Sharks in a sweep
Embellishment? Here’s real meaning of that word
San Jose wins on a Patrick Marleau overtime goal to eliminate the Vancouver Canucks from the Stanley Cup playoffs in four games.
There are two definitions for the word embellishment. The Vancouver Canucks charged the Sharks with one definition this week. The Sharks responded, in a grueling overtime win on Tuesday night, with another.
Embellishment, the way Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa threw the word around this week, means adding fictitious details. Being a phony.
It can also mean adding a decorative touch to make something more beautiful.
The latter is what the Sharks did Tuesday night, when Patrick Marleau tipped a dribbling rebound into Vancouver’s net for a power-play goal 13 minutes into overtime, giving the Sharks a series-clinching 4-3 victory.
The Sharks not only won the series, they added some aesthetic frills. A playoff sweep, the first in franchise history. A post-series hand-
shake in front of their fans. And the prettiest embellishment of all: a week of rest before the next series.
“We didn’t want to go back to Vancouver,” Logan Couture said.
The Sharks won’t be using their building Wednesday; the Rolling Stones will be playing at HP Pavilion. Bieksa apparently wanted a head start on the concert. Between Games 3 and 4, he was riffing on old Stones classics like “Start Me Up” and “Street Fighting Man.”
Bieksa became the Canucks’ self-appointed slushstirrer, trying to get into the Sharks’ collective heads and into the officials’ minds.
The Canucks’ lone aim was to get the Sharks out of their comfort zone: make them take another plane flight, go through customs, get out their passports. To that end, Bieksa went so far as to question what kind of passports the Sharks have.
Bieksa charged the Sharks with “embellishment.” That’s called “flopping” in other sports, but one of the best things about hockey is that it has its own language. However, no matter what language you’re speaking, calling hockey players floppers are fighting words. And questioning their Canadian nationality? Bieksa dropped the gloves in a big way when he called out Logan Couture and Joe Thornton.
“Those are two Canadian guys who are supposed to be playing the game with integrity,” Bieksa said, calling Thornton a “so-called Canadian.”
One Sharks official described Bieksa as “dumber than a box of rocks.” Head coach Todd McLellan noted that the term “embellishment” was all the rage two years ago, precisely when the Canucks were flopping their way to a championship.
It’s a rivalry that’s growing nasty. Couture was clearly happy to oust Vancouver.
“Those guys talk a lot,” he said. “Whenever someone goes after your integrity in the game of hockey, it’s good to stick it to them.”
No wonder Vancouver was so desperate to rattle Couture. The Sharks’ 24-year-old standout came into Game 4 tied for second in the NHL in playoff points.
But Bieksa perhaps should have called Joe Pavelski a “so-called American.” Pavelski, also tied for second in points coming into the game, scored two power-play goals against Vancouver on Tuesday, including the one to force overtime. On that goal, Bieksa was the player in the penalty box.
Bieksa’s tactics didn’t help his team with the officials. Daniel Sedin was in the penalty box for boarding when Marleau scored the gamewinning goal. Sedin was awarded an unusual penalty for abusive language. As Couture said, the Canucks talk a lot, though he noted that in the handshake line they were all very nice.
“They just talk about me in the media,” he said.
Fans brought brooms to HP Pavilion, hoping to see the Sharks make franchise history. San Jose had never swept a series, and the last time they were in position to do so, going up 3-0 on the Detroit Red Wings in 2011, it took them seven games to finish off the series.
But this Sharks team is different.
“In the past, we felt the pressure,” McLellan said. “This year we didn’t feel that way. We were a loose group, without a lot of expectations from the outside.
“We’re more of a team now than in the past.”
For the Sharks, a sweep probably means a week off, because the NHL won’t start the second round until all first-round games are completed. Hockey players don’t worry about rust; they’re eager for time to rest. The Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup last season, in part because their first three series were over in no more than five games each. They were rested and relatively healthy by the finals.
Now the Sharks get to recuperate and wait for their next opponent.
And if Bieksa wants to extend his stay in San Jose, he can come back to HP Pavilion on Wednesday to learn that you can’t always get what you want.