San Jose Sharks dominate in Game 1 of 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights have officially kicked off the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and it was a good one at the SAP Center. But can the Sharks dominate as they did in Game 1 for the rest of the series?

The 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are officially underway all over the hockey world. Here in San Jose, fans of the San Jose Sharks were treated to a dominant performance by the home team in Game 1 of the best of seven series against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The series is still very young and there is a lot of hockey left to be played, but if you are a San Jose Sharks fan, you have to be pleased on how the team did in their first game of these 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Everyone expected this series to be a hard-hitting, fast-paced series and it certainly lived up to that in the first game.

In this first game, there was no short of hitting as both teams had over 40 hits. Timo Meier led the Sharks with nine hits while William Carrier led the Knights. The second the puck dropped it was a hard-hitting game and the fans at the sold-out SAP Center were loving every second of it.

As this series gets longer, I expect nothing less than what we say today.

These teams have a short history of not liking each other and wanting to pretty much rip each other to pieces. Not only will Vegas want to come back stronger to not go down 0-2 in this series but they are not faced with the obstacle of trying to be more physical against a team that will have the home crowd on their side.

Sharks captain Joe Pavelski took the physicality of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs to heart when he scored the first goal of the series and game. He took a shot from Brent Burns off the face that would end up going into the net to begin the scoring for the Sharks.

After taking the shot off the face, he immediately went back into the locker room where he would spend the rest of the first period and the beginning of the second period. He came back with a face that looked like it had just taken a puck to it. The image of him is not something you will want to show to the kids at home.

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If one was watching the game on the many platforms it was on, you could see the frustration and the anger get to the Knights as they had a total of 34 penalty minutes including 26 of them in the third period. The Sharks did a great job of controlling the pace of play and that was a key factor as to why they came out on top of tonight’s game one.

Not only that was a key part, but Martin Jones was also spectacular in net for the Sharks. He eliminated the fact that a lot of people (including myself) thought that the Knights had the goaltending advantage in the series.

Yes, I know that it is only the first game, but for Jones to have a game like this, it not only boosts up his confidence but also the confidence of the fans who will be watching the rest of this series.

The regular season was not what Jones had hoped for as he finished the season with a save percentage of .896 which is far below the average of the other goaltenders in the league. This game gave Jones the opportunity to gain a little more confidence and get a feel for how the rest of this series plays out.

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It was a whole team effort on Wednesday night as not only was the defense strong, but the offense showed up big as Team Teal put up five goals in the opening game. We did not know what to expect from Marc-Andre Fleury who has only played two other games since returning from injury.

One of the keys to the game was getting Fleury moving to test out his range of motion and making sure he was at 100%. The Sharks did a good job of getting early shots and moving the goalie around. In the first period, the Sharks put up eight shots compared to five from Vegas.

The Sharks almost doubled that amount in the second period as they were able to put another 14 on Fleury. In total, the Sharks outshot the Knights 33-26 and it showed on the scoreboard as well.

The Sharks and Knights will face off once again on Friday night when the puck drops for Game 2 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I expect nothing less than what we saw during Game 1. The only difference that may come is the number of goals that will be scored.

I expect both teams to make adjustments and also know what worked for them. It is sure to be a great game as it was on Wednesday night.