San Jose Sharks Follow Script With Home Split Against St. Louis

The San Jose Sharks have been nothing but consistent when it comes to splitting the first two games of their playoff series at home this season. For the third straight time they have won the opening encounter at home and then settled for a split by losing game two. In doing so, they have also given up home-ice advantage early once again. On the bright side, they regained it later in their series against the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche.

Home ice has proven to be imperative to the Sharks this season as they’ve been forced to go the full seven games in each series and came out winners at home in each of them.

They started the recent series like a house on fire by doubling the Blues 6-3 in the opener and then fell 4-2 in game two. The Sharks have been highly entertaining though due to their loose defensive play combined with their scoring prowess. Fans can’t afford to blink or take their eyes off ice in case they miss something dramatic.

In fact, the Sharks resemble a heavyweight boxer who carries tremendous knockout power in both fists only to possess a weak chin. You never know what’s going to happen but you can be guaranteed it’s going to be an exciting fight. Team-wise, the Sharks are scoring at a clip of 3.19 goals in the playoffs but their opponents are basically going toe-to-toe with them by scoring 3.13 goals per outing. They’ve scored 51 goals and allowed 50 even though the power-play is chugging along at just 18.3 per cent.

It’s no secret San Jose possesses above-average scoring power as six of their players have reached double digits in points after 16 playoff games with five of them being in the league’s top-nine scorers.

Center Logan Couture leads the league in with 13 goals and 19 points while defenseman Brent Burns has five goals and 15 points. Tomas Hertl has racked up nine goals and 14 points and fellow winger Timo Meier has chipped in with five goals and 14 points. Blue liner Erik Karlsson leads the league with 13 assists and winger Gustav Nyquist has posted a goal and 10 points. And let’s not overlook captain Joe Pavelski as he’s contributed four goals and eight points in just 10 games.

The underrated Couture finished the regular season with 27 goals and 70 points with a -6 rating and has improved his plus/minus to plus-8 in the postseason. He’s been rewarded for his fine play by skating close to an extra two minutes per game in the playoffs. However, he feels the Sharks are playing inconsistent hockey and that can be backed up with the fact they haven’t won back-to-back games since storming back from a 3-1 deficit in the first round against Vegas.

The 30-year-old native of Guelph, Ontario is no stranger at elevating his game in the postseason as he now has 100 points in 112 contests on 47 goals and 53 assists. This includes 16 power-play markers, a shorthanded tally and eight game winners. Couture is likely to set a new franchise record for goals in a playoff season as he trails the mark of 14 set by Pavelski in 2015/16 when San Jose lost the Stanley Cup Final in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s also interesting to note that no player has scored more than 13 playoff goals in 15 of the past 21 NHL campaigns and nobody has topped 15 since 1995/96 when center Joe Sakic notched 18. The league record of 19 goals was achieved by the Philadelphia Flyers’ Reggie Leach in 1975/76 and equaled by the Edmonton Oilers’ Jari Kurri in 1984/85. Couture was the top scorer in the 2009/10 postseason with 10 goals and 20 assists in 24 games but Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Chicago also captured the Stanley Cup that season by downing the Flyers in six games in the Final.

Since Couture’s 30-point haul in 2009/10 he’s ranked second in postseason markers with 47 behind Alexander Ovechkin’s 50 and his 100 points are the fourth most in the league.  He’s now third in playoff scoring in franchise history behind Patrick Marleau’s 120 points and Joe Thornton’s 112.

But while the Sharks’ top two lines have been pulling their weight throughout this year’s playoffs the bottom two lines has gone missing in action lately. Center Thornton has posted a lone assist in the last eight outings while Kevin Labanc has notched just one goal. Evander Kane has managed just a pair of helpers in the last seven contests and Marcus Sorensen hasn’t registered a point in seven games.

At the other end of the ice, the Blues are also following the script with another road win in the first two games in San Jose. The team is now 6-2 on foreign soil this season to tie their 2015/16 franchise record of road wins in a postseason. They have also outscored their hosts 13-3 in the third period in this year’s playoffs.

Like the Sharks, the Blues are also slugging it out on an even pace with their opponents as they’ve scored and conceded 41 goals for an average of 2.73 for and against per game. In addition, the active St. Louis blue line has chipped in with 38 points on seven goals and 31 helpers to tie the Sharks for the most points from defensemen in the postseason. Blues’ captain Alex Pietrangelo leads the way for his team with two goals and 10 assists and is now tied with Al MacInnis, Jeff Brown and Joe Micheletti for most points in a playoff season by a Blues’ rearguard.

St Louis’ bottom six forwards have also been crucial to the team’ success as the line of Robert Thomas, Tyler Bozak and Patrick Maroon have combined for seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 15 games. The fourth line of Ivan Barbashev, Alexander Steen and Oskar Sundqvist has four goals and seven helpers for 11 points. This gives them the edge over the Sharks’ fourth line of Melker Karlsson, Barclay Goodrow and Joonas Donskoi which has three goals and six points. But on the down side, st. Louis is just one for 26 on the power-play in the past eight outings.

With the Sharks playing the maximum number of playoff games this year and the Blues just one under the limit, there’s an excellent chance this series goes six or seven games with the split in San Jose being just the start of it.