2011 NHL Playoffs Western Conference Finals: What went wrong for San Jose Sharks in the series?
San Jose Sharks has been eliminated by Vancouver Canucks from the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoffs on Tuesday, May 24th, after a harsh Western Conference Finals series defeat by 4-1 against the best team of the league entering the postseason.
Even though Sharks have managed to become one of the best teams since it joined NHL in 1991, it has once again failed to get past the Conference Finals to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
It was the second seeded team overall in the Western Conference to enter the 2011 NHL Playoffs, with a great run throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, but according to the San Jose myth, they are cursed which restricts them to the Conference Finals.
After numerous tries including last season’s, when it entered the play-offs as the number one team in the league, but was still swept away by Chicago Blackhawks with a humiliating 4-0 series defeat, San Jose Sharks is yet to get past the third round of the
Conference Finals.
As a team, San Jose had all the ingredients to take over Canucks with ease since Canucks was in a slump throughout the play-offs and Sharks had eliminated top-notch teams to reach the finals.
Reflecting back on their previous two series against the Los Angeles Kings in the quarterfinals and Detroit Red Wings in the semifinals, may answer what went wrong in the Conference Finals series against Vancouver which led them to lose without putting up
a significant fight.
Western Conference Quarterfinals
Los Angeles had lost their start player, Anze Kopitar, as it entered the playoffs as the seventh seeded team of the Western Conference. Kings’ superstar goalie, Jonathan Quick, was on ice to keep them alive in the series and managed to put up a good fight
against the Sharks.
The series went into six games which Sharks eventually won after an up and down race. Sharks dominated most of the games, winning all away games at the Staples Centre, Los Angeles, California, but lost twice at home.
Western Conference Semifinals
San Jose was up against their old rivals, Detroit Red Wings, entering the playoffs for the 20th consecutive time with twice the experience Sharks had. Detroit’s players like Henrik Zetterberg and goalie, Jimmy Howard, were the main hurdles in
the way of a young San Jose team.
After losing three consecutive games, Detroit bounced back to win three straight games and forced a nerve-wrecking Game 7.
It seemed as if San Jose was going to be easily eliminated since the Red Wings’ line-up had come into action and was determined to oust a bunch of rookies.
Unexpectedly, the young rookie All-Star, Logan Couture, stepped up for San Jose and scored consecutive goals in four games including the final game to take them through to the finals.
Sharks’ young goalie, Niemi, saved 38 shots for the team which were outshot 40-30 but still managed to win the series to enter the conference finals for the second straight year.
Western Conference Finals
Vancouver was fired up as it entered the second last round of the play-offs after bagging close wins against teams like Chicago and Nashville.
They won the first two games at home while San Jose countered back in Game 3 at home. Sharks was expected to take the series back to Vancouver in Game 5 by tying it, but instead it was on the verge of elimination in Game 4.
Game 5 gave many chances to Sharks to take control of the match and they did as Devin Setoguchi broke the 1-1 tie to take a 2-1 lead for the team in the final period.
The match remained in San Jose’s favour until the last 14 seconds as Ryan Kesler scored the tying goal and after 30 minutes of overtime play, Sharks lost as Kevin Bieksa scored a miraculous game-winning goal which could just be considered as sheer bad luck
for Sharks.
Overall, Sharks played very well throughout the 2011 NHL Playoffs, but their apparent curse seems to be real now after yesterday’s exit. Until the next play-offs, Sharks will have to wait for another chance to prove the curse to be a myth.
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