, and the sharks can wear 'em down.

Pitt has no counter for the sharks since the sharks can score in transition, off the cycle, with pretty passing, or ugly tips. They are bigger and stronger on the back end and up front, but can play small and quick. Obviously, anything can happen and the pens quickness cold cause troubles on the breakout, so the sharks will need to make the simple smart plays, execute well, and get the puck deep on every chance they have.
 

Cbrower91

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Sharks look terrible and like they are skating in quick sand
 

MrFlyingV

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Wtf is this shit show? Just happy to be here I guess.
 

mr.hockey4242

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And this is why I said I was nervous lol.

Against a team that can fly, if you don't play well and attack you are fucked.

This is murder
 

Cbrower91

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About to find out how good of a coach Deboer is
 
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