EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Early upsets in NHL playoffs
SAN JOSE, CALIF. In February, Brenden Dillon doesn’t stop and count to 10. Steam doesn’t billow from the rugged defenceman’s ears as he stews on the San Jose Sharks bench. He retaliates.
In February or any other time in the regular season, Dillon would have answered Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian’s hellacious Game 2 hit with something other than stoic discipline.
“I think when you’re in the midst of the game, maybe for the rest of that shift you’re maybe biting your tongue or getting back to the bench and you’re a little frustrated and upset and mad and you want to go jump somebody or do something stupid,” Dillon said.
“But I think in the playoffs, you have to have kind of a short-term memory for that kind of stuff. At the end of the day, the last laugh is being able to get the win.”
At six-foot-three and 225 pounds, with more than 20 NHL bouts under his belt, the 26-year-old Dillon isn’t pushed around easily. But one of these teams will still be playing in May, and you don’t punch your ticket to the next round by punching Kassian in the face and taking a penalty.
Dillon didn’t want to comment when asked if he thought the hit was borderline or just big.
“I don’t want to get in trouble,” the native of New Westminster, B.C., said.
“My head is in one piece right now, which I’m thankful for. It’s a seven-game playoff series and you want to be smart.”
The complexion of Game 2 was altered when Kassian started to throw his weight around in the first period, but the real damage was done, as always, on the scoreboard. Kassian fired the game-winner while the Oilers were short-handed, with Patrick Maroon serving a post-whistle crosschecking penalty that Oilers head coach Todd McLellan bemoaned Sunday.
“It’s taking a penalty after the whistle that I’m concerned about,” he said.
“If we can take six penalties and narrow it down to three, we’ll be OK.”
They have been OK to date because of the impotent Sharks power play, which obviously missed the puck-distribution prowess of the injured Joe Thornton. It was a dismal onefor-12 through two games. — with two goals against.
“I think when a team like that is taking five, six penalties and running around, you have to score on the power play,” Dillon said. “That’s where you’re going to get your retaliation. ”
Dillon said there were echoes in Edmonton of last year’s first-round series between the Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings.
“They came out and they were pushing us around,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of mentality you want to make of it. We want to be disciplined. That’s something we’ve done all year. We’ve got guys who can be physical. Myself, that’s one of the parts of my game. At the same time, you want to be smart about it.”