Boston Bruins: Pros and cons to facing the San Jose Sharks
We’re moving full speed ahead towards crunch time. The Boston Bruins have already booked their place in the Stanley Cup Final. The dates have been set. It’s now up to the St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks to work out who heads on.
All focus has turned to figuring out who will be entering the final as the Western Conference champions. Right now, the St. Louis Blues hold a 3-2 series lead and would seem to be in the ascendancy, but Boston Bruins fans know that a series lead doesn’t always equate to a series win.
After all, Game 6 could turn in an instant and the San Jose Sharks could force the series to a Game 7 decider. That’s exactly what needs to happen for this to even make much sense!
By comparison, the Boston Bruins swept their way through their Eastern Conference final, and although they should be wary of the sweep, have been doing all the right things ahead of the Stanley Cup Final.
Neither the San Jose Sharks or St. Louis Blues are unbeatable. Heck, even the Boston Bruins lost play-off games to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets; they too are able to be beaten, albeit not many times really.
The key to the Bruins winning is to take advantage of the clear pros to facing the Sharks and avoid being trapped by the cons. There’s clear bonuses that come with playing against San Jose; travel time not being one of them. Likewise, there’s clear fear factors that come with playing the Sharks – namely that they’ve been to the final a few times of late and still haven’t walked away with the big one.
We look into some of the pros and cons of drawing up against the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final:
Pro: The San Jose Sharks will be coming in tired.
If the Boston Bruins are to face the San Jose Sharks, it will be a Sharks team that has played all seven games of their Western Conference final.
With the St. Louis Blues holding a 3-2 series lead, it has already been intense and tiring, especially when you compare it to the Boston Bruins relatively easy sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Not forgetting that the San Jose Sharks would’ve done the whole journey the hardest way possible.
They trailed the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 heading into Game 6 of their first series this post-season. Then they allowed the Colorado Avalanche back into the series preceding that; they had every chance to close it off in Game 6 but slipped to a 4-3 over-time defeat that saw that series also go to 7.
Now, they’re on the brink of elimination in the Western Conference final and will have to take that series to seven games if they’re getting even a sniff at the Stanley Cup.
So that makes it 21 games to just reach the Stanley Cup Final for the San Jose Sharks; by comparison, the Boston Bruins are there with a week to spare; their path was a little easier – 7 games against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6 games against the Columbus Blue Jackets and then the 4 game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes.
In all but the Eastern Conference final, they were resilient after falling behind in the series and were able to, much like the Sharks so far, mount successful comebacks.
It will be vital that the Bruins use this difference in the amount of game-time to their advantage. The Sharks are no doubt going to be somewhat banged up and that is where Boston has to capitalise.
They need to skate hard and fast to ensure the weary legs of their opponents continue to put in substantial work.
Con: They’ll be rallying around former Boston Bruins captain, Joe Thornton.
Joe Thornton is one of those players that you hold at a certain level, but you can’t quite place him in the next tier up because he’s never won a Stanley Cup.
For years, he represented the Boston Bruins as their captain and did so with an honour and pride in the badge that he has now carried over to the San Jose Sharks.
You could fully expect the whole of that eclectic mix of characters in the Sharks locker-room to be rallying around Thornton, especially given it’d be his old team he’s facing.
Turning 40 just after the Stanley Cup is given out this year, it’s fair to say that Joe doesn’t have very many more chances at winning the big one.
Remarkably though, despite his age, he still has the ability to be a game-changer; you only need look at the fact he had a two goal, one assist night in Game 3 of the current Western Conference final to know that there’s still spark in the old boy yet.
It’s also worth noting he was a 51-point regular season point scorer and had dropped below that figure in every one of his 22 seasons in the NHL. We’re literally talking 4 seasons (one of this being his rookie year).
This year will almost certainly see the San Jose Sharks rallying around ‘Jumbo’ Joe, in which the same way that we once saw the Colorado Avalanche do for fellow Boston Bruins legend, Ray Bourque.
Somehow earning a Stanley Cup for the old guy in the room always manages to unite a team. That unity could prove challenging to get past for Boston. A united team that is willing to put it all on the line for each other is a truly scary thought; especially when they’re comfortably playing a bit of crash-and-bash style hockey!
Pro: The San Jose Sharks’ goaltending has been decidedly average.
Whereas the Boston Bruins’ goaltender has Tuukka Rask firmly in Conn Smythe Trophy winning conversations, the San Jose Sharks haven’t been on anywhere near the same level.
Martin Jones, whilst reliable and steady for the most part, hasn’t exactly had a series-deciding bearing on the San Jose Sharks at any stage of their playoff run.
He currently hasn’t missed a game for his team but has been incredibly hot-and-cold. Averaging 2.96 goals against per game and with a lowly save percentage of 0.902%; he’s not exactly the typical back-stop you ride to the Stanley Cup.
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You’ve also got to look at the fact he’s conceded 4 or more goals on 6 occasions these play-offs; surely the Boston Bruins’ goal-scoring from across the line-up will be able to take advantage of this. They, after all, have scored 4 or more goals in a game 9 times this post-season; not half bad considering they’ve only played 17 games.
You have to imagine the likes of Charlie Coyle, David Krejci, David Pastrnak and David Backes are relishing a chance to face Martin Jones, for the sole purpose of padding their goal totals this play-offs.
These three are riding the most impressive shooting percentages on the Bruins team, all upwards of 13% – Steven Kampfer is there too, but we expect serious regression from his 50%, should he see further ice-time.
Compare Martin Jones to Tuukka Rask and it’s absolutely night and day; he is running with a 1.84 goals against average – almost a goal and a half less a game than Jones. His save percentage matches up with that too; a full 0.04% higher at 0.942%.
That difference, though seemingly small, is the difference between winning a Cup and not. All the Boston Bruins need to do is score a few and they should take up the real estate firmly inside Martin Jones’ head. Once he has doubts, they should be able to comfortably take it home.
Con: Never rule out the San Jose Sharks’ blue-line pair, Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns.
With only 45 points this season and managing just 53 games in the regular season, it’s fair to say it was somewhat of a down year for Erik Karlsson, wearing teal for the first time. We’re talking a perennial sixty-plus points per season player.
Of course, some of this was down to recurrent injury issues and some of it was in part due to needing to adapt to playing for a new team. He didn’t find instant chemistry in the San Jose Sharks line-up when he first arrived, but eventually turned it around.
This was in part due to fellow blue-liner, Brent Burns. In Ottawa, Karlsson was never blessed with a teammate on defense that could offer up similarly strong production. You certainly saw this season that it seemed to ease the pressure for him.
Brent Burns was his usual monstrous self, netting 16 goals and 67 points on his way to a pretty much point-per-game season of 83 points across the 82 games he played. Between the pair of them, we’re talking 128 points that they contributed to their team.
They’ve both brought that level of form into the playoffs too with matching tallies of 16 points in 19 play-off games that sees them equal second on their team for playoff points behind only Logan Couture.
Both men have been all the way before, but never quite managed to get it done in the Stanley Cup Final. Karlsson is obviously up for a bumper payday this summer and that has to be playing on him that with the salary cap era; this could be the best constructed roster he’ll ever play on.
Burns, meanwhile isn’t getting any younger; the 34-year-old knows there’s a limit to the amount of years he can keep producing at such elite levels; there are going to be motivators for both defensemen so never write them off!
Boston Bruins have no reason to fear the San Jose Sharks
Whilst the San Jose Sharks would certainly present a strong challenge for the Boston Bruins, your Eastern Conference champions are goal-scorers. Poor goaltending will be torn apart by the likes of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and company.
Erik Karlsson, who the Bruins have seen plenty of over the years, isn’t looking like the player he was with the Ottawa Senators. He’s not quite over-the-hill but he’s certainly showing wear-and-tear from years of playing big minutes hurt.
His running buddy on the blue line, Brent Burns is absolutely a character and no doubt does make those around him better, but he offers more offensively than he does defensively – that’s always been the case. There are most definitely flaws in the Sharks’ line-up and the Boston Bruins could easily flaunt them.
Joe Thornton, no matter how sentimental the story and no matter how much Boston Bruins fans wouldn’t mind seeing him win the Cup against any other team, is facing the Bruins – so of course, it’s Boston we want to win!!
As for the week of resting up afforded to the Bruins; that could be a double-edged sword. You don’t want to head into a Stanley Cup final feeling rusty or not at the right level of competitiveness.
Equally though, who really wants to head into the biggest best-of-seven series of the year feeling banged up. The San Jose Sharks will have limited rest time to heal any play-off wounds. The Boston Bruins will have plenty. Surely that has to play as their biggest advantage.
It all depends how the players approach it – the management are getting advice from all the right places.
Next. Beware the sweep!. dark
We’re still a few days off knowing who will be at the other end of the ice for the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, but if it’s the Sharks – we’ll be ready.