The first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is not only the greatest, most concentrated period of nightly entertainment in the hockey calendar, but also (obviously) perhaps the best indicator of who’s going to claim the cup.
So what separates a team of destiny from second-round flop after a win in round one? Often it’s which first-round winner has emerge so bloodied and bruised that they’re easy pickings for who they face next. That’s why, to be a team of destiny, it is key not only to win but also to advance through the rounds relatively unscathed—no easy task in the ultra-physical Stanley Cup playoffs.
Montreal has done just that in the Eastern Conference. From the outset, I’ve liked chances of both the Canadiens and the New York Rangers to go up against the cream of the East in Pittsburgh and Boston. If the Rangers are to emerge from their tilt with Philly, they’ll have had a much more physical series than Montreal endured against Tampa Bay.
Hab coach Michel Therrien has been able to employ the Western Conference–style of rolling four lines with equal effectiveness. A healthy Andrei Markov is as good a defenceman as there is in this league. The playoff effectiveness of a Brendan Gallagher was a given, the reawakening of Rene Bourque a pleasant surprise. And this time Lars Eller’s playoff didn’t finish with him bloodied on the ice but continues on with him as a strong contributor. But all these other factors pale in comparison to the excellence of Carey Price in goal for Montreal (while Anders Lindback dropped the ball, err puck, in giving the Lightning nowhere near the kind of goaltending got used to from the now-injured Ben Bishop).
So while in the East, it is a surprise team like the Canadiens who could well be the team of destiny, in the Western Conference it is a different story altogether.
The San Jose Sharks are anything but surprise team. They’ve been easily the best team in the NHL over the past decade to not have made it to the Stanley Cup Final. Unlike the Washington Capitals, who for about four or so of those years were the Eastern Conference equivalent of the Sharks, San Jose never imploded on the ice and fell out of the playoffs like in Washington.
Father time has been a concern in San Jose, but they have borrowed a page from the old Detroit Red Wing re-tooling model, supporting “older” veteran players like Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle over the years, while infusing the likes of Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Brent Burns, Tommy Wingels, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Tomas Hertl.
But, talent alone hasn’t done the job in recent playoffs. One of the stumbling blocks along the way has been the Los Angeles Kings and especially the excellent goaltending of Jonathan Quick. It is here that the Sharks appear to have caught a break and caught momentum in making Quick look uncharacteristically very human. They are also getting those “intangible” breaks that often go a long way towards being a team of destiny. Brent Burns breaks his stick on a shot and it is the first Shark goal in Game Three. The overtime winner is basically a knuckle ball that finds the net—breaks the Sharks never seem to get.
But the Sharks still have to win that fourth and final game, always the toughest to win. They watch as the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues battle it out in a series that will likely exact an immense physical toll on both teams. Maybe the Colorado Avalanche could have been that team of destiny with their great young talent, but they continue to suffer unfortunate injuries in a series that has had its moments of being downright dirty.
That leaves the Anaheim-Dallas series, where it would benefit the Sharks if the Stars do them a favour and make it a gruelling seven-gamer for Anaheim. Those are things the Sharks don’t control. What they can do is to make it quick and simple agaisnt Los Angeles, whose run to the Stanley Cup two years ago included short work in their first few playoff Series.
And, the one other big break that awaits the Sharks: If they do emerge victorious, they will not have to face Red Wings who have been immune to any playoff Shark bite in years gone by.