Column: Sharks again outplay Kings, who vow to push back while facing 2-0 series deficit
Kings forward Tanner Pearson and goalkeeper Jonathan Quick collide with Sharks center Melker Karlsson as they battle for a loose puck during the third period.
Sharks goaltender Martin Jones had finished a long round of interviews and was headed back to his stall in the visitors’ locker room after San Jose’s 2-1 playoff victory over the Kings on Saturday at Staples Center when he found one last person waiting for him, someone he couldn’t ignore.
Chris Sutter, who probably takes the Kings’ losses harder than does his father, Coach Darryl Sutter, was waiting anxiously to make one request of Jones, a former member of the Kings. Please, Chris said, give up more goals in the next game.
A smiling Jones patted his former coach’s son on the shoulder, which didn’t seem to provide much consolation. But judging by the Sharks’ performance in winning the first two games of this first-round series, begging might be the Kings’ best method to prevail when the series shifts to San Jose for Game 3 on Monday and Game 4 on Wednesday.
Jones, traded by the Kings last June to Boston — which promptly flipped him to San Jose, as the Kings had expected — made 26 saves Saturday. That was no surprise. “He comes from a good program,” Darryl Sutter said of Jones, who got his name on the Stanley Cup as Jonathan Quick’s backup in 2014.
Jones’ teammates helped him Saturday by blocking 28 other shots as the Sharks’ big players outplayed the Kings’ big guns. Again.
Joe Pavelski scored the first goal, 3 minutes 37 seconds into the game, and assisted on Logan Couture’s power-play goal at 8:44 of the second. Pavelski has been nearly unstoppable, a key reason the Kings are in this predicament.
Kings center Anze Kopitar had no shots on goal, Milan Lucic was credited with one and Tyler Toffoli had two shots as the Kings made an assortment of small but crucial mistakes. And the Sharks relished the hard hitting and brisk pace, which hasn’t historically been their identity in the playoffs.
“I was really happy with our game. There was nowhere to hide out there,” Sharks Coach Peter DeBoer said. “That’s a game where you’re going to pay a price every time you’re on the ice to win a battle, get to the net, to defend, and our guys did it for 60 minutes and we kept our discipline and found a way to win.”
It’s natural for Kings fans to recall the teams’ 2014 first-round series in which the Kings lost the first two games by a combined 13-5 and lost Game 3 in overtime before winning four consecutive games. But there’s a different feel to this series. The current Sharks are better than the 2014 version, deeper, grittier, not afraid to give or take a hit. These Kings are more mistake-prone, especially in their own end, and less able to consistently establish an offensive pressence in front of the net. They used to thrive by crashing the net, but they’re not getting there often enough.
“It’s a completely different situation,” an angry Kopitar said. “Our mind-set has got to be to go up there and win the next game. Just build off that. That’s what we’re putting in our heads tonight. We’re going to prepare [Sunday] and we’re going to go up there and be better.”
They pretty much have no choice but to be better and to hope the Sharks continue to struggle at the SAP Center, where they were 18-20-3 during the regular season.
“We’ve got to make sure we execute. We’ve got to pass the puck better than we did,” Kopitar said. “I definitely have to be better. I take pride in leading the team and for me I know this is just not good enough. You’ve got to bring it a lot better.”
Lucic didn’t mask his dissatisfaction, either. “There’s nothing to be happy about down 2-0, and not getting anything really going,” he said. “Losing’s not fun. You’ve got to hate to lose and bring that anger and use it in the right way on Monday night.”
Marian Gaborik, in the lineup for the first time since he sprained his knee on Feb. 12, contended that the Kings have created some of their problems. “We’re beating ourselves out there,” he said. But Lucic credited the Sharks’ fundamentals and the simple formula they’re using so well — things the Kings used to do.
“They’re playing together. They’re playing their system well. They’re making tape-to-tape passes and we’re not making tape-to-tape passes,” Lucic said. “It’s the simple things, execution and the fundamentals of hockey, that they’re better at right now, and that’s why they’re winning.”
And it’s why the Kings aren’t winning. “We know what they’re going to bring,” Kopitar said. “Now it’s our job to push back and just play better.”
Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter: @helenenothelen
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