Sharks have been stymied in conference finals
Sharks have been stymied in conference finals
The Sharks are among hockey’s final four for the first time since 2011, and for only the fourth time in club history.
Tantalizingly close to the Stanley Cup Finals, San Jose hopes this will be the year that Round 3 isn’t the impenetrable roadblock it has represented in the past.
The Sharks beat the Kings and Red Wings in Rounds 1 and 2, but needing seven games to oust Detroit — after winning the first three in the series — took its toll.
Swept by eventual champion Chicago, which won two one-goal games (including an overtime Game 3) and twice by two.
Doug Wilson’s first year as general manager culminated with a third-round ouster at the hands of Calgary and ex-Sharks coach Darryl Sutter.
The Flames, who won all three games in San Jose, became the first home team to win in the series with a 3-1 clincher in Game 6.
“My first two years, we made it to the conference finals,” said Sharks forward Logan Couture, whose 17 playoff points led the NHL through two rounds.
Neither the Sharks, who began playing in 1991, nor the Blues, who are in their 49th season, have won a Stanley Cup (San Jose has never reached the Finals).
St. Louis lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in each of the first three seasons (1968-70) after the league expanded from its Original Six to 12 teams (a move that added the California Seals in Oakland).
The Lightning, who entered the league one year after the Sharks, beat Calgary in 2004, and the Penguins went back-to-back in 1991-92 and won again in 2009.
Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer sees a common thread running through all four of this season’s semifinalists.
Couture broke Igor Larionov’s 1994 one-round franchise-record of 10 points with five goals and six assists in the second-round defeat of Nashville.
Brent Burns leads defensemen in postseason scoring (and is tied for second overall) with 15 points.
Winger Joonas Donskoi is second in rookie scoring (seven points), and forwards Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic have stood out.
St. Louis battled the adversity that injury invites during the regular season, and exorcised recent playoff demons that included three straight first-round eliminations.
Ex-Shark Mike Sullivan was promoted from Pittsburgh’s American Hockey League affiliate to replace the fired Mike Johnston on Dec. 12, and the Pens responded with a 33-16-5 finish.
Pittsburgh has received solid goaltending from rookie Matt Murray (.935 save percentage) as Marc-Andre Fleury battles to return from a late-season concussion.
Tampa Bay has played without captain Steven Stamkos since the start of April, when he had surgery for a blood clot near his right collarbone.