San Jose Sharks: Previewing the St. Louis Blues series

Round 3 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs is set to begin on Saturday as the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues will face off for a chance to go the Stanley Cup Final. Here is what you have to look forward to in this exciting Western Conference Finals matchup.

The 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are down to the final four teams and the San Jose Sharks are one of those four teams. For the fifth time in their history, they will be playing in the Western Conference Finals with a chance to move on to just their second Stanley Cup Final.

They will have to go through the St. Louis Blues who were the same team they faced in 2016 — the last time the Sharks played in the Conference Finals. The two teams are very different but took similar paths to get to this third round.

For St. Louis, it started with a 4-2 series win over the Winnipeg Jets and then just a couple of days ago, they took the Dallas Stars to seven games and won on home ice to clinch their ticket to the Western Conference Final.

For the San Jose Sharks, the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs have been a roller coaster so far as they have had both of their series go seven games and somehow came out on top in both of those games. We all remember the Vegas Golden Knights series where the Sharks came back from a 3-1 deficit to win Game 7 at home by also coming back from 3-0 in that game with less than 10 minutes to go.

The only difference for the Colorado series was that captain Joe Pavelski was unable to play after suffering a nasty looking head injury in that previous Game 7. It took a whole team effort to beat the Avs in seven games without their captain.

Players like Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, and Brent Burns all carried this team through the second round. Hertl and Couture both have nine goals in the playoffs so far while Burns has totaled five thus far. Scoring has been coming from all over the place as only six of the regular starters do not have a goal and only one does not have a point.

Going into the third round, the Sharks will need more from players like Evander Kane and Marcus Sorensen. Kane is one player who should be producing more as after scoring 30 goals in the regular season, has only scored two goals so far in the playoffs.

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He has one in each series with five total assists for a total of seven points. If Kane is somehow able to find his stride, it will be just one more weapon that they are able to use.

This Blues team is not afraid to roll with all four lines and the Sharks need to have weapons on each of their lines to be able to keep up with their opposition. I am not terribly worried about the Sharks offensive as we have seen that scoring is not a problem during these playoffs.

I would just like to see some secondary guys step up and support when it is needed. I look forward to players like Kane and Gustav Nyquist hopefully stepping up in the series and starting to take control of the opportunity.

The defense has been pretty good so far, as it has been Burns leading the way. While Erik Karlsson has led the way in assists, he still sits at a minus-five in the playoffs so far. One thing that was evident during Thursday night’s game is that he took a couple of bad penalties at times that the Sharks were getting momentum on their side.

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Karlsson could pick it up a little in the defensive zone but so far I have liked what he has been doing. There will be no time for rest during this series as every game will be monumental. The Sharks know what it takes to get there and they will have to be on top of their game.

San Jose’s strong play is something that all fans should be happy to see as it will take them a long way these playoffs. This upcoming series against the Blues will be yet another big test for them as they will need to adjust their play to this opponent.

The Blues are no team to be reckoned with as they have been playing for their hockey lives since they fired their head coach and hired Craig Berube as their head coach. They got rid of Mike Yeo only 19 games into the season.

The Blues season looked to be all but over as they sat in dead last for most of the season. It has been rookie goalie Jordan Binnington who has carried the team with his stellar performances that have been going on since early January. In the playoffs, he has a record of 8-5 with a goals-against average just above two,

If the Sharks are able to figure out this goalie like they have the last two, Team Teal could see their second Stanley Cup Final in the near future.