Revenge is not motive in Stanley Cup final rematch
PITTSBURGH — Beating the Penguins on Thursday won’t erase the pain the Sharks felt after skating off their home ice in June, with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman asking Sidney Crosby to take the Stanley Cup amid a deafening chorus of boos.
Perhaps that’s why a handful of Sharks players were saying, at least publicly, that beating the Penguins in Pittsburgh would be more about picking up two points and maintaining good habits than gaining a small measure of revenge for the bitter sixgame series loss in the final.
Of course, this is anything but an average early season game against an Eastern Conference opponent. Not with that stylish Stanley Cup banner now hanging from the roof at PPG Paints Arena.
“I don’t know what the emotions will be until I get in there,”
Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said after Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the New York Islanders. “It’s tough to go on that long of a journey and then lose the way we did. I don’t think there was any doubt that they deserved to win.
“But at the same time, for us, it’s a chance to …make a statement that we are a different team this year.”
Certainly the moves to sign forward Mikkel Boedker and defenseman David Schlemko were made to help the Sharks better match up with faster teams like the Penguins. They also made the Sharks a deeper team overall, able to play various styles depending on the opponent.
Thursday’s game isn’t necessarily a litmus test to see if the Sharks made the progress they were hoping for this offseason, particularly since Crosby is out for an indefinite period with concussion-like symptoms.
But a win would reinforce the Sharks’ reputation as being a solid team on the road, able to counter a team like the Penguins that wants to play with relentless pressure.
“Now that it’s here, it’ll be good. It’ll be fun,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “We would have liked a better result the last time we played that team, but it’s two points, it’s a new year. It’s important that we keep building our game and keep trying to get better. A long ways from getting back to that position, and this is another good team that we’ll be playing.”
Sharks center Chris Tierney said the Sharks haven’t talked about Thursday’s game as a team, but individually, there will be no problem being emotionally ready to go.
“Obviously it doesn’t feel good when you lose to a team in the final,” Tierney said. “So you take a little pride in wanting to beat them and you definitely get a little more hyped up for those kinds of games.”
Tierney was one of the young Sharks players that learned from the experience of going against some of the NHL’s top centers throughout the playoff run, particularly the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin in the final.
“It shows you what it takes to win. It takes every guy on the team doing their job,” Tierney said. “They worked really well together and every guy played desperate every shift.”
Tomas Hertl could also experience some unique emotions Thursday. He was arguably the Sharks’ best player in the first two games of the final before he suffered a right knee injury late in Game 2 that kept him out of the last four games.
“It’ll be a really good game because everybody was excited for the final last season,” Hertl said. “We just want to be ready and show up and play our best hockey.”