Conference Final Preview: Sharks vs. Blues

The Western Conference Final is set. San Jose and St. Louis both won their game 7s in round two, which set them up for what should be a great conference final in the west.
St. Louis is playing a strong all-around game in the playoffs. They found themselves down 3-2 against Dallas, but rallied around each other to knock off the Stars in 7 (maybe the Stars were distracted by the absolute cabins behind their bench in game 6, who knows..). The Blues got their series-clinching goal from St Louis native, Pat Maroon. The teams’ reaction to that goal tells you a lot about them. Obviously they were excited to win the series and advance, but just look at the emotion on Maroon’s face when he scored. Look at Coach Berube’s reaction when he hugged Maroon. This team is tight and just but watching the way they react to each other, you know that they’re playing for the guy next to them. These guys are a real team and are a legitimate cup contender. I know, it’s easy to say that when there’s only 4 teams left, but there’s a level of comradery that is required to win it all. I think St. Louis has it.
Speaking of comradery, the San Jose Sharks are not lacking in that department either. During the first round vs Vegas, the Sharks lost Joe Pavelski to an unusual head injury. The team rallied around their injured captain to score 4 unanswered goals, and eventually win the series. The team continued to push through without their captain for 6 out of 7 games against Colorado in the second round. Pavs showed up ready to play for his team in game 7 vs the Avalanche and he made a difference, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist in a 3-2 win. Players playing for their captain, and a captain playing for his players. Its like poetry.

I didn't get into any real analytical arguments in this post, mostly because it doesn't matter for this series. These two teams are so evenly matched that I feel that this series is going to come down to one lucky break for one team, and bad luck for the other. There hasn't been a tougher series to try to predict this post-season, but since that’s what I’m here for, I’ll say Sharks in 7.

Written by Andrew Silvers

Twitter/Instagram: @asilvers55

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