The chant’s words remained consistent, though they were imbued with a gamut of different emotions throughout the course of the night.
Before the puck had dropped, they were hopeful; when the home team was cruising, they were chesty; when it appeared it was all slipping away, they were desperate.
“Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!”
The San Jose Sharks did just that on home ice Wednesday night, white-knuckling their way through a third period that nearly saw the home team gag up a 3-0 lead to their tormentors, the Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks’ 3-2 win in game four provides them with a commanding 3-1 series lead and an opportunity to throttle some serious West Coast ghosts.
The first chance to do that comes Friday night in Game 5, and while vanquishing a club playing at home is always a chore, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer knows geography isn’t the real problem.
“I don’t think the venue is an issue, the L.A. Kings are an issue,” he said. “They’re going to be a tough out, we know that, but we don’t need to change anything.”
That final point is the one San Jose must zero in on as, two years removed from coughing up a 3-0 series lead to L.A., they try to bury their California cousins. And sometimes lost in all the chatter about how tough and resilient the Kings are is the fact the Sharks boast an experienced, talented and diverse lineup.
In an alternate universe with a few different bounces of the puck, it’s easy to imagine us, in 2016, talking about a core of forwards like Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture along with D-men Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Brent Burns taking a run at a second or third title. That, of course, is not how things have unfolded in San Jose, but neither the team nor anybody paying close attention to it should overlook just how quality this club is.
Consider the resolve San Jose showed in Game 4 alone. First there was the fact the Sharks knew they’d let one slip through their fingers in game three, when the squad’s normally potent power play went 0-for-5, enabling the Kings to hang around a contest they eventually won 2-1 in overtime.
On Wednesday night, the Sharks were dialed in, hammering three man-advantage tallies courtesy of big boys Burns, Pavelski and Marleau.
“I think they came out to make sure if we got opportunities tonight, they were going to put them in,” said DeBoer, who’s in his first year behind the San Jose bench.
Even the way they survived a furious third period has to bode well for the Sharks. Sure, it would have been more reassuring to see them pull away from the Kings as opposed to dangling by their fingernails. But as DeBoer said, this is L.A.—a fearsome counterpunch is all you’d ever expect from that nasty, ring-filled group.
In broad terms, L.A. is a team of winners, while San Jose perpetually fights the loser tag. But here’s the thing with labels: They apply until the second they don’t.
The 2010 Boston Bruins featured foundational players like Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and Tim Thomas, but still managed to relinquish a 3-0 series lead on the Philadelphia Flyers in round two. (The Bruins even frittered away a 3-0 scoreboard advantage in game seven on home ice.) The following year, round two brought a rematch with Philly that once again saw the B’s take a 3-0 series stranglehold. In game four, Boston smacked a no-doubter, winning 5-1 to end any haunting talk from the past season. About a month later, they were hoisting the Cup.
Could that be the Sharks’ path? Absolutely. They’ve demonstrated they can beat L.A. Now it’s time to prove they can finish them.
