San Jose Sharks getting ready to face Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Finals
San Jose Sharks had a very tough route to the Western Conference Finals. It was involved in a seven-game series against Detroit Red Wings after it won the first three games to sit in a comfortable position.
However, Sharks lost the next three games to level the series but won the final and crucial game to move into the Conference Finals.
Spending time on ice is better than resting for a long time, according to Sharks’ defenseman, Dan Boyle.
"I think the seven-game series, although it was pretty stressful and not the way you want to win, I think that's something that's going to help us in the end", Boyle said on Friday.
There is no doubt over the fact that Sharks will be high on confidence after the win but stress is surely going to play its part.
This is the reason as to why majority of Sharks’ players preferred resting while others went to ice for the optional practice after the Game 7 win against Detroit Red Wings.
San Jose Sharks had almost a week off before it was up against Hawks in the Conference Finals last year.
It displayed a superb performance against Red Wings even last year but lost the series to Hawks by 4-0.
This time, it is up against Vancouver Canucks who have had quite a lot of rest while Sharks was playing the seven-game series against Red Wings.
"We earned the right to play in it last year, and I thought we played hard last year", Sharks’ coach, Todd McLellan, said. "We just ran into a team that was better than we were. The series against Chicago wasn't a lot different than the one we just played.
They were one-goal games. They were very tight. All of them were contested for 60 minutes or more”.
One thing that every ice hockey expert is saying is that the Sharks need to win games on away ice as well if it wants to be a strong team contesting for the Stanley Cup this time.
Though it did it consistently during the regular season but wasn’t able to put up the same performances in the playoffs.
This is the first time since 2007 that Sharks will be playing the first game of its series on away ice.
The last time this happened, was against Nashville Predators in the first round in 2007 that witnessed Sharks winning 4-1 in the end.
Going back to the records shows that Sharks has won four out of the seven series when it was the lower seed in the series.
Sharks is all set to defend the Sedin brothers and Ryan Kesler and is confident that it would continue with the strong offence.
Canucks, on the other hand, is also hoping that it can win the series after resting for a considerable period.
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