HUNGRY SHARKS TAKE CONTROL OF FAST-FALTERING BLUES
Hertl nets two as St. Louis struggles to counter San Jose’s top line
The St. Louis Blues look like a team out of gas. They also looked Thursday like a team nearly out of hope.
A rest day between Stanley Cup playoff games and some peripheral lineup changes for St. Louis did nothing to level the playing field as the San Jose Sharks, who look as energized by their seven-game win in Round 2 as the Blues look depleted by theirs, were again the stronger, faster, hungrier, better team.
The Sharks won 3-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference final. Another two wins puts San Jose in its first Stanley Cup Final since the franchise joined the NHL in 1991.
This is the nearest the Sharks have been since they lost the conference championship 4-2 to the Calgary Flames in 2004. Two wins. Game 4 is Saturday, Game 5 Monday. By Tuesday ...
“You try not to (think about it),” San Jose winger Logan Couture said. “You think of the next game. As soon as that buzzer sounded, it was on to Game 4 and instant thoughts that they’re going to bring a lot better game. So we’re going to have to be a lot better as well.”
But the thing is, the Blues don’t appear to be getting better. At least, they’re not getting any closer in relation to the Sharks.
San Jose has been better in all three games and, as was the case in the first two, St. Louis struggled Thursday to cope with the Sharks’ speed. The Blues failed again to sustain shifts in the offensive zone when it still mattered.
St. Louis survived physical seven-game marathons against the champion Chicago Blackhawks and Western Conference top seed Dallas Stars to reach the Stanley Cup semifinal.
The Sharks have played only two fewer playoff games, having dusted the Los Angeles Kings in five first-round games, but they appear to be getting stronger.
Their top line of Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl is dominating, and produced a pair of Hertl goals on Thursday. It’s been hard to find St. Louis’ best players since Game 1.
The score the last two games is 7-0 for San Jose.
“Our team has been, I think, under-appreciated all season,” Couture said. “We found our game the second half of the year and started playing the kind of hockey that Pete (DeBoer, the new coach) was preaching when he came to training camp. It took a little while for us to get used to the system and for injuries to heal. And we’ve been great the second half and in the playoffs.
“I’ve been around here where the Sharks have been that team that’s expected to go out and win the Pacific and roll through teams. We faced a lot of adversity this season and last summer and I think it really helped us come together as a group.”
It’s hard to believe San Jose was the third-best team in the Pacific Division this season, finishing behind Los Angeles and the Anaheim Ducks.
At the moment, they look almost unstoppable.
“With every round, the teams are getting better, everything is getting tighter, every shift is so important,” Sharks defenceman Brenden Dillon said. “It’s a lot of
firsts for guys. It’s amazing, you look across at a guy like Burnsie (Brent Burns), who’s been in the league 10 or 11 years now and this is the furthest he’s gotten. It’s pretty exciting and pretty easy to get excited for these games.”
After Blues defenceman Colton Parayko drifted out of position, Hertl had time and space to take a cross-ice pass from Pavelski and rip a shot from the faceoff circle into the top corner behind Blues goalie Brian Elliott at 15:53 of the first period.
The goal came from a turnover, as did the next one. Robby Fabbri’s lateral pass inside the Shark blue-line was broken up, springing an outnumbered rush for the Sharks. Couture spotted Joonas Donskoi as the trailer and the winger wristed a shot form the slot to make it 2-0 at 11:44 of the second period.
Hertl clinched Game 3 with another goal at 7:09 of the third period, losing checker Jaden Schwartz as the Shark collected Thornton’s pass behind the net, then skated to the top of the crease and forced a shot through Elliott. The Blues are getting killed by the Sharks’ speed.
“Yeah, I think that (speed) is one of our strengths,” Donskoi said. “We try to just play simple and skate hard, work hard, win the battles. Nothing special.”
We beg to differ.