Sharks look to level series with St. Louis Blues in San Jose -NHL Playoffs Game 4 Preview
Sharks are down by one in the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference Quarterfinals against St. Louis Blues, but come Thursday, April 19, 2012, they are determined to level it out playing back at home at the HP Pavilion
in San Jose, California.
St. Louis is definitely excited about putting San Jose on the brink of elimination on foreign turf and then returning home to oust the Sharks at the Scottrade Center, but going in underestimating the team could be a dire mistake.
Blues are hoping to work on playing without having to capitalise on only power play advantages, something they have been getting in the numbers during the past few matchups, and instead, focus on dominating overall.
"I don't want to get ourselves in a position where we're counting on the power play to win us hockey games because you're waiting for the other team to s***w up if you do that," Blues coach, Ken Hitchcock, said. "Our power play has given us a little advantage
in the series. It's helped here for us, but at the end of the day it's going to end up being a series of 5-on-5 play. Of the two teams, we're the team that has to improve the most 5-on-5."
St. Louis has been able to capitalise on 5-13 added man advantages and relying solely on them could have it bad for them if Sharks manage to control the number of penalties they give out during the contest.
"For a good part of the year, we were working on our power play quite a bit, too," Blues forward, David Perron, said.
San Jose has faced a penalty killing problem throughout the regular season, but knowing the Sharks, they can bounce back at any moment without prior notice, but that certainly is not always what happens.
Sharks have made it through to the Western Conference Finals for the past two seasons now and getting eliminated in the opening round will just make their run for a first Stanley Cup in franchise history ever worse.
The home team will need to rebound if they hope of staying alive for the remaining part of the series.
Game 4 of the St. Louis-San Jose series begins at 10:30 ET on Thursday.
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