WSF (5) Los Angeles Kings vs (6) San Jose Sharks (Kings win 4-3).

[sun]

Originally Posted by OILFAN #81

His name is Thornton and he was one of the few guys who actually played with heart in the playoffs. Marleau had a great 1st round but did a lot of nothing against LA.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to the boxscore. It's all that matters, you know.

[dammage79]

I'm guessing thornton had not enough PIM's to be effective in this series.

[WCW Nitro]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Great series. Anyone still pedaling the "Sharks choke in the playoffs" narrative is just lazy at this point.

It doesn't look like they choked because they just don't do that well in the reg. season anymore. They were consistently getting 100+ pts in the reg.season a couple of years back, if in 2008-09 someone said the team would not make it to the finals in the each of the next 5 yrs the perspective would be different. The organization has regressed.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by timbit

Was Couture soft?

He plays the Refs ( his dad was a pro lacrosse ref) and it is surprising that he had no penalties called on him in spite of several possibilities..


He was really outmatched playing against Carter (who was +3 for the series) and was a -5 in a 7 game series where LA scored 14 goals in all - 9 at even strength.

If he doesn't score on the PP he is a pretty ordinary contributor.... so yes kinda soft. 3 even strength assists in 11 playoff games...

[Mike F]

Darryl ecstatic with his team's win.

[kenk-la]

Joe Thornton was the most consistent player for the Sharks in their playoff run alongside with Neimi who was also incredibly solid. I do not understand how any flack could be headed Joe's way, both he and the Sharks played a fantastic series.

[opendoor]

I think some of these numbers show just how good Thornton was these playoffs:

GF while on the ice : 19
GA while on the ice: 3

GF while on the bench: 6
GA while on the bench: 19


5-on-5 SF/60 min while he was on the ice: 34.1
5-on-5 SA/60 min while he was on the ice: 20.7

5-on-5 SF/60 min while he was on the bench: 25.9
5-on-5 SA/60 min while he was on the bench: 29.7


Never mind that his wingers were a defenseman and a guy with 15, 15, and 14 points in his last 3 seasons.

[JeanLucPicard]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Darryl ecstatic with his team's win.

haha Sutter has the best post-game interviews ever.

"Coach was it the 2nd period that turned it around for you"

"Not really"

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Another year of San Jose not getting it done in the playoffs. Gotta figure time has almost run out for their core

If you watched all of the Sharks' playoff games it was not the core that was the problem. The majority of their core was the reason this was a 7 game series they had no help from their support players.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

If you watched all of the Sharks' playoff games it was not the core that was the problem. The majority of their core was the reason this was a 7 game series they had no help from their support players.

That is the function of their cap management

Line #1 13.7M Thornton needs Burns to carry the Physical work on that line?
Line #2 16 M Marleau and Couture need Pavelski to fill in on the wing??

30M tied up on the top 2 lines ....

Line#3 2.2M

Looks a lot like the Flames when they have a large part of their salary tied up in 9 players.

[Phanuthier]

not important enough for its own thread, but go to lakings.com and check out sponser #2... pretty funny... must be Darryl's work

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

not important enough for its own thread, but go to lakings.com and check out sponser #2... pretty funny... must be Darryl's work

I think that Alberta Tourism does a lot of advertising in the California markets, I have previously seen Travel Alberta board advertisements in Anaheim and Los Angeles.

[getbak]

Game of inches...

[Bourque's Twin]

Originally Posted by JeanLucPicard

haha Sutter has the best post-game interviews ever.

"Coach was it the 2nd period that turned it around for you"

"Not really"

Game 7 against Tampa Bay still stings

[XxBIGDOGxX1817]

Firstly, that post game presser by D Sutt was one of the best i've seen. Enjoyed Calgary/Tampa cup final shout out.

Secondly, I found it strange last night how Bob Mckenzie credited the NHL lockout for the reason the Kings are avoiding the Cup hangover, or are having playoff success this year.
I have no interest in analyzing whether or not i agree with him here but imo the lockout had a bigger impact on the sharks, 4 straight against VAN, took LA all the way to 7...

Without looking at the stats i'm pretty sure we could agree that SJ is one of the best regular season teams in the past decade... emphasis on regular season.

SJ 2013 Season:

48 GP Reg season, 4 GP 1st Round Playoff Series, 7 GP 2nd round playoff series = 59GP

For arguments sake add additional wear and tear caused by compressed schedule of 10GP

59GP + 10GP = 69GP

In this rather embarrassing analyzation the point i'm trying to make is that they had much less wear and tear (GP) coming into this playoffs as in years past, they haven't even played anywhere close to as many games as any other year.. Considering SJ's age do you think this series would've been anywhere close if they were approaching 90GP. This simply isn't a Stanley Cup contender, they were beneficiaries of the shortened season (lockout), to give them credit they took advantage of there opportunity, sweeping VAN and taking L.A to 7 is impressive. But imo based on they're results it is fairly clear to me that no other team benefitted more from the lockout than they did.

Unfortunately for them, they will think they're just missing one or two pieces, perhaps depth and act accordingly this offseason, things in SJ will be dim for many years.