Sharks lose focus, conference final series lead in Game 4
SAN JOSE, Calif. – It’s hard to play every game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the same type of focus and locked-in aggression.
The San Jose Sharks know this, which is why they aren’t treating their lopsided Game 4, 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues as symptomatic of bigger issues. It was simply their time to fall off a little.
“You play three games one way (this series) and one game the wrong way,” forward Tommy Wingels said. “It’s easy to look at it and see which one works and which one doesn’t. We know which one works. We can watch video of it, but I don’t think we need to. We know what works here and what doesn’t.”
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Heading into Game 4, there was a belief the Blues were lucky to be down just 2-1 in the series. The Sharks had played a better all-around game and were in position to put a stranglehold on Western Conference Final. Except the Blues made all the right roster moves and tactical decisions and the Sharks couldn’t fight back.
They found their game in the third period with three goals, But by the time the Sharks got their first goal at the 1:05 mark of the third, the Blues were up 4-0. Then at the 3:55 mark St. Louis scored their fifth goal to kill any remote chance of a comeback by San Jose.
“We knew they would be better. We knew they weren’t going to sit back. It’s a Game 4. There’s a lot out there still,” forward Joe Pavelski said. “We weren’t as sharp as we could have been early. We created a few chances, but we don’t get enough off it. We just really need to be sharp.”
The six goals allowed by San Jose were the most another team had scored on them in a game these playoffs. Coach Peter DeBoer was forced to pull goaltender Martin Jones for the first time this postseason.
Jones stopped just 15 of 19 shots on goal. After the game he said it was the right decision to pull him and praised the Blues’ energy level.
“They had some jump tonight. That was probably the biggest difference,” Jones said. “For us, we just need to make sure we support the puck a little better and break the puck out cleaner.”
Also, the Sharks’ stars made some uncharacteristic mistakes. A giveaway by Joe Thornton on the power play led to Kyle Brodziak’s shorthanded 2-on-1 goal that made the game 3-0.
Defenseman Brent Burns coughed up the puck off a strong Blues’ forecheck at led to Jori Lehtera’s goal, which made the game 2-0.
“We weren’t ourselves early,” forward Logan Couture said. “When you give a good team a 2-0 lead then you give up a shorthanded goal, that’s pretty much it.”
The Sharks haven’t made a lot of roster adjustments this playoff partially because they haven’t needed to. There haven’t been any panic moments for San Jose since the postseason began.
In 16 games this playoff, the Sharks have lost multiple games in a row once. But they haven’t been beat this bad yet, which could lead to some subtle differences before Game 5 at Scottrade Center on Monday.
“We’ve been consistently good for a while. We didn’t execute tonight. We got burnt,” DeBoer said. “We got what we deserved because of our execution. Short memory. We’ll move on to the next game. We’ve had one or two of these games throughout the playoffs and we’ve always responded the right way.”
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