And away we go.
Series opens Sunday evening. Sharks are opening the Tank (free tickets required – sold out) for away game 1 viewing, and distributing to the first 500 fans a Jo Pawvelski rally towel.
Most pundits are predicting a hard fought series. Game 1 should be the “feeling out” game. But I expect both teams to be physical and pushing to the edge (of penalties) to test the mettle of their opponent.
In the season series, the road team prevailed, so the Sharks should hope to rekindle their road prowess to start the series.
- AP preview
- NY Times Pollak (retired SJMN beat writer): Retooled Sharks move on, away from past failures
- SI: More on Brent Burns, the most interesting man in the NHL
- SI Linda Cohn: Sharks can go all the way
Recorded in the middle of the Predators series - NBC: DeBoer – fatigue not a factor
- Puck Daddy series preview
- Puck Daddy game preview
- CBC: What you need to know
- ESPN: W2W4 – WCF Game 1
- USA Today: Con Smythe contenders
- SJMN preview
- SJMN: series matchup
- SJMN: Jo Pawvelski finds new home
- SJMN WTC: Blues PP working well, Sharks need to stay disciplined
- SJMN WTC: Nieto improves; Dillon, Wingels excited for conference finals
- Gackle: Sharks depth will be the story of WCF
- Chron preview
- Chron: Sharks looking for something special against Blues
- SLPD: Blues focus on the simple
- SLPD: Sharks, Blues have a lot in common
- SLPD: 5 things to watch
- SLPD: Blues and fans have paid their dues
- SLPD: Blues locked in on Cup quest
- SLPD: Blues have home ice advantage (on paper)
Hitchcock: “I think from our standpoint, we’ve done a reasonably good job at keeping the puck away from key players. But if you think you’re just going to go out and check good players and negate them, that’s a big mistake … because they’re patient and they’re competitive and they’ll wait for their opportunities. San Jose is a little bit different, in that, they have chemistry that is so automatic because they’ve been together for so long that a little mistake can end up being a big mistake. So it’s a little bit different than the other lines that we’ve played against because they do things five on five and on the power play that seem unorthodox, but they know each other so well, they find each other. We’re trying to just not give them the puck as much and hopefully we get a chance to hang onto it.”