Sharks need a boost from the Tank

By Mark Purdy, Mercury News Columnist

http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks

June 1, 2016

Conor Sheary #43 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with teammates after scoring the game-winning goal to defeat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 during overtime in Game Two of the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Consol Energy Center on June 1, 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

June 01, 2016| Credit: Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

The Tank had better be full of fuel for the Sharks.

Because the situation is now very basic. After losing the first two games here of their first Stanley Cup Final, the Sharks will return home to SAP Center and need all the octane they can muster. Otherwise, their next two games might be their last two games of the Final.

That's just the blunt fact. After losing a 2-1 overtime game on Wednesday night in that sudden-crusher way only playoff hockey can produce, the Sharks effectively face a must-win game on Saturday to keep their hopes alive of winning a Cup.

Time for defiant words? Time for defiant words.

"We can't be frustrated," said Shark defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. "We know we're so close. We're going to go home. You're only out when you lose four games, not two."

His coach, Pete DeBoer, also took the same approach.

"Game 1 was decided in the last few minutes," DeBoer said. "Tonight is an overtime game. I think we'll hold off on the funeral. We have a lot of hockey left to play."

If so, the Sharks need to play their own brand of hockey for 60 minutes better than they did here.

Once more Wednesday, just as was the case Monday, the beloved Los Tiburones had trouble producing any real consistent offense for the first two periods. The third period was much better and resulted in a late tying goal by Justin Braun. But if the Shark offense had been more effective in the first two periods, Braun's goal might have been the winning goal.

The statistic that stood out: During the first two periods, Shark offensive stalwarts Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture combined for one recorded shot on goal. One. Pavelski had it. And Penguins' goalie Matt Murray, a rookie who is not getting much work because his teammates have been so good in front of him, easily made the save.

Once the third period began, the Sharks did kick it up a notch -- as they have in third periods throughout the playoffs. The Penguins have been focusing on blocking shots, creating layers of obstruction by sending as many forwards and defensemen as possible into the shooting lanes of Sharks defensemen Brent Burns and Vlasic.

But when the third period began, more pucks got through. That's how Braun scored. The Sharks also outshot the Penguins 9-6 in the period. What's the deal? Do the Sharks just need two periods to adjust to the Penguins' aggressive pressure and counterattack game? Are the Sharks somehow waiting and saving their best intensity for the third, trying to win that period and win games that way?

"Nobody's waiting," DeBoer said. "The other team wants to play, too. They're very good. They're a good team. They're at home. They have their home crowd . . . There are going to be ebbs and flows. I thought we were better tonight. But we have to find a way to create more 5-on-5 offense. They're not taking penalties."

Well, yes, that's another issue. The Sharks only had one power play Wednesday -- which spanned the last part of the second period and the first part of the third -- and couldn't leverage it into anything.

All of this left the Sharks vulnerable to making a mistake and having it cost them -- as occurred when defenseman Roman Polak fumbled a pass in his own zone about halfway through the second period and had it easily intercepted by the Penguins. Seconds later, Pittsburgh's Phil Kessel tapped in the goal.

Yes, the game was lost 2:35 into overtime on a well-executed set faceoff play by the Penguins. But without Polak's error or with a Sharks power play goal, the game never gets there.

Even if the Sharks had won Wednesday, they would have been a tad fortunate. But they still came very close. Perhaps that's the best ray of optimism.

But as we all know, once a hockey playoff goes into overtime, it's a coin flip. The Sharks had early OT opportunities from the Joe Thornton line but couldn't produce. So the game-deciding sequence began with a Pittsburgh offensive zone faceoff between the Penguins' Sidney Crosby and Joel Ward of the Sharks.

Ward is one of the Sharks' better faceoff men. Crosby is one of the most effective faceoff men on earth. He'd won 16 of his previous 23 faceoffs Wednesday. Who do you think won this one?

The Crosby-triggered set play -- he admitted later that he'd called for it -- worked to perfection for the Penguins. He drew the puck back to defenseman Kris Letang, who bumped it up to Conor Sheary in open space along the faceoff circle.

Sheary had time to draw back his stick and shoot while teammate Patric Hornqvist blocked the view of Sharks' goalie Martin Jones. The puck hit the upper right corner of the net before Jones could react.

In deconstructing the play, the Sharks' Logan Couture would argue that Crosby had an advantage. Couture thinks that officials give the Penguins' captain way too much leeway in the jockeying before the puck drops.

"He cheats," said Couture. "He gets away with that . . . He times them and yet they don't kick him out for some reason; probably because of who he is."

Frankly, the faceoff rules in the NHL are so nebulous and subjective, it's not clear what cheating is and isn't. Couture might have a case about Crosby, but so what? The same thing happens in the NBA where certain players get certain calls.

Also in the NBA, you may recall, teams do come back from seemingly deep deficits, as the Warriors just did. Returning to the Shark Tank may help.

In the Stanley Cup Final, just 10 percent of the teams who have fallen behind 2-0 have rallied to win. But the Sharks now seek to be one of those 10 percent.

"Stats, stats, stats," Vlasic said. "You can turn them around any way you want them. We're going to go home and win a game."

A Tank that definitely needs to gas them up.

Read Mark Purdy's blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/purdy. Contact him atmpurdy@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MercPurdy.

Sidney Crosby wins faceoff and sets up OT goal exactly as he planned it

Scott BurnsideESPN Senior Writerhttp://espn.go.com/nhl/June 2, 2016


The Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist (center) and Sidney Crosby (right) celebrate Conor Sheary’s game-winner in overtime. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH -- It's almost too ridiculous to be true.

And if the story didn't have Sidney Crosby as its focal point, it might well be the stuff of fancy, a kind of Stanley Cup playoffs fable.

But there he was, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain gathering his teammates before a faceoff in the early moments of overtime in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals. Crosby told Sheary to move from his normal position on the draw to the boards. He explained that he was going to win the draw back to defenseman Kris Letang and then Letang was going to give Sheary a pass in the middle of the ice, where the San Jose Sharks weren't likely to expect him to be.

Conor Sheary followed the instructions. It's Crosby, right? And Crosby won the draw and Letang feeds Sheary, who ripped home the game-winner.

Sheary joked after that the only thing Crosby did not detail for him was how he was going to find the back of the net at the end of the play.

The 2-1 win gives the Penguins a 2-0 series lead with Games 3 and 4 in San Jose on Saturday and Monday.

But the manner in which the Penguins won this game was their postseason in a nutshell.

Crosby, the maestro, directing traffic, moving the pieces as though a chess master.

Was it a surprise he won the crucial faceoff?

Probably not. He was one of a handful of guys skating on Tuesday at an optional practice at the Penguins' practice facility and part of the time was spent working on the draw.

"He's just been a horse out there," Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan.

"For me right now, I think he's inspiring for our group," the coach said. "I know our players recognize the effort that he's putting in. You can see it in his body language. He's excited about this opportunity that we have."

In Game 2, Crosby did not score but he did win 17 of 24 faceoffs, including the game's biggest that earned him a secondary assist on the winner. He is 26-for-40 in the faceoff circle through the first two games of the series.

It's an edge that irks some San Jose Sharks.

"He cheats," Couture said. "He gets away with it. He's Sidney Crosby."

How so?

"He times them and they don't kick him out for some reason, probably because of who he is," Couture complained.

Cheating or not, it was Crosby's vision of the game that set the stage for the dramatic ending to Game 2.

He explained that they'd tried to get a lot of quick shots and one-timers away from the point and he figured the Sharks would be coming hard trying to get a block and maybe an odd-man rush the other way.

So he audibled.

When he saw where the line of questioning was going, Crosby tried to downplay the instant mythology of the moment by joking that he usually called 25 faceoff plays a night and he was wrong on 24 on Wednesday.

Nice try.

But it's one thing to call the play, it's another to have it work out to perfection.

"It's one of those things -- guys have to execute," Crosby explained. "Usually the center kind of calls the play and I think those guys deserve a lot more credit than me."

On this night it was Sheary, less than a week away from his 24th birthday, who provided the crucial execution. It marked the second consecutive game in which Sheary has scored.

He is part of a cadre of youngsters who joined the team midway through the season from the team's American Hockey League affiliate and who continue to produce on a seemingly nightly basis for a Penguins team now two wins away from a Stanley Cup.

"It's awesome. I know what he's feeling and it's awesome," said fellow rookie Bryan Rust, who scored both goals in the Penguins' Game 7 victory in the Eastern Conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning and then scored the first goal in Game 1 of the Cup finals.

"He's going to get a jillion texts and he's going to have a lot of fun tonight," Rust said. "It's a special feeling for him and being along the ride with him kind of the whole second half of the year, it's fun to see him have such success."

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If there has been criticism of the Penguins since their Stanley Cup win in 2009, it has been a lack of homegrown depth. But you can't just conjure depth, it has to be nurtured and it has to evolve.

Sheary, for instance, has played much of the time with Crosby but admitted he had to learn not to worry too much about the fact his linemate is one of the greatest players in the game.

"The first time I got on his line, he told me I was there for a reason, I was playing with him for a reason, don't look off a shot to make a pass to him," Sheary said. "Even though he says that, it's a little hard to get used to."

Now, though, Sheary insisted he views Crosby as just another teammate and linemate.

"I'm comfortable playing with him," Sheary said.

Don't doubt that a bit.

Steeled by his early-season adversity, Sidney Crosby is simply playing on another level

Pierre LeBrunESPN Senior Writerhttp://espn.go.com/nhl/June 1, 2016

(Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH -- It seems almost crazy now to think that, as recently as last fall, people were suggesting Sidney Crosby was no longer a superstar.

His fellow players around the league certainly knew better.

"At the beginning of the season, he probably didn't get off to his best start," said fellow Hart Trophy nominee Patrick Kane on the phone Tuesday. "He faced adversity and had people questioning him. But the way he answered the bell, that was impressive.''

Indeed, Crosby led the NHL in points, with 66 (30-36) in the 52 games from mid-December on, finishing third in the league scoring race that was won by Kane. Mind you, the Chicago Blackhawks star, who shares the same agent as Crosby, was getting a little anxious about the scoring derby as No. 87 kept pouring it on.

"I texted Pat Brisson one time and was like, 'Tell Sid to slow down here, I'd like to win a [scoring] title here myself.' He was just on fire," said Kane, chucking.

Which is why, when Crosby's lack of offensive productivity was called into question again early in the playoffs during the Penguins' series with theWashington Capitals, Kane was sure it was only a matter of time until he got going again.

"I thought he was absolutely dominant in Game 7 against Tampa Bay," Kane said. "And he looked really fast and possessed [in Game 1 of the Cup finals], just controlling the puck and controlling the game. He got an assist, but he probably could have had five or six points with some of the plays he was making out there. As a fan, it's fun to watch.''

And, Kane added, Crosby is clearly sacrificing personal offense in the playoffs in the name of winning.

"What's fun to watch about him right now, as an offensive player, as a scorer, you have to have that type of impact on the game where you're scoring every game and creating chances," Kane said. "But for the good of his team, he's playing a complete game. It's not just offensive and just trying to pick up points."

"He's still an effective player offensively but it seems like it's not his main focus right now," Kane continued.

"He just wants to win.''

Crosby's two-way game remains an underrated part of his tool box -- except on his own team, where coach Mike Sullivan uses him often as a shutdown player on the opposing team's top offensive threat.

There are games, like several in the Washington series, in which Crosby doesn't pick up a point. But if you're watching closely, you see that he's had an exceptional night in every other aspect.

When things were tough at the start of the season, when people were piling on, when Crosby's confidence was being challenged, his father told him he'd come out of it stronger because of it.

"I told Sidney then that he would be a better player for getting through that adversity, and I think he is for it," Troy Crosby said Tuesday, while watching his son skate during an optional practice. "I'm proud of him, proud of how he fought through that."

No question, No. 87 now says, that adversity -- as unpleasant as it was then -- has made him a better player today.

"You need to go through those things sometimes, to learn and take lessons from," the Penguins captain said Tuesday. "That's the great thing. You go through different experiences and you think you've grown and gotten better. But that's the most important thing, to keep learning. That's what makes it fun, to be honest. You'd rather not go through those situations, but when you do, you have to try to find ways to make good out of them somehow.''

That outstanding overall game was on display -- at both ends of the ice -- again in Game 1 of the Cup finals against the San Jose Sharks. Game 2 is Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET.

Crosby was simply playing on a different level than any player on either team.

"Sidney Crosby does everything well," said Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who has matched up against Crosby practically every time the two have played each other at different levels, on the eve of the Cup finals. "In the first three rounds, put all their top players together and that would be Crosby. It's going to be a lot harder, but a lot more fun."

Fellow star Joe Thornton got an up-close look at Crosby when they were teammates on Canada's 2010 Olympic squad, the one for which Crosby scored the Golden Goal in overtime to break the hearts of Team USA.

"He's a tremendous guy, super guy to be around,'' Thornton said. "He's one of the best to ever play, as far as I'm concerned -- his speed, the way he sees the game. He's very elite. Watching him firsthand as a teammate in 2010, I remember just saying, 'This guy's the real deal. He's a phenom.'"

It's not just God-given talent, though. What has separated Crosby from the pack throughout the years is his unrelenting work ethic. He's constantly thinking about ways to improve his game.

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"I don't think he's as good as he is by accident," said Sullivan, who helped spark Crosby's game when he took over as Pittsburgh's coach in December. "As long as I've been associated with this league, I don't know that I've been around a player who has the same work ethic as Sid does as far as that insatiable appetite to just try to get better and be the best. I think that's why he's as good as he is.

"Everybody sees his talent. There's a lot of talented guys out there. But I think his work ethic allows him to be the player that he is. I think it also sets a standard for our team, when your captain and your top player brings a work ethic to the rink every day like he does. He certainly makes my job as the head coach a lot easier, as far as demanding the type of standard we need to in order to be successful.''

Wait, wasn't Crosby washed up seven months ago? Never mind.

Phil Kessel finally growing comfortable in spotlight -- at perfect time for Penguins

Scott BurnsideESPN Senior Writerhttp://espn.go.com/nhl/May 31, 2016

(Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH -- Welcome to the curious, and in many ways inspiring, story ofPhil Kessel.

The journey of the Penguins winger has more turns than straightaways, and if you look simply at the former top-five draft pick's raw talent and uncanny ability to elevate his game at crucial times -- rather than focusing on the enigma of his personality -- it's not so hard to see how Kessel has gone from "addition by subtraction" to playoff MVP candidate.

It has been easy over the years to paint Kessel, 28, as a kind of outlier, someone who didn't quite fit into the larger puzzle of his various teams.

And yet this spring, Kessel's name comes up -- often unbidden -- when members of the Pittsburgh Penguins discuss what has made this team unique, and perhaps a team of destiny that sits three wins away from a Stanley Cup championship.

Take Kris Letang.

The Penguins defenseman references Kessel immediately when asked about the closeness of this resilient crew.

"Sometimes you have groups that tend to be separated in different groups," Letang explained. "But Phil, he wants to hang out with everybody, wants to have fun. It kind of brings everybody together when you have a guy who has played that many games in the league."

Phil Kessel? Bringing teammates together?

It's easier to create a persona that describes a player or coach. They are intense, happy-go-lucky, boisterous, moody, thoughtful or cantankerous. The thing is, sometimes they're all of those things, even if it doesn't fit the two-dimensional space we create for them.

Kessel is like that.

At times this spring, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan has described Kessel as "misunderstood." But perhaps Sullivan's most telling comment came recently when I asked him about Kessel's evolution as a player with the Penguins.

Sullivan said Kessel is committed to the whole ice and to a complete game. Again, a description that doesn't quite fit the preconceived notion.

"I think he's made great strides over the last couple of months in some of the areas of his game where we've asked him to improve and get better," Sullivan said.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman and native Minnesotan Erik Johnson has known Kessel since he was in his teens. Johnson, too, speaks in terms that don't necessarily fit Kessel's public persona. "He's basically been the best player pretty much on every team he's been on," Johnson said recently. "Just a really likable guy and easy to get along with. Laid-back and fun to be around."

Well, not all the time.

On the ice, Johnson recalled that Kessel made many young defenseman -- including Johnson -- feel very mortal.

"He can hit zero to 100 in a few strides," Johnson said. "I think he put the fear of God in some of us guys. He was very fast and elusive."

It's the speed and the ability to unleash a heavy, accurate shot while in full stride that has always made Kessel so attractive as a player.

"It's his release on his shot. He gets it off quick and it's ridiculously hard and accurate," longtime NHL netminder and goaltending coach Corey Hirsch said. "He likes the over-the-blocker shot down the wing."

Although Kessel was projected to be a top-three draft pick in 2006 coming out of the University of Minnesota, he ended up dropping to No. 5 and going to Boston. He played two seasons with the Bruins, scoring 36 times as a second-year player before being traded to Toronto in a controversial deal that ultimately landed Boston the second overall draft pick in 2010.

Although he scored 30 or more goals four times during six seasons with the Maple Leafs, by last summer he had become a lightning rod for discontent regarding the franchise's inability to drag itself out of a decade-long morass.

He was basically given away to Pittsburgh for a grab bag of aging role players, draft picks and prospects -- and the underlying message was that a bad Toronto team would somehow be better off without its most talented player.

This narrative somehow continued to play like Mozart in Toronto even as the Leafs became the NHL's worst team this past season while Kessel flourished with the Penguins.

In fact, in recent days he is most often seen wearing a broad grin beneath his bearded visage.

"It's been fun," he said the other day. "Obviously, I never got a chance to play in the Stanley Cup like this. I've never been on a team that has felt like this. I don't even know how to describe it, to be honest. I'm so excited to play for the Stanley Cup."

For all the harsh words and the occasional good riddance that accompanied Kessel on his way out of Toronto, he has steadfastly refused to criticize the fans, media or team.

The winger admitted that things didn't start out especially well in Pittsburgh and that he wondered if it was going to be another missed opportunity.

"You always wonder about the fit, if you're going to be good, if it's going to work out," he said. "We started off not so hot. By the end of the year we found our way and turned it on."

Kessel, a native of Madison, Wisconsin, became somewhat philosophical when asked about the path his career has taken.

"Throughout your life and your career, little moments shape your life and who you are. I think I am who I am because of what's happened in my life," Kessel said. "I'm happy to be here and be part of this."

Don Lucia, the longtime coach at Minnesota, first ran into Kessel when Lucia's son was playing on a bantam team at a national tournament. "And some guy from Wisconsin scored six goals on them," he said.

That would be Kessel.

When Kessel joined the Gophers' program, he was immensely talented and already starting to shun the attention that came with his skill set.

"When I first met him," Lucia recalled, "he was not someone who would embrace the limelight or wanted the spotlight on him. He just wanted to be one of the guys."

The two remain connected, even though Kessel played just one season there.

"It's like anything, sometimes you get painted a picture that isn't necessarily accurate," Lucia said of the misconceptions about Kessel. "He's obviously an ingredient that Pittsburgh was missing. Look at his playoff numbers. He's averaging over a point a game. That's where you find out who your players are."

According to one NHL GM, the dynamic in Pittsburgh is simply a great fit for Kessel on a number of different levels.

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"I think he has been good," the GM said. "Put him in a complementary role where he doesn't have to be the guy."

The funny thing is that in not having to be "the guy" -- as he had to be in Toronto -- Kessel has in some ways become exactly that for the Penguins. He leads the team this postseason with nine goals and 18 points.

Johnson -- a former No. 1 overall draft pick who has also had to shoulder the weight of high expectations and questions about his value -- said Kessel seems to have found a comfort zone away from the tumult of Toronto.

"I'm happy he's having some success in Pittsburgh," Johnson said. "Maybe just having some of the pressure off his shoulders has helped him relax and play some really good hockey."