My Two Cents: Key For The San Jose Sharks To Beating The L.A. Kings

Key Components for Sharks

Apr 3, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture (39) is congratulated for scoring a goal against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Team Teal has a solid core of players that were good enough to finish the NHL regular season with 111 total points in the standings.

Average teams or teams with multiple issues never point that high or get that far in the overall standings without having a level of skill that is superior. Many of the players on the Sharks roster today have been to the playoffs multiple times now and know the drill all too well. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau have as many playoff miles on them as anyone in the NHL and know what it takes to get to this point. The Sharks also have a good core of players who are very early in their careers still such as Logan Couture, Tommy Wingels, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl and Marc-Edouard Vlasic who are going to be the leaders of this team in the seasons to come. Antti Niemi has been on a Stanley Cup winning team as the top goalie and is no stranger to what it takes to be successful at this level of competition.

The Sharks, man for man, may not be a faster team than the Kings, but they also know how to flood the lanes and make LA change up what they are doing when in the San Jose defensive zone. When in the Kings defensive zone, if the Sharks want to get pucks past Quick they will need to be able to constantly create traffic in front of the LA netminder and not be afraid to crash the net.

Team Teal will need to be able to be good stewards with the puck and find effective ways to minimize the Kings’ opportunities throughout each game. This won’t be easy and will be quite the yeoman’s task throughout this series. If the Sharks are going to beat the Kings here, each player on the roster must raise their game to the highest level and be able to keep it there in addition to being able to handle a great deal of yeoman’s tasks. This will not only demand a high level of physical ability, bit also mental ability as well.

I will take the Sharks to win this series in seven games. However, make no mistake, this will not be one that comes easily. If the Sharks drop off or make errors that change games or fail to win the majority of their home games at the Shark Tank, this series will go to the Kings.

Bottom Line: The key for the Sharks to beat the LA Kings is to focus on playing the better hockey, and not worry about any payback on Brown.

The best revenge is a series victory, period.