Almost as quickly as you can say – did Joe Thornton really just drop his gloves and throw-down during the opening faceoff – the San Jose Sharks are done.
When the Anaheim Ducks completed a first-round upset of the Sharks in Game 6 Monday they not only did the Bruins the favor of eliminating one of the few teams that had rolled over Boston this season, but with the Sharks having swiftly departed the Bruins have suddenly become the top-dog with home ice advantage in any playoff series.
San Jose had ripped through a franchise-best regular season. Like the Bruins, the Sharks won 53 games and had captured the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s standings point leader by virtue of having one fewer regulation loss than the Bruins.
San Jose was seemingly poised in the Zamboni driver’s seat for the post-season and Shark fans were primed for a long-playoff run.
Yet, they are suddenly done.
As the Carolina Hurricanes head to Boston for the second-round of the playoffs Friday, here are a few lessons the previously primed for success Sharks learned the hard-way and which the now-top seeded Bruins will seek to avoid repeating.
1. The Regular Season Means Nothing
Forget the lofty record, special team rankings and head to head games this season. Sure, it got you home ice, but even that can swiftly slip away.
The Sharks had 11 more wins, 26 more standings points and gave up 34 less goals than the Ducks during the regular season. San Jose’s power play and penalty killing unit were both ranked higher than the Ducks and the Sharks won four of the six regular season contests against Anaheim.
It was the complete opposite in the playoffs. The Ducks won four of six, outscoring the Sharks 18-10 while dominating special teams play.
Do not take too much comfort with the Bruins exalted place in the standings and their 4-0 regular season record against Carolina. What happened in December won’t matter when the puck is dropped Friday.
If anything, the highly polished regular season crown worn by the B’s only serves as a target enhancing the opposition’s motivation for pay back.
2. The Stretch Run Matters
San Jose had the Pacific Division essentially locked up by the All-Star break and played few meaningful games after a 5-2 drubbing of the Bruins in a conference-best showdown in mid-February. Far from steaming into the playoffs on all cylinders, the Sharks dropped their final two regular season games while meandering through a mediocre 5-4-1 mark over their last 10.
By contrast, the Ducks needed to post the NHL’s best record over their final 13 games (10-2-1) just to secure the last playoff spot in the West.
It is not easy for a team to suddenly turn on the intensity switch in the playoffs, especially when facing a team that has been fighting for its life over the final month of the season. The Sharks simply did not seem ready for the playoffs. The Ducks did.
To the Bruins credit, they also posted one of the league’s top records down the stretch, going 8-2 over their final ten games. That strong finish carried over into an opening-round sweep of a weak Montreal team.
But, after an extended layoff Boston will now have to regain its intensity against a Carolina team that matched the Bruins with an 8-2 record over its final ten games before knocking out the New Jersey Devils in a seven-game series.
The Bruins solid play over the final stretch is a good sign, but Carolina’s late season play should also merit a Hurricanes warning.
3. A Series Can Be Quickly Stolen
No matter how successful you were in the regular season, the cruel reality of playoff hockey is that home-ice advantage can be lost in the opening 60 minutes of a playoff series. One bad bounce, one bad shift, one bad call that results in the visitors taking a win in the first two games serves to erase 82 games of brilliance.
San Jose was certainly competitive in the opening games of its series with the Ducks, but they stumbled just enough for Anaheim to grab key wins in Games 1 and 2. The teams swapped wins in the next four games, but the damage was already done.
“It’s not like we played badly. We battled, we fought, but that’s what happens when you lose the first games at home,” Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov said after his team was eliminated Monday. “That’s really tough. They’ve got you by the throat and they keep you down.”
The Hurricanes needed to win at least one game in New Jersey if they were going to eliminate the Devils. They ended up winning two of the final three games in Newark, including Game 7.
Carolina knows it can win on the road and the Bruins will need to quickly shake off their rust if they want to avoid a troublesome early deficit.
4. All Hands on Deck
When a top-seed stumbles in the post-season, star players are usually left with most of the blame, but the reality is that as much as the key to winning is often about contributions from the full roster, so is losing.
The blame for the Sharks annual post-season crash will likely fall at the skates of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Nabokov. Yet, while Thornton was certainly not a consistent threat, he did generate five points in the six games and Marleau had two game-winning goals.
Not the stuff of legends, but not a complete absence from the mix either.
San Jose’s quick exit was actually as much about the non-contributions of the Sharks secondary scorers as it was the lack of contributions by Thornton and Marleau.
The Bruins have showcased as balanced a scoring attack as you’ll find in the NHL this season. But that has to continue. Phil Kessel and Michael Ryder, who have combined to score eight of Boston’s 17 playoffs goals thus far, can’t be left to generate the bulk of the team’s offense.
5. Not Fade Away
Even if the Bruins come out hitting on all cylinders, grab an early lead and are in control, don’t think the Hurricanes are ready to roll over. They trailed the Devils in their opening series after Games 1, 3 and 5 and fought back to even the series each time. They trailed in Game 7 with just over a minute to play and fought back to win.
Carolina did not find a way to catch the Bruins during their four regular season contests, but it could be a lot tougher for Boston to take four wins from the Hurricanes now.
Avoiding some of the pratfalls of the now-departed Sharks will be a good first step.
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