SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 05/20/19 Arizona Coyotes cont'd 1144917 Coyotes captain Ekman-Larsson scores game winner at 1144948 Erik Karlsson in, Marcus Sorensen scratched for Sharks- IIHF Worlds Blues Game 5 1144918 The Neutral Zone: Dave Bolland at peace with impending 1144949 Erik Karlsson will be in lineup for Sharks' crucial Game 5 retirement vs. Blues 1144950 Blues' fourth line has caused Sharks problems during Bruins West final 1144919 Jaden Schwartz nets hat trick, Blues close in on date with 1144951 Sharks vs Blues Game 5 watch guide: Projected lines and Bruins defensive pairs 1144920 Here’s how Don Sweeney built the Bruins into Stanley 1144952 Sharks vs. Blues live stream: How to watch NHL playoffs Cup contenders Game 5 online 1144921 Zdeno Chara on the ice for Bruins practice, but does not 1144953 After a wretched second period, the Sharks are on the participate with full group brink of elimination 1144922 Winter Classic fashioned Bruins run 1144954 Disastrous Game 5 defeat could leave the Sharks 1144923 Bruins back to work in preparation for Stanley Cup final shorthanded as they once again stare at elimination 1144924 Was the Winter Classic win the turning point for the Bruins in 2019? They sure think so St Louis Blues 1144925 Brad Marchand has a different appreciation for making it 1144955 Blues are one win away after 5-0 win over Sharks in to his third Stanley Cup Final Game 5 1144926 Krejci (maintenance) among the missing from B's practice 1144956 Hochman: Playoff road games hardly an obstacle for 1144927 Bruins admit there will be 'challenges' to keep Rask in the never-nervous Blues zone after long layoff 1144957 Micheletti out, Milbury in on Blues-Sharks telecast 1144958 Blues notebook: Bouwmeester runs a Game 4 marathon Carolina Hurricanes on one shift 1144928 The Top 20 moments of an unforgettable Hurricanes 1144959 To finish off Sharks, Blues must finish out games more season aggressively 1144960 ‘Can I see your credentials?’: Blues on the cusp of their Colorado Avalanche first Stanley Cup final in 49 years 1144929 Sakic has Avs trending up after 2 straight playoff seasons 1144961 What brought David Perron to St. Louis three times? The Blues forward’s journey home — again Columbus Blue Jackets 1144930 Setting the scene on what will likely be a wild summer 1144962 Lightning forward J.T. Miller has proven to be an added Detroit Red Wings treat 1144931 Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin scores another big at Worlds 1144932 Dylan Larkin scores go-ahead goal, U.S. beats Germany 1144963 To qualify or not qualify restricted free agent Andre in world championships Burakovsky, that is the Caps’ question 1144933 Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin nets game-winner for U.S. at Worlds Websites 1144964 Sportsnet.ca / Decades of Blues frustration coming to an NHL end as Sharks' seem to deepen 1144934 British Hockey Team Comes in From the Cold at World 1144965 Sportsnet.ca / How the Blues pulled off one of the NHL's Championship greatest turnarounds – Sportsnet 1144966 USA TODAY / Blues rout Sharks, one win away from first Ottawa Senators Stanley Cup Final appearance in 49 years 1144935 Marc Crawford willing to be patient as coaching search continues SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 San Jose Sharks 1144936 Game 5 takeaways: Why another Sharks comeback seems unlikely 1144937 Four key Sharks injured in 5-0 Game 5 loss to Blues 1144938 How can Sharks survive this time to reach Game 7? 1144939 Game 5 disaster has Sharks once again on brink of elimination 1144940 Sharks decimated by injuries in disastrous Game 5 loss 1144941 Erik Karlsson to play Game 5, but Sharks are making one lineup change 1144942 A Sharks’ fan perspective: Stop with the “lucky” stuff 1144943 Sharks won’t have long to get ready for Game 5, it starts at noon Sunday 1144944 Blues move to brink of Cup final with 5-0 win over Sharks 1144945 Sharks' health to key players major concern after Game 5 loss to Blues 1144946 Sharks takeaways: What we learned in 5-0 Game 5 home loss to Blues 1144947 Sharks' Joe Pavelski, Erik Karlsson leave Game 5 vs. Blues with injuries 1144917 Arizona Coyotes

Coyotes captain Ekman-Larsson scores game winner at IIHF Worlds

BY DANNY SHAPIRO

MAY 18, 2019 AT 5:11 PM

It isn’t Stanley Cup playoff hockey, but Arizona Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson is scoring big goals in May.

Ekman-Larsson scored the game-winning goal for Sweden in its 4-3 win over Switzerland on Saturday in the group stage of the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia.

The Coyotes captain beat Switzerland’s goaltender glove side following a nifty pass from William Nylander with about eight minutes remaining to secure Sweden’s fourth win in five games.

It was OEL’s second goal and fourth point in five group stage games so far.

.@OEL23 comes up with a clutch #gOEL. What else is new?  pic.twitter.com/NxE5iZJOr9

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) May 18, 2019

Ekman-Larsson is leading a squad that includes Maple Leafs winger Nylander, Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson, Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm, Flames center Elias Lindholm and Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist.

Ekman-Larsson was an alternate captain for Sweden last year. Flames forward Mikael Backlund was the captain.

At last year’s IIHF World Championship, Sweden won its 11th title and second in a row by defeating Switzerland in the final.

This season, Ekman-Larsson scored 14 goals with 30 assists for 44 points, the second-most on the Coyotes behind Clayton Keller, who had 47 points. Ekman-Larsson’s 4.6 relative Corsi-for percentage was the highest on the Coyotes among players who played at least 50 games, and his 23:39 average time on ice was the highest among all Arizona skaters.

Arizona Sports LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144918 Arizona Coyotes “I knew I could score a goal like that,” Panik said in an email interview. “I tried it few times in practice, just goofing around. I was really happy that it went in because there is big chance you can lose the puck and that looks The Neutral Zone: Dave Bolland at peace with impending retirement bad.”

Panik is 1 for 5 in NHL career shootout attempts, but he’s not sure he would ever try that shootout move he used against Norway in an NHL By Craig Morgan May 19, 2019 game.

“It’s hard to say,” he said, “Sometimes, you just make a decision at the last moment.” Dave Bolland never played a game with the Coyotes, but that was always the plan when John Chayka acquired Bolland’s Panik is enjoying playing for the host country, which was eliminated on contract from the Florida Panthers in August 2016, along with forward Sunday when the United States beat Germany to advance to the Lawson Crouse, in exchange for a conditional third-round draft pick in quarterfinals. 2017 and a conditional second-round pick in 2018. Even so, Bolland still fielded questions about his new team. “The atmosphere here is awesome,” he said. “We had some time to go out to the city for lunch and the whole city was buzzing. Everyone has a “It was kind of weird,” he said. “I had buddies ask if I had a number or national team jersey and they are cheering for us. You can feel the what position I was going to play with them. It was basically just money energy in the game. The fans are awesome. They cheer all the time and transferring over to help with the cap. I never really thought much about the building is loud.” the Coyotes because I knew I probably wasn’t coming back.” Panik will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and the Coyotes Bolland’s contract with the Coyotes will expire at midnight on July 1, are not expected to re-sign the 28-year-old forward, who had 14 goals taking his $5.5 million cap hit off the books. Any emotions that might and 33 points last season. Panik is avoiding those thoughts for now. have accompanied that date have long since faded in the three and a half years since he played a game. “For now, I’m focusing on the championship,” he said. “It’s gonna be a busy summer. Hopefully, it will work out for me.” “I’ll have to speak to my agent because I don’t think I’ve talked to him in about three years, but I’ll be retiring officially,” Bolland said. “I really Lööke back to Sweden enjoyed my career and there were obviously some high points when you The Coyotes placed forward Jens Lööke on unconditional waivers on win two Cups. The first year I was out it was tough and the second year I Friday and he cleared Saturday. The Coyotes have an agreement to was still trying to figure everything out — what I was going to be doing – terminate the three-year, $2.775 million entry-level contract he signed in but I came to terms with it about a year and a half ago that it was done. I 2017, making him an unrestricted free agent. Lööke is returning to won’t be coming back.” Sweden where he will play for Timrå IK.

Bolland has a pair of physical issues that have compounded one another “We feel it’s best for his long-term development to play in Sweden right and sidelined him since the 2015-16 season. He had back surgery the now,” his agent, J.P. Barry said in a text message. season (2009-10) the Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years, and a skate blade severed the peroneal tendon in his left ankle, The Coyotes selected Lööke in the third round (No. 83) of the 2015 NHL sidelining him for most of the 2013-14 season in Toronto. Draft. While they no longer own his rights, assistant general manager Steve Sullivan said the Coyotes will continue their relationship with Lööke “It was cut right through,” Bolland said. “It rolled up to about my knee and and Barry, and monitor the player’s development. Looke played two they had to bring it back down and suture it back together. Both of the seasons for the Tucson Roadrunners of the injuries were on the left side so I still walk with a little bit of a limp and I (14 goals, 32 points in 120 games), but he never cracked the NHL lineup. have to keep up with my therapy. If I haven’t done it in a long time it tends to go bad. If I go for a long walk, the ankle will get tired and once it About that Jim Irsay tweet goes, my back goes. With a simple tweet announcing the arrival of a piano, Indianapolis Colts “It’s something I’ll have to take care of the rest of my life, but my doctors owner Jim Irsay set off a firestorm of speculation. have told me when I’m 50, 60 or maybe 70, I’ll have to have surgery on the ankle because the tendon will be worn down. I’m just hoping I won’t It all makes so much sense in a conspiracy-laden, logic-deprived world. I have any more surgeries on my back.” mean, the Coyotes ARE moving to the Central Division. Indy makes even more sense in that division than Houston? Amirite? Bolland spent last season helping out as an extra coach for the London Knights, with whom he played four seasons and won a Memorial Cup in Well, actually, no. I’m not sure why Irsay is sporting that Coyotes 2005. He enjoyed coaching but his favorite free-time activity is golf. sweatshirt. Maybe he’s just a fan, but he is not looking to buy the team, I’m told – as if I even had to ask. “There’s still days when my back isn’t the best so I try to walk the course, rather than getting up and down from a golf cart, and that seems to help,” There’s also this fact from the description of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, he said. “It is tough knowing my career is over. I wasn’t looking to be home of the Indiana Pacers. done playing hockey at 32 years old. I was hoping to win another Cup Unlike most other North American sports arenas, the Fieldhouse was and then hopefully go back and play my later days with the Blackhawks. designed primarily for basketball. The arena can accommodate an NHL- “I love Chicago. I was hoping to spend my whole career there, but it’s a sized rink, but the seating capacity is reduced to 12,300 for , business so that’s the way it goes. I would love to go back and work for as the seating arrangement is asymmetrical. the Hawks; do anything for them whether it’s in the community or on the Sound familiar, in an America West Arena, obstructed view seats kind of hockey side. That was my home for six or seven years. I would stay there way? during the summer time and train there. I didn’t even think about coming back to Canada. My love is for the Blackhawks.” It’s summer and you know what that means for Coyotes fans. It’s arena and ownership season. The silly speculation will likely get worse, Panik at home although it’s hard to imagine a rumor as bad as this one. Sigh.

The leading Coyotes point producer at the World Championship in Loose pucks Slovakia is not Clayton Keller or Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With one more game remaining in pool play, Slovakia’s Richard Panik is tied with seven Among other Coyotes competing at the World Championship, Ekman- other players for 14th place with a goal and six assists. He also scored Larsson has two goals and four points and the Swedish captain scored an absolutely filthy shootout goal in an exhibition game against Norway. the game-winning goal in a 4-3 win against Switzerland on Saturday. Mario Kempe has a goal and two points for Sweden; Keller has two goals THIS SHOOTOUT GOAL BY RICHARD PANIK IS PURE ART….  and four points for the United States; Liam Kirk has no points for Great PIC.TWITTER.COM/M7MW7OQA5S Britain; and Ilya Lyubushkin has not played for Russia.

— ROBERT SÖDERLIND (@HOCKEYWEBCAST) MAY 8, 2019 Several fans were wondering why Ekman-Larsson had a bloodshot eye in this video. Chayka said it was just a bacterial infection, not an injury, and it was clearing up well.

Chayka on Kirk’s first year of North American Hockey, in which he had 26 goals and 47 points in 63 games for the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League: “He had a good year. He had a lot of adjustments to playing in the CHL between style of play, competition, depth of players and a new country. He had a slow start but by the end of the season he played extremely well and was really good in their playoff run, too. He’s got skating ability plus some skill level. We’ll see…” Kirk was the Coyotes’ seventh-round pick (No. 189) in 2018. His odds of making it to the NHL are long. The Coyotes will not sign him to a contract this summer.

Chayka and assistant GM Steve Sullivan are in Slovakia scouting the World Championship, meeting with agents and cultivating relationships, but there may not be any signings for next season after missing out on Swedish free agent Anton Wedin (Timrå IK), who chose the Blackhawks. “There’s a couple players that we’re talking to, not of the higher-end variety, but some guys that we think could add some good depth,” Chayka said. “Some of these guys have options, so do they stay or come over? We’re having some good discussions.”

Here’s a list of the top major junior, college and European free agents that Corey Pronman of The Athletic compiled in March. Some have since signed with teams.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144919 ‘‘I thought we obviously took way too many penalties,’’ forward Logan Couture said. ‘‘You can’t come back when you’re in the box the whole period, got away from us at the end. Would have really liked us to control Jaden Schwartz nets hat trick, Blues close in on date with Bruins our emotions and given ourselves a chance.’’

Boston Globe LOADED: 05.20.2019

Adrian Walker

‘‘It’s probably tough to put into words,’’ Schwartz said. ‘‘It’s something that everyone’s worked for and dreamed about. You don’t want to look too far ahead. We all know how important and how hard that last win’s going to be. It would be a dream come true.’’

St. Louis used a relentless forecheck to take control of the game and series in the second period, scoring twice and outshooting the beleaguered Sharks, 20-6, during the frame. It also got 21 saves from Jordan Binnington in his first playoff shutout and a first-period goal from Oskar Sundqvist to overwhelm the Sharks.

Schwartz added two goals in the third for his second hat trick this postseason, becoming the first player with two in one playoff run since Johan Franzen for Detroit in 2008.

The victory gave the Blues a 3-2 series lead, the closest they've been to making the final since getting there in their first three seasons as the winner of the all-expansion Western Conference. St. Louis can earn its first trip back to the final since 1970 with a win at home in Game 6 on Tuesday night, an improbable journey for a team that was last in the standings on Jan. 2.

‘‘We’re close. We’re very close right now,’’ forward Patrick Maroon said. ‘‘I think the guys know that. It’s in the back of their heads, but we know that that’s a good hockey team over there too and they’re not going to give up.’’

Martin Jones made 35 saves for the Sharks but got little help from his teammates, who have been held to one goal in losing the past two games. San Jose now faces elimination for the third straight series, having overcome a 3-1 series deficit to Vegas in the first round and winning a Game 7 at home in the second round against Colorado.

‘‘We've been here before,’’ coach Peter DeBoer said. ‘‘Had to go on the road and win in Vegas in order to get to a Game 7. You’re never comfortable when your back’s against the wall like that, but we have been here before and found a way and I'm confident we can do that again.’’

San Jose got off to a spirited start in the rare afternoon contest that led to a more subdued crowd than usual at the Shark Tank. Evander Kane hit the post just 12 seconds into the game and the Sharks had the better of the play in the opening 20 minutes despite falling behind, 1-0, when Sundqvist converted a turnover from a hobbled Erik Karlsson into a goal less than six minutes into the contest.

Karlsson has been hampered by a groin injury that sidelined him for 27 of the final 33 games in the regular season and has been extremely limited since the third period of Game 4. He tried to make a quick outlet under pressure but his pass went through teammate Brenden Dillon’s skates, off the boards and right to Sundqvist, who beat Jones to give the Blues their fourth goal of the series from the fourth line.

The Blues then took over in the second period, putting 11 shots on goal in less than five minutes. They added to the lead when Tarasenko’s shot was partially blocked. Jones then swept it away but it went right to Schwartz, who knocked it into the open net.

Schwartz added the two goals in the third, giving him 12 in the playoffs after scoring just 11 in 69 regular-season games.

‘‘It was an off-year obviously for him in the regular season,’’ coach said. ‘‘But the guy keeps working hard. He’s not going to change his attitude. He keeps with it, he keeps working and it’s paying off now.’’

The Blues kept up the pressure, leading to a breakaway by Tarasenko. He was pulled down by Brent Burns for a shot and converted it with a shot high to Jones’ glove side.

The game got out of hand in the third as the Sharks took a parade to the penalty box, upset about a hit to the head of Tomas Hertl in the first period by and a high hit to captain Joe Pavelski by Alex Pietrangelo early in the third. 1144920 Boston Bruins integrating a handful of young key draft picks: Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen up front, and , Brandon Carlo, McAvoy, and a sprinkling of Connor Clifton in the back.

Here’s how Don Sweeney built the Bruins into Stanley Cup contenders Next Monday, when the Cup Final begins at the Garden, Cassidy will be coaching his 36th postseason game for the Bruins.

Adrian Walker “We’ve done a pretty good job integrating, allowing opportunity, providing opportunity, I should say, for some younger players,” said Sweeney. “Our staff deserves a lot of credit for recognizing and scouting and just working hard. It comes down to the investment at a player level, a Don Sweeney one day could be remembered best as the guy in charge coaching level, an organizational level, ownership support. It’s really the when Charlie McAvoy was drafted at No. 14 in 2016. Sweeney was whole piece of it.” promoted in the spring of 2015 to untangle a stale roster, a payroll gone awry, and a coaching message gone fallow. Sweeney’s work at this year’s trade deadline could prove the equal of promoting Cassidy. Without adding Marcus Johansson and Charlie Coyle Sweeney, the 52-year-old former Harvard defenseman, is the re- to the equation, which now has the two riding as a highly effective pairing engineer and makeover architect of a roster that next will try to beat San on the No. 3 line (typically with Heinen at RW), it’s possible the Bruins fail Jose or St. Louis for the seventh Cup in team history. to get by either the Maple Leafs or Blue Jackets in Rounds 1-2. “Bottom line is, my dad’s a math teacher,” Sweeney said during a news Coyle and Johansson now stand 9-12—21 through three rounds, adding conference over the weekend, pondering the key moves that have to an offense that has produced 19 different goal scorers — tying a club brought his club back to the Cup Final. “You look at the equation. It’s a playoff record set in 1988. As of Sunday morning, the Blues had goals word problem, so you try and find the equation.” from 18 players this postseason, while the Sharks had 13 (including To that point, mused Sweeney, his players and coaches are fully playoff leader Logan Couture with 14). invested, and he believes he has a staff and ownership group that also “You just don’t know until the deal is consummated, and then you hope are all in. Top that all off with hard work, he stressed, and ideally it adds and cross your fingers that you’ve done the right thing,” said Sweeney. up to the kind of success that can lead to challenging again for a “Because you’ve done a lot of that planning, and you go home at night championship — six years after falling a couple of wins shy in the ’13 and think, ‘OK, if it lines up this way are we good?’. . . They fit in very well Final vs. the Blackhawks. with our group. I think they balanced our lineup. Fortunate to get Marcus “The guy wearing a suit,” said Sweeney, dressed leisurely during the back [from early injury] and healthy, they’ve developed some chemistry, offday media scrum, “generally looks better when things go right.” he and Charlie [Coyle]. And it’s certainly presented some challenges for the other teams.” Sweeney’s moves, ample portions of right and wrong, have been many since taking over in the wake of Chiarelli’s firing. Sweeney inherited the core group already with names etched on the Cup here: Bergeron, Krejci, Marchand, Chara, and Rask. As is often the case It began in the summer of 2015, just weeks into his new gig, with the in Cup play, it’s their goalie, Rask, who has stood out the most in this run. rework of the club’s stifling, tight-to-the-cap player payroll, leading to the Much the same was being said at this time in ’13 — his numbers near offloading of fan favorites on the Kings and the injured Marc identical to what they are now at this point in the run — but Rask’s stout Savard on the Panthers in a span of five days. work was soon forgotten in a 17-second span of Game 6, third period, when the Blackhawks clinched the deal with their pair of lightning-quick Prior to the Lucic deal, Sweeney dealt Doug Hamilton, believed to be the strikes. franchise’s defenseman in waiting, to the for the three picks that became Zach Senyshyn, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, and Just as Chiarelli found out in 2011 amid the Tim Thomas heroics, nothing Jeremy Lauzon. The Lucic deal to LA included the acquisition of Martin makes the guy in the business suit look brighter than a goalie playing Jones, but when the elite goalie prospect made clear his salary request lights-out into June. was too high, Sweeney dealt him four days later to San Jose for Sean Kuraly, now the club’s Energizer-bunny No. 4 center, and the draft pick “I think the biggest change in terms of the context of the 82-game that became . schedule, and how we balanced the goaltending, is Tuukka’s taken the ball and obviously played very well and our team has benefited greatly “We tried to do some things, call it on the fly, [to] deepen the prospect from that,” said Sweeney. pool [and] integrate younger players — all the things we talk about and plan out and implement,” said Sweeney. “We had some bumps, made Credit there to Jaro Halak, noted Sweeney, because the backup tender some mistakes and learned from them, tried to correct them, tried to allowed Rask ample rest during the season. move forward, tried to continue to make the promise to our leadership “You have to attribute, you have to spread around the fact that group that we believe we could get there again.” everybody’s pulling on the rope,” said Sweeney. “Not just to throw out the One of the costliest miscues, the signing of unrestricted free agent Matt clichés, but we’ve really worked hard to try and get here and earned the Beleskey, came amid the massive, frenetic makeover in the summer of chance to get back here, and we’re going to try to take advantage of it.” ’15. With the Lucic and Savard money cleared, Sweeney rolled out a five- And his dad, the math teacher, how would he grade the Boston GM to year/$19 million deal for the ex-Ducks winger, who proved in very short this point? order that he was barely a bottom-six spare part. “Not very good,” said Sweeney. “Because he’d still wonder how you’re The end came in February 2018, when Beleskey was tucked neatly into balancing it. But overall he’s given me a thumbs-up to get here, and he the Rangers deal that brought Rick Nash here for a Cup run that fell wants to see us win.” short, in part, because the ex-Ranger winger suffered a concussion upon his arrival on Causeway St. Beleskey has one year left at $3.8 million, Boston Globe LOADED: 05.20.2019 and looks destined to spend it in the AHL, with the Bruins still responsible for half of that salary. A pricey bump.

Sweeney’s best move to date — pending the arc and outcome of McAvoy’s career — has been his decision in February 2017 to promote to head coach, ending Claude Julien’s long tenure, one that included the Cup win in ’11 and the return to the SCF two years later.

Far more willing to engage in today’s speed game, and withstand the inherent risks of sometimes trading chances, Cassidy in his two-plus seasons has posted a robust 117-52-22 (.670 winning percentage) mark, and this season fell but one victory shy of recording a second consecutive 50-win season. All of it after inheriting a roster that had to be reprogrammed from Julien’s conservative, defensive game plan, and 1144921 Boston Bruins Sage advice

Cassidy said he will consult with other teams and Bruin veterans about dealing with excessive down time. Zdeno Chara on the ice for Bruins practice, but does not participate with full group “My biggest resource will be players that’ve been through it,” Cassidy said. “How do they see it, what’s their plan, what’s their experience, and go from there.”

Adrian Walker Among the experienced players is Brad Marchand, competing in his third Stanley Cup Final for the Bruins.

Chara, who led the Bruins in minutes in Game 3 of the Eastern “I think when you’re part of a team like that you expect it to last a long Conference final series against the Hurricanes, had been listed as day to time,” Marchand said. “You don’t realize how one change in a team can day. Chara was in uniform for Game 4 in Raleigh, N.C., and went on the really drastically affect how things play out. One player change, one ice to celebrate the Bruins’ series sweep. injury, one call. You don’t realize what it takes to get back to the finals and how fortunate you are to get there. David Krejci took a maintenance day and is expected to return for Monday’s workout. “And, so, this time around I think I’m more appreciative of being here and at the same time a lot more calm, I guess, in a way. End of the day, it’s “Guys had good zip,” Cassidy said. “It’s going to get long, though, this hockey, we’ve done it a million times, so we’re just going to go and try to week. They are a group that likes to work so I think they’re happy to get do what we’ve done all year, be in a good place. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and back out there again.” we may never be back here again, so got to enjoy it.”

The Bruins will meet either San Jose or St. Louis in the Final, starting at Boston Globe LOADED: 05.20.2019 home on May 27.

Coyle right at home

Bruins center Charlie Coyle has taken advantage of the time off to acquaint with family in Weymouth.

“Lot of support, which there has been ever since I got here,” Coyle said. “Seeing family and a few friends and cousins and stuff — more people watching and tuning in on a nightly basis so getting a few more texts. But just the support’s been great from everyone. It’s really cool to play here and I know a lot of people just follow the team and been into hockey and watching.”

Among the relatives Coyle encountered was Bobby Sheehan, who won the 1971 Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens.

“SheCat they call him,” Coyle said. “Out and about with a few of my dad’s cousins, I just saw him the other day, so it was good to see him. He just said keep doing what you’re doing. Enjoy it, it’s a lot of fun. I wish I saw more video of him. Usually, just hear stories, you hear all the stuff.”

Home coming

The Bruins began the playoffs on April 11 and have not played at home since a 6-2 win over Carolina on May 12.

“We’ve been constant go, go, go ever since we started, seems like,” Coyle said. “So I think bumps and bruises guys have – time to rest and heal, mentally, physically. I think that’ll do us well and get some good practice time – we’ll use that to our advantage and prep. It’s going to be good for us in the long run, just knowing how to go about this long wait. Sometimes, every two days off, it’s get ready to go here, ready to play. Like, can we play, already?”

Said Cassidy: “Inevitable you’re going to have some rust but the rest is a positive part of it. I think we’ll get after it quick when we do get after it. Who knows, San Jose-St. Louis, if it ends Tuesday, they’re sitting around for six days, too. Is there a big difference between six and 10? I think both teams are going to be rusty, if it goes six. If it goes seven they might have that competitive edge in the first game but we’ll do our best to overcome that.”

The Bruins have surrendered nine goals in the last seven games, thanks partly to the goaltending of Tuukka Rask.

“I don’t even talk to the guy right now,” defenseman Torey Krug said. “I’ll try to ignore him. I’m sure he’s ignoring me. From Day 1 in the playoffs he’s been in a routine, he’s had that look in his eye. I’m sure most guys fall into that category, just kind of tip-toeing around him and stay out of the way of his routine.”

Talking about Rask, Cassidy said: “Clearly we’d like to run him right back out there, whole group to be honest with you. He knows what’s in front of him. He’s been around, he’s a good pro. He’ll have to kind of figure out for himself how to get dialed in each day so that come next Monday he feels like he’s 100 percent dialed in. I don’t know if he’ll have an easy answer for that, either, because — you’re off, so you’re going to lose a bit of sharpness.” 1144922 Boston Bruins

Winter Classic fashioned Bruins Stanley Cup run

By RICH THOMPSON | May 19, 2019 at 3:19 PM

The team building process that brought the Bruins to the Stanley Cup final began with selfies on the Great Wall of China and solidified under the omnipresent gaze of Touchdown Jesus.

The Bruins kicked off the campaign on a goodwill mission to China where they played a pair of exhibition games with Calgary Flames at the Shenzhen Universiade Center in Shenzhen and Cadillac Arena in Beijing.

But coach Bruce Cassidy identified the Bruins’ 4-2 victory over the in the Winter Classic as the turning point in the season.

The clash between two teams took place on balmy overcast New Years’ Day before 76,126 fans at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind.

“The was the core from Game 1 but some of that core wasn’t in China,” Cassidy said following practice Sunday at .

“A little bit of that was the younger guys taking charge. I think the Winter Classic was, if you want to look back, a turning point and I think that whole Peaky Blinders theme brought the guys together. I think that was (Torey) Krug’s doing if I’m not mistaken.

“Then there was the game itself and it seemed to take off from there. It was an area where we really came together and that was the first time we were healthy all year with the team we thought we’d start with.”

The “Peaky Blinders theme” was a fashion statement based a popular BBC TV series about the formation of an organized crime underworld in Birmingham, England, following World War 1. The Bruins arrived in South Bend wearing suits, vests and haberdashery in the style of British gangsters from the 1920s.

“I think it was part of it and there were a lot of things along the way that bring you together as a group,” said Krug. “Doing that and the way that we won that game was definitely and step in the right direction and one of many things that have happened over the year that brought us together as a group.

“We were a tight group to begin with and that was a lot of fun. There was group of us that wore that (Peaky Blinders) to a Halloween party and seeing a big group like that something clicked.

“We talked about with a couple of guys and thought it would be a fun idea. When you see a group of seven or eight guys dressed like that it was sharp. All of a sudden you have the whole team wearing it to the Winter Classic and I thought it looked sharp.”

Boston Herald LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144923 Boston Bruins

Bruins back to work in preparation for Stanley Cup final

By RICH THOMPSON | PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 3:05 pm | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 3:16 PM

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy was happy with what he saw as the team began preparations for the Stanley Cup final with a workout Sunday morning at Warrior Ice Arena.

“The guys had good zip after a couple of days,” Cassidy said following a two-day break on the heels of the B’s sweep of Carolina. “They are a group that loves to work and I think they are happy to get back out there together.”

The Bruins went about their business in a competitive vacuum as they await the conclusion of the Western Conference final between the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues.

The Bruins will host Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final on Memorial Day at TD Garden. In the intervening days, Cassidy and his staff have formulated a plan to keep the Bruins game-ready for either the Sharks or the Blues.

“We have a plan how we are going to go through the week balancing practice with days off,” said Cassidy. “We’ve talked about scrimmaging, whether we do it at night like we would prepare for a game or in the morning.”

Cassidy said he will rely on feedback from Bruins veterans that participated in 2011 and 2013 Stanley Cup runs such as Zdeno Chara, , David Krejci, Brad Marchand, Torey Krug and goalie Tuukka Rask.

“We are going to meet with the veteran guys that have been through it and see how that jives,” said Cassidy. “We’ll talk to people outside the organization but I can’t get to specific about that.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has attended Bruins game in the past and is an authority at filling long periods between playoff games.

Chara, who missed Game 4 against Carolina with an undisclosed injury, skated before practice. Krejci (maintenance day) also did not practice.

The Backes Blues

Second-line winger David Backes concedes he is no longer an authority on the St. Louis Blues despite playing the first 10 years of his NHL career in the Gateway City.

The Blues have undergone institutional and cultural changes since Backes signed with the Bruins as a free agent in the summer of 2016. Backes insisted it doesn’t matter if the Bruins play the Sharks or the Blues, although he maintains a long-standing friendship with St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo.

“I wish them the best but when that series starts it doesn’t matter what emblem is on the other side,” said Backes. “That spoked B is all we are thinking about to get to our goal.”

Three on three

Winger Danton Heinen has bounced between three of the four lines over the course of the season, including a stay on the top line in place of David Pastrnak.

But Heinen appears to have a found a home in the playoffs on the third line with center Charlie Coyle and left-winger Marcus Johansson.

The threesome has provided the secondary scoring the Bruins needed in their 17 postseason games against the Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets and Hurricanes. Coyle (6-6-12), Johansson (3-6-9) and Heinen (2-5-7) have been steady producers.

“We fit pretty well,” said Heinen. “They were two good guys that are skilled smart players.”

Boston Herald LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144924 Boston Bruins

Was the Winter Classic win the turning point for the Bruins in 2019? They sure think so

By Michael Deprisco May 19, 2019 11:24 PM

Entering their 2019 Winter Classic clash with the Blackhawks, the Bruins were 22-14 and far away from title contention. Tampa Bay and Washington were presumed to be the best teams in the Eastern Conference, while the Bruins were destined for another underwhelming close to a season.

Then they became one of the top teams in the NHL in a matter of two months, almost immediately following their 4-2 win over Chicago in Notre Dame Stadium.

Marchand not taking this run for granted

If you ask Torey Krug and Bruce Cassidy, they'll tell you that the Winter Classic win was a turning point in the B's season.

Boston then went 19 consecutive games without losing a game in regulation, sparking a 107-point regular season, which was good for second-most in the league trailing only the Lightning.

Boston had its issues in the playoffs finishing out the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets, but in each series, they seemed to have overcome a level of diversity you expect out of championship teams.

Whether the Bruins end up winning the Stanley Cup or not, the Winter Classic transformed them from pretenders to contenders. At least, that's what the Bruns believe.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144925 Boston Bruins

Brad Marchand has a different appreciation for making it to his third Stanley Cup Final

By Michael Deprisco May 19, 2019 8:02 PM

The 2019 Stanley Cup Final is not Brad Marchand's first with the Bruins. After sweeping the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, Boston will make its third trip to the league's championship series since 2011.

The Bruins ended a near-40-year championship drought by defeating the Canucks in the 2011 Stanley Cup FInal in seven games, and then suffered a heart-breaking loss to the Blackhawks in 2013 when Chicago scored two goals in the final 90 seconds of Game 6 to snatch the Cup before Boston could force a Game 7.

Marchand was a member of both teams, and even though this his third trip to the Cup Final, he knows now not to take the opportunity for granted.

"You expect it to last a long time. You don’t realize how one change in a team can drastically affect how things play out," Marchand said. "One player change, one injury or one call, you don’t realize what it takes to get back to the (Stanley Cup) Final and how fortunate you are to get there."

Despite how successful the Bruins were in the regular season, they weren't the favorite to make it this far. The best team in the league throughout the year in Tampa Bay were swept in the first round by Columbus, and the Capitals, a team Boston can never seem to beat, fell to Carolina in the first round as well. Now the Bruins await either the Blues or Sharks, while St. Louis holds a 3-2 series lead and will try to close out the series on their home ice.

"This time around I’m definitely more appreciative of being here, but at the same time a lot more calm I guess," he said. "At the end of the day it’s just hockey and we’ve done it a million times.

"We may never be back here again, so you gotta enjoy it."

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144926 Boston Bruins

Krejci (maintenance) among the missing from B's practice

By Joe Haggerty May 19, 2019 3:01 PM

BRIGHTON, Mass – Zdeno Chara, David Krejci and Steve Kampfer all missed Sunday’s practice as the Bruins kick off a week-plus of preparation ahead of the Stanley Cup Final, but both Chara and Kampfer skated ahead of practice at Warrior Ice Arena.

Krejci was given a maintenance day after the Bruins had both Friday and Saturday off the ice completely, but it still sounds like all three will be good to go once the Stanley Cup Final gets underway against either St. Louis or San Jose.

“It’s a maintenance day for [Krejci], so he should be out there tomorrow. Chara and Kampfer skated before practice, so we’ll see if they get integrated [on Monday],” said Bruce Cassidy. “We’ve kind of set it up so that I don’t believe we’re going to skate on Tuesday. Zee might get back on Wednesday, but I don’t want to push it. He’s a workhorse and we want to get him there as quickly as possible. I suspect they will all be back out there on Wednesday.”

It’s a much less rosy picture for Kevan Miller (knee) and Chris Wagner (right arm), who aren’t looking like the Cup Final is going to be a possibility. Wagner suffered what looked like a significant injury blocking a Justin Faulk shot in the Game 3 over the Hurricanes in Carolina, but Miller hasn’t been able to suit up for even a single playoff game after battling a slew of injuries that limited him to just 39 games played this season.

It’s a difficult situation that hits hard with a good, team-first D-man like the 31-year-old Miller that’s always been a good teammate during his career with the Bruins.

“I feel terrible for him,” said Cassidy. “He’s had a tough year with the injuries.”

Clearly the 10 days off between the conference final and Stanley Cup Final are going to give the Bruins an opportunity to be as healthy as they’ve been through this entire postseason, and that’s something they have already begun taking full advantage of this weekend. Rookies Urho Vaakanainen, Jakub Zboril and Zane McIntyre were all members of the B’s practice as part of the Black Aces crew for the B’s during these playoffs.

Here are the line combos and D-pairings at Sunday’s practice for the Black and Gold:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Kuhlman-Backes

Johansson-Coyle-Heinen

Nordstrom-Kuraly-Acciari

Grzelcyk-McAvoy

Krug-Carlo

Moore-Clifton

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144927 Boston Bruins

Bruins admit there will be 'challenges' to keep Rask in the zone after long layoff

By Joe Haggerty May 19, 2019 8:05 AM

BRIGHTON, Mass – For most members of the Bruins, the 10-day reprieve between the Eastern Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final is going to be a very good thing for healing bumps and bruises, and for recharging the batteries after playing 18 bruising postseason games in the first three rounds.

Interestingly enough the Bruins indicated they’ll be scrimmaging to stay sharp with pseudo-game conditions, and they will also hit the New England Patriots for advice about the two weeks spent preparing for the Super Bowl. But even the largest amount of rust will probably be gone for most players after the first period of Game 1 at TD Garden regardless of the opponent.

Stanley Cup Final schedule unveiled

“Ultimately it will be up to him about getting a read on where the players are, first of all mentally and physically. We’ve given them the first couple days off, we’re going to practice for a couple days,” said Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. “We now know the schedule, so we can start to forecast. A little bit depends on where the players are at.

“[Zdeno Chara] missed the final game. We have to give guys the appropriate time to recover and then go to work. I think our guys know how to practice. We’re a team that likes to practice, except for [David Krejci], who has publicly stated that he doesn’t like to practice. But I think this time of the year he’ll show up and practice accordingly.”

The one exception to all of this could be Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, who has been “in the zone” for the first three rounds of the postseason while leading all players as the top candidate for the Conn Smythe Award this spring. Rask is an amazing 12-5-0 in 17 games with a 1.84 goals against average and a .942 save percentage, and is coming off a blistering .956 save percentage in the Eastern Conference Final sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes.

He’s consistently been Boston’s best player throughout the postseason, and will need to be in the Stanley Cup Final if the Bruins hope to win it all. There’s also the unique challenge for the Bruins of ways to keep Rask “in the zone” even though he’s going to go almost two weeks between playoff games, and that’s something the B’s acknowledged as they rested this weekend after capturing the Eastern Conference.

“I think Tuukka missed, when he was concussed, I think he missed quite a bit of time then came back and played well,” said Sweeney. “He’s in a really good place, a really good place mentally and physically and his routines. He’s gone out game days. In the past, he hasn’t. He’s gone out for specific reasons. I think he’ll continue to do those things. It’s just the game, to get into the flow of the game and speed of the game you can’t ever simulate, so there will be challenges, certainly. Tuukka is in a really good place, and I expect him to return there.”

Certainly the Black and Gold will need him "to return there" if they hope to come home with the Cup.

As Sweeney referenced, Rask missed 11 days sandwiched around the week-long bye and NHL All-Star weekend after getting concussed in a collision at the net with Filip Chytil, and then made 38 saves in a 3-2 OT loss to the Flyers when he did return from the long layoff. So there’s hope that Rask can stay dialed in despite the lengthy break in between series, but it won’t be a lockdown certainty until things get going with either the Sharks or the Blues on May 27 at TD Garden for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Until then the B’s coaching staff has to work on keeping the team as sharp as possible, and hope that Rask remains “in the zone” for at least another three weeks.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144928 Carolina Hurricanes It was really nice to see, Mike. It really was.

THIS TWITTER SHIT IS FUN; LIKE WATCHING GAME WITH ALL YOUR BUDDIES. The Top 20 moments of an unforgettable Hurricanes season — BRIAN PESCE (@BRIANPESCE2) MAY 3, 2019

13. Madison Square Garden curse reversal By Sara Civian May 19, 2019 The Hurricanes’ first win at Madison Square Garden in 17 tries didn’t mean anything in itself, but it meant so much in the grand scheme. It was The Hurricanes couldn’t solve Tuukka Rask or the Boston Bruins to another sign that this team was different, that no curse was going punch a ticket to the Stanley Cup final. That doesn’t take away from their unreversed this season — including the big one. All too many times, fans first trip to the playoffs in a decade, a season with its lows, but too many of this franchise have been left waiting for the very last regular season highs to count. Let’s try to count them anyway. game to see if the team was going to be different. Moments like Madison Square Garden and clinching the playoffs before it came down to the This wasn’t really a “moment,” but it can’t be left out. John Forslund has a wire left less and less doubt. special connection with Hurricanes fans and he’s been with the franchise since the Whalers days. He represented the Hurricanes with excellence 12. Hamilton the Pig through some not-so-excellent years. Calling games for a national crowd I found it strange to hear someone in the Hurricane’s locker room yelling obviously comes with a different set of rules than local broadcasts, but it “WHERE’S HAMILTON?!” after a playoff win. They usually call Dougie was awesome that Forslund could represent the franchise he knows best Hamilton “Dougie.” on the national stage. It was a bonus that he knows the players and their names. It only occurred to me minutes later that they were talking about the pig.

20. Micheal Ferland vs. Austin Watson 11. A nerd victory lap

MICHEAL FERLAND DROPS AUSTIN WATSON IN THREE PUNCHES. So many Very Smart people had so much to say about analytics in the PIC.TWITTER.COM/V5OKAMLLHH context of the Hurricanes before New Year’s. There were daily conspiracy theory Twitter threads detailing everything the Canes’ — SHARKS FAN SINCE BIRTH (@DRAFTLOOK) JANUARY 13, 2019 analytics guru, Eric Tulsky, was allegedly doing wrong. People were If we’ve seen the last of Micheal Ferland in a Hurricanes jersey, he can losing their minds trying to figure out the lost analytic that could explain leave Raleigh knowing he led the way in erasing the “Candy Canes” what was wrong with the Canes. narrative. The Canes found a new identity in playing a hard game this To be fair, it was incredibly hard to watch those months where everything season, and though Ferland is known for his clean, heavy hits, that time happened except the finish. But those who could resist donning a Tin Foil he knocked out Austin Watson in three punches stands out as a fan hat were right all along: luck and regression exist. favorite. THE ABSOLUTE CANES 19. “Who’s your daddy?” — MANNY (@MANNYELK) FEBRUARY 17, 2019 I’ve watched this at least 10 times at this point and I’m still not totally convinced that it’s real. One of the nerds on the right side of history hailed this reverse- regression of the Canes’ shooting percentage as “the nerd victory lap.” 18. Whalers night? Let’s go with that. I don’t know. I liked it. 10. The Nino Niederreiter trade 17. Justin Faulk’s back-to-back power play goals Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask was quite possibly the strongest For a brief, shining moment in Canes world, everything was beautiful and indication this season that good things are actually allowed to happen to nothing hurt. It was the best of times, it was the Bo Time-iest of times. the Carolina Hurricanes. There wasn’t a better “hockey” trade in the Noted scapegoat Justin Faulk stopped firing the puck at 500 MPH from league. Not only did Niederreiter have an immediate impact as a finisher the blue line towards the general vicinity of the net and started using his on a team starved for that, but it showed you could believe in GM of the incredible wrist shot. year candidate and that Tom Dundon would pull out the “Could it be?” We all gasped. “Could the Hurricanes have a functional wallet for it. power play? In this economy?” 9. Sebastian Aho’s all-strengths hat trick

In the end, nothing gold could stay. The Canes went 1-for-14 on the man Nothing offers a more concise wrap-up of Sebastian Aho’s first season advantage in the Eastern Conference Final and 5-for-52 in the playoffs. as an NHL center than that time he scored at even strength, on the But those few days in February were a glorious run. power play and on the penalty kill for a hat trick. There’s no reason to 16. Greg McKegg’s five dollar beer night Hurricanes debut believe we’ve even seen the ceiling of the 21-year-old’s capabilities, and credit to Brind’Amour for constantly pushing him to do more without the Greg McKegg’s multi-point Hurricanes debut on five dollar beer night was puck. a microcosm of the “right place, right time” vibe this season started to have after New Year’s Eve. Re-live it here. That was also the fateful day we found out how much he loves coffee.

15. “Bend the knee” Sebastian Aho (James Guillory / USA Today)

BEND THE KNEE HTTPS://T.CO/0IQ7MTVZ7B 8. “Woo” and Jordan Martinook

— CAROLINA HURRICANES (@NHLCANES) APRIL 25, 2019 Has anybody ever understood anything quicker than Jordan Martinook understood this market? stay classy, carolina He’s not the kind of player to score a hat trick, but when he did, Canes 14. Pesce family energy fans started a season-long tradition of screaming “Woo” into the abyss. And when he took the microphone in his postgame interview, he wooed BRADLEE PESCE SHARES WITH @MIKEMANISCALCO HOW HE right back. Then he didn’t stop woo-ing or screaming all season. AND BRETT GOT STARTED INTO HOCKEY TOGETHER AT A YOUNG AGE. 7. Andrei Svechnikov’s first NHL goal

WATCH | #TAKEWARNING PIC.TWITTER.COM/XX7D9MRWWC ‘MY DREAM COME TRUE’: WHY ANDREI SVECHNIKOV’S FIRST NHL GOAL ALWAYS WAS GOING TO BE A FAMILY AFFAIR — FOX SPORTS CAROLINAS (@CANESONFSCR) FEBRUARY 22, 2019 6. The Storm Surge and its backlash The Hurricanes made a lot of old men yell at clouds this season for … playing Duck, Duck, Goose?

The Surge existed before Don Cherry called them a Bunch of Jerks, though, and it kept chugging along after. I take exception to the idea that Cherry’s words were their “rallying cry” or whatever. Their coach was their rallying cry. Cherry, they just had fun with.

Anyway, Top 5 surges:

5. Duck Hunt

4. Bunch of Jerks

3. Thor

2. Evander Holyfield vs. Jordan Martinook

1. Trevor van Riemsdyk dunking then scoring one of the biggest goals of the season

5. “We are in!”

4. Rod Brind’Amour’s first win as head coach

Brind’Amour racked up multiple accolades in his first year behind the bench, but he preaches one shift at a time. The Hurricanes got where they are by achieving little goals along the way, and they had to start somewhere. So did Brind’Amour. His first win was a good one, and it ushered in a new era of Hurricanes hockey you’d actually want to root for.

3. “This game is ours now”

Who knew a random regular-season game against the Panthers would mean so much for the Hurricanes?

This game had everything that made you question Experiencing Canes Hockey as you previously knew it. The Canes didn’t play their game, they were outshot, but they combined luck, gutsy goaltending, and confidence in that goaltending for the 4-3, comeback OT win March 2. It might’ve been the moment you started thinking they were actually going to pull the playoffs off this season.

The goal Justin Williams scored with his face had something to do with it. Petr Mrazek’s overtime poke checks had something to do with it. Maybe Williams screaming “This game is ours now!” on the bench when Mrazek made his best overtime save had the most to do with it.

2. Brock McGinn’s Game 7 double-overtime goal

In the intermission before double overtime in Washington’s cramped visitor’s dressing room, Brock McGinn was thinking about how he and his brothers used to play last goal wins in the backyard. He dreamed of one day being that guy on the biggest stage, then there he was.

Many people who probably watched two Hurricanes games all season said the team was content with a first-round exit. Taking down the defending champs said the opposite.

1. Playoff hockey’s return to Raleigh

It was everything y’all said it would be and then some. Let’s not wait another decade to do it again.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144929 Colorado Avalanche As for the draft, Sakic doesn't plan on dealing the No. 4 pick. Although, he's open to offers.

The last time Colorado drafted at No. 4 was 2017 when they took Makar, Sakic has Avs trending up after 2 straight playoff seasons who led Massachusetts to the Frozen Four final before signing with the Avs soon after and joining the team for Game 3 of the Calgary series. The rookie provided a big boost in the postseason with a goal and five PAT GRAHAM (AP Sports Writer) assists.

May 14, 2019 ''He's going to be an incredible player,'' Sakic said. ''There's a lot of excitement about this team. We've got to keep building and try to get to

the next level.'' ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- Back in his Colorado Avalanche playing LOADED: 05.20.2019 days, 's approach was pretty much title or bust.

As the team's general manager, a similar feeling is beginning to develop.

Sakic and the Avalanche took a little time for reflection following a Game 7 loss to San Jose in the second round. That page has been turned.

The Hall of Fame player turned executive has his full focus on improving a team that's been to the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since he was on the ice.

High on Sakic's to-do list: A deal for restricted free agent Mikko Rantanen and preparing for the draft, where the Avs possess the fourth overall pick (courtesy of Ottawa) and the 16th selection. There's also a multitude of players to consider retaining , which includes unrestricted free agent goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

''You've got to keep building and getting better,'' Sakic said Tuesday. ''As great as the end of the year was, we still didn't accomplish the end goal. We've got to find a way to get better.''

In 2018, Colorado was simply content with getting into the playoffs and lost in the first round to Nashville. This season, the Avalanche expected to make some noise, which they did by upsetting Calgary, the top seed in the West. It was the first time since 2008 they had advanced out of a series. But their run came to a halt with a 3-2 loss to the Sharks.

''Someone had to lose that series - unfortunately it was us,'' Sakic said. ''Our guys learned a lot in that series.''

It's easy to see why securing Rantanen remains high for Sakic: The forward is coming off a regular season during which he set career bests in points (87), goals (31) and assists (56). Rantanen paired with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog to form one of hockey's most lethal line combinations.

''We want to make sure we have him signed,'' Sakic said.

Sakic plans to meet with the coaching staff to make evaluations involving players under contract, restricted free agents (Nikita Zadorov, J.T. Compher and Alexander Kerfoot head the list) and those with expiring deals (such as Derick Brassard, Colin Wilson, Patrik Nemeth and Gabriel Bourque).

As free agency approaches, the Avalanche already have some players in mind.

''We'll be more aggressive this year with that, but if it doesn't work out with the players we want to talk to, we're not just going to go spend on anybody,'' Sakic said. ''We want the right players and the right fit.''

Other topics Sakic addressed:

- On a possible extension for coach Jared Bednar, whose deal is up after next season: ''We'll get to that at the appropriate time. ... There's a good respect and good relationship the way he handles the players and the way the players respond to him.''

- On Nathan MacKinnon banging into the boards with his shoulder early in Game 7 at San Jose: ''He's getting better every day. He'll be fine in a couple weeks.''

- On the possibility of bringing back Varlamov, who's been with the Avalanche since 2011-12: ''We'll see what happens July 1 with him. ... We'll be in communication.''

- On working out a deal with defenseman Tyson Barrie, who is a free agent after '19-20: ''All I can tell you is he's an incredible player. He was a driving force down our stretch and with what we saw with him, Cale (Makar) and (Samuel) Girard I'd be very, very comfortable starting the year with that group.'' 1144930 Columbus Blue Jackets year-old defenseman Zach Werenski, who is coming off a three-year entry-level contract that carried a base cap hit of $925,000.

Werenski earned $850,000 in performance bonuses all three years, Setting the scene on what will likely be a wild summer pushing his cap hit to $1,775,000, but he should get a big raise with his next deal. The question is how much and for how many years. Kekalainen has expressed confidence in signing Werenski, but it will be Brian Hedger interesting to see what kind of deal is struck.

Other pending restricted free agents at the NHL level include goalie Joonas Korpisalo, forwards Markus Hannikainen, Lukas Sedlak and Eric His words were delivered with a tone of defiance, tinged in a light coating Robinson, and defensemen Ryan Murray, Scott Harrington and Adam of frustration. Clendening. Forward Sonny Milano, drafted 16th overall in 2014, is also It was late afternoon on Feb. 25, not long after the NHL’s trade deadline a pending restricted free agent and spent most of the season with passed, and, midanswer, Jarmo Kekalainen tapped his fingers on the Cleveland of the American Hockey League. lectern. Unrestricted free agents “This is definitely not a spring or a deadline saying that, ‘OK, we’re all in The expectation is that Panarin and Bobrovsky will not re-sign, despite for this spring,’ and then it’s like (lectern tap), ‘We’re just going to start a the Blue Jackets being the only team that can give them an eighth year rebuild,” the Blue Jackets’ general manager said, explaining his logic on their next contracts. behind four deadline deals that subtracted prospects and a heap of draft picks. “That’s definitely not what we’re doing here. We have our core in It was reported last summer that Bobrovsky would like a contract similar place, and it’s going to be in place no matter what happens with the to Montreal’s Carey Price, making north of $10 million per season. UFAs.” Panarin reportedly turned down an offer from Kekalainen that exceeded $9 million a year. There it was again, “UFAs,” or unrestricted free agents, that was surgically attached to the Blue Jackets last offseason — when attempts Duchene, left wing Ryan Dzingel, defenseman Adam McQuaid and to negotiate new contracts with stars Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi goalie Keith Kinkaid are a different story. Duchene, 28, would draw a lot Panarin fizzled. After loading up the roster with four more pending of interest on the open market, which would drive the price up, but the unrestricted free agents at the deadline, including center Matt Duchene, Blue Jackets might be willing to pay it if he's willing to stay. Dzingel is Kekalainen emphasized that, in his assessment, it wasn’t an all-or- another possibility to stay, as an Ohio State alumnus, but he is from the nothing gamble. Chicago area and could land with the Blackhawks if there is mutual interest. “We have Seth Jones, we have Zach Werenski, we have Nick Foligno, we have Pierre-Luc Dubois,” he continued. “We have lots of good The Jackets’ defensive depth might preclude McQuaid from re-signing, players. We’re going to have a good team next year no matter what and Kinkaid — an interesting veteran option in net who enjoyed his time happens with the UFAs.” with the Blue jackets — likely wouldn’t have a guaranteed NHL spot if Korpisalo re-signs. The unrestricted free agents, however, are a big missing section of next season’s puzzle. Like UFOs, UFAs are shrouded in mystery — and we Open market haven’t even mentioned the pending RFAs, who are restricted in options but potential free agents nonetheless. Among the top 50 unrestricted free agents on CapFriendly.com’s free- agency tool, just 19 are younger than 30 in a league that seemingly Kekalainen, now fully at the helm of the Blue Jackets' hockey branch with skews younger every year. In that group are Panarin and Duchene, and the departure of president of hockey operations John Davidson, has a Bobrovsky is 30. busy summer ahead. A couple of items were checked off with the recent signings of rookies Emil Bemstrom and Elvis Merzlikins, but there is Three of the top seven available unrestricted free agents are currently plenty left to do. Blue Jackets, as ranked in descending order by cap hit. The other four are Dallas center Jason Spezza, 36, San Jose defenseman Erik As the Blue Jackets prepare, here is how things look with their roster, the Karlsson, 29, forward Jordan Eberle, 29, and San salary cap, free agency, and more. Jose forward Joe Pavelski, 34.

The roster Karlsson and Pavelski are the headliners, but the Jackets’ interest is unknown and the Sharks could ante up to keep one or both. A number of The Blue Jackets have 13 players signed who aren't rookies, including veterans will be available, including goalies, but fully replacing Panarin, nine forwards and four defensemen. Kekalainen has also spoken highly Bobrovsky or Duchene through free agency isn’t going to happen. of his top prospects, including forwards Bemstrom and Alexandre Texier, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, and Merzlikins, a goalie. Instead, Kekalainen has indicated he will fill out the roster with a combination of free-agent signings and giving prospects a chance to Texier and Gavrikov got their first taste of the NHL this season, including play. There could also be trades to either replenish some of the assets some playoff hockey, while 19-year old Bemstrom led the Swedish lost at the deadline or bring in established talent, which Kekalainen has Hockey League in goals (23) and 25-year old Merzlikins is considered by done in previous years. some to be the top goaltending prospect outside of the NHL. All four could start out next season with the Blue Jackets. No matter what happens, keep your phone charged. Things could move quickly once the dominoes begin to drop. The salary cap Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 Projecting those rookies as NHL players, the Blue Jackets have 17 signed for a charge of $53.3 million against the NHL salary cap, according to salary-tracking site CapFriendly.com.

Going by this season’s cap of $83 million, which is expected to increase, the Jackets have available $29.7 million. That’s a large amount for a team that may only need to fill a handful of spots, and Kekalainen has emphasized ownership’s willingness to spend.

Even if they re-sign some restricted free agents and, perhaps, a high- priced unrestricted free agent, the Jackets could be flush with cash for the July 1 start of free agency.

Restricted free agents

There are 13 pending restricted free agents in the organization, including eight who finished the season on the NHL roster. The most notable is 21- 1144931 Detroit Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin scores another big goal at Worlds

Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press Published 1:10 p.m. ET May 19, 2019

Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin added another game-winning goal to his 2019 IIHF World Championship resume in Slovakia.

Midway through the third period of Sunday’s preliminary-round game against Germany, Larkin drove to the net and connected on a long-range pass from James van Riemsdyk, putting the puck short-side on Mathias Niederberger to break a 1-1 tie that had stood since the first period.

The U.S. earned the win, 3-1, to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals, which are Thursday.

The U.S., coached by Jeff Blashill and features Red Wings forward Luke Glendening and assistant coach Dan Bylsma, plays Canada on Tuesday, the last day of preliminaries.

Dylan Larkin celebrates his goal with U.S. teammate James van Riemsdyk during the Group A match against Germany in Kosice, Slovakia on Sunday.

Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha is having a great showing at his first World Championship, where he leads the Canadians with seven goals and four assists in five games. Canada finishes its round-robin stage Monday with a game against Denmark.

Larkin has three goals and two assists in six games. His first goal of the tournament, which runs through May 26, gave the U.S. a 3-2 overtime victory over powerhouse Finland. His third gave the Americans their fifth straight victory.

Detroit Free Press LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144932 Detroit Red Wings

Dylan Larkin scores go-ahead goal, U.S. beats Germany in world championships

Detroit News staff and wires Published 3:12 p.m. ET May 19, 2019

Kosice, Slovakia – Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period and the United States went on to beat Germany 3-1 Sunday at the world championships.

Jack Eichel put the Americans ahead by two goals late in the third and Cory Schneider was strong in net, helping them win a fifth straight game in Group A since opening the tournament with a 4-1 loss to the host Slovaks.

“This is where it gets fun,” said Schneider. “Every game has been a different challenge, and we've learned some lessons along the way, but this is a game we had to have. It's 1-1 late in the third, we didn't buckle under the pressure or panic. We stuck with our game plan and Larkin had a huge goal and our power play has been dynamite all tournament.”

Frederik Tiffels put the Germans ahead 1-0 midway through the first period and James van Riemsdyk pulled the Americans into a tie less than two minutes later.

The U.S. closes the preliminary round Tuesday against rival Canada.

The four teams from Group A that will advance to the quarterfinals are already determined – the U.S., Canada, Germany and Finland.

Detroit News LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144933 Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin nets game-winner for U.S. at Worlds

By Ansar Khan |

Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin scored what proved to be the game-winning goal Sunday as the United States defeated Germany 3-1 at the World Championship in Slovakia, clinching a spot in the quarterfinals.

Larkin drove to the net, took a pass from James van Riemsdyk and buried a shot on the short side to snap a 1-1 tie at 10:03 of the third period. It was his third goal of the tournament.

The U.S. (4-1-0-1, W-OTW-OTL-L) has won five in a row and wraps up pool play Tuesday against Canada (2:15 p.m. ET, NHL Network).

Jack Eichel provided an insurance goal at 16:15. Van Riemsdyk tied the game at 1-1 at 13:47 of the first.

Larkin finished with two shots and a plus-2 rating in 19:10. Detroit’s Luke Glendening logged 8:44 (no points, no shots, even plus-minus rating).

Cory Schneider made 24 saves for the U.S.

Germany dropped to 4-0-0-2. (12 points).

Czech Republic 8, Austria 0: Detroit Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek contributed a pair of assist as the Czechs improved to 5-0-0-1 (15 points). Hronek has three goals and six assists in the tournament.

Michigan Live LOADED: 05.20.2019

1144934 NHL He added that he was often asked why he had chosen to play hockey.

Soccer “really never appealed to me — it’s slow and boring,” he said. “Hockey is fast-paced, physical, and everyone battles every night.” British Hockey Team Comes in From the Cold at World Championship The British team does not yet have a win, but it may have the most enthusiastic and creative fans at the tournament. At the game against the By Brian Pinelli United States, fans came dressed as Queen Elizabeth II, Mary Poppins, Beefeaters, cricket bats and the Olympic ski jumper Eddie Edwards, May 19, 2019 known as Eddie the Eagle. At every contest, the British fans have sung and chanted.

“You’re just in awe of the support,” O’Connor said. “That is another KOSICE, Slovakia — British sports enthusiasts may be anxiously aspect of the British game — we’re not just drunken yobs that go to awaiting the all-English Champions League and Europa League finals, football matches and start fights.” but another team from Britain is trying to score goals in an even more surprising setting. Jake and Jojo Underwood, brothers from Nottingham, England, traveled to the tournament to cheer for their team on international hockey’s The national men’s ice hockey team is competing at the world biggest stage. championship for the first time in 25 years. “It’s getting some mainstream media coverage, so I think people are Britain qualified for the 16-team tournament under stirring circumstances paying attention, and the sport is growing fairly rapidly now in the last year in Budapest. Overcoming a 2-0 deficit against Hungary in the country,” Jake Underwood, 32, said. Division 1A gold medal game, Robert Farmer scored with 16 seconds left to earn Britain a promotion to the top level of international hockey. According to Ice Hockey U.K., there are 13,325 registered players in the country and 68 rinks. Ten years ago, there were 5,627 players and 44 Britain arrived in Slovakia ranked 22nd in the world and is competing in a rinks. The increase in participation over the past decade is mostly group that includes the hockey powerhouses Finland, Canada and the attributed to grass-roots growth in northern England and Scotland. United States, teams featuring N.H.L. players. Britain will need a victory on Monday in its final preliminary-round match “No one knows anything about U.K. hockey, and the first couple of days against France to avoid relegation. here people were laughing at us,” defenseman Ben O’Connor said. “We go out and lose, 3-1, to Germany, and they’re not laughing at us “We’ve been a close team for quite awhile now — we like to be anymore. underdogs and try to prove people wrong,” said forward Jonathan Phillips, the team captain. “Just because you’re from England doesn’t mean you have to play football, or soccer,” he added. “We can play hockey too.” Shields, who played collegiate hockey at the University of Maine and was drafted by the N.H.L.’s in 2000, hopes his final game The roster consists of players from the 11-team , will be a memorable one, paving the way for future British players. which was founded in 2003 and has squads in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But many players have international experience, “If it does come down to that as an opportunity for us to stay in the group, some of them in North American minor leagues. Forward Liam Kirk, 19, I think it will be huge for the program,” he said, “and hopefully get more was drafted in the seventh round last June by the Arizona Coyotes and investment, funding and development for hockey in the U.K.” will try to become the first British-raised player in the N.H.L. He played this season in the Ontario Hockey League. New York Times LOADED: 05.20.2019

Britain has lost all six matches thus far — to Germany, Denmark, Canada, the United States, Finland and Slovakia — and has been outscored by 38-5. But the team has earned the respect of its opponents. (Italy, playing in the tournament’s other group in Bratislava, has fared worse, having been outscored, 45-1.)

After the Group A leader Finland defeated Britain, 5-0, on Friday, the Finnish coach, Jukka Jalonen, said the British team belonged at this level.

“They fought hard, played together, and it was very difficult for us to score,” Jalonen said.

Against an American team captained by the three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane on May 15, Britain held on valiantly for 60 minutes. The score was tied, 1-1, nearly halfway through the game, before the United States pulled away for a 6-3 win.

“To play like we did and be in that game was special,” said O’Connor, who regularly skates for the , one of the Elite league’s most popular teams. “You catch yourself thinking, ‘Patrick Kane is coming down on me.’ It’s surreal.”

Forward Colin Shields, 39, a member of the Belfast Giants of the Elite league, recently announced his retirement and is playing his final tournament for the national team.

“To line up against some of the players on Team U.S.A. was definitely a moment I’ll never forget and one of the greatest games I’ve been a part of in my career,” Shields said.

Britain Coach Peter Russell noted that his team earns a combined 500,000 pounds a year (about $637,000) and that the American squad “gets paid $82.5 million.”

Britain goaltender Ben Bowns has stopped 197 of 225 shots, more than any other goalie in Slovakia.

“We’ve proven that we got a lot of heart and character, and we’re not just a bunch of Brits that skate around in circles,” Bowns said. 1144935 Ottawa Senators

Marc Crawford willing to be patient as coaching search continues

Bruce Garrioch

Published:May 19, 2019

Updated:May 19, 2019 8:20 AM EDT

Marc Crawford didn’t expect to be handed the job as the next coach of the Ottawa Senators.

In the end, he remains hopeful he’ll be the choice of general manager of .

Crawford, who was on TSN 1040 in Vancouver Saturday, indicated he was pleased Patrick Roy was getting the chance to sit down with Ottawa.

“They’re going after more big names and that’s part of the process,” Crawford said. “They’re doing their due-diligence. It’s always good for organizations to interview as many people as they can because somewhere along the line you’re going to learn something about a team, an organization or a way of doing things that’s going to help everybody.”

Crawford said he doesn’t want the organization to rush the decision.

“I’d love to be able to have the answer right now but it’s part of the process and I recognize that. Hopefully they recognize that I’m the top guy for the job,” Crawford said. “That’s all that I can do is wait patiently and hope that the best things happen.”

He confirmed he met with Dorion last month and outlined the path forward Crawford would take.

“We went through a pretty extensive interview period and I detailed my plans for the club and what I would do should they give me the reins this year,” Crawford added. “It was pretty comprehensive.

“In today’s day and age you’ve got to have a pretty good plan on how you’re going to interact with today’s athletes. It’s not only about how you’re going to coach them, it’s about how you’re going to interact. When you look at today’s athletes, most have come up through the ranks where they have shooting coaches, strength and conditioning, offensive and defensive coaches, so they’re used to having input.

“It’s more than just the X’s and O’s and the technical capacity that you may have.”

Ottawa Sun LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144936 San Jose Sharks investment. It’s paying off. Karlsson’s turnover led to the Blues’ opening goal by Oskar Sundqvist at the 5:50 mark of the first period.

2. The Blues’ forecheck remains relentless, and their fourth line Game 5 takeaways: Why another Sharks comeback seems unlikely continues to make a big impact: The Sharks were outshot 15-1 at one point in the second period as the Blues extended their lead to 3-0. St. Louis’ forecheck directly led to their first goal in Game 4, and wreaked By CURTIS PASHELKA | PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 6:16 pm | havoc again Sunday. UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 8:19 PM The Blues’ fourth line of Barbashev, and Sundqvist combined for nine hits and eight shots Sunday. According to Natural Stat Trick, St. Louis had nine high danger scoring chances in the second SAN JOSE — The Sharks have been in this spot before, of course, and period, and the Sharks had one. there was plenty of talk after a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday about using those experiences to their benefit as they face elimination “We turned too many pucks over, we played in our end too much,” one more time. Couture said. “We had opportunities at the blue line when they were pinching and we didn’t get it out. They’re extending shifts, our guys are The Western Conference Final feels different from the first two rounds, tired, and they get a few bounces. Too many long shifts in our own end.” though. At the other end, the Sharks managed just 21 shots on Blues goalie After Game 5, it feels like the Blues have assumed complete control. Jordan Binnington. They felt good about their first period when they had Now down three-games-to-two, the Sharks have one goal in six periods 11 shots on goal, not including the post that Evander Kane hit 10 and face health issues with some of their top players. Their problems seconds after the game began. with the Blues’ punishing forecheck cropped up once again, and only a Kane drew iron again in the second period as a shot from Marc-Edouard handful of quality saves from goalie Martin Jones prevented the score Vlasic that he redirected hit both posts behind Binnington and bounced from being even worse. out. Shortly after, Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues to make it 2-0. So while the Sharks showed their mettle by coming back from a three- Since the end of the first period of Game 3, the Sharks have been games-to-one deficit against the in the first round, outscored by the Blues 11-4, and Kane has been stuck on two goals and gutted out a Game 7 win over the Colorado Avalanche in the since Game 2 of the second round. second, the headwinds they’re facing right now are unlike any they’ve had to deal with so far in the playoffs. “Obviously not the break we (wanted) on the first shift, and then we come out in the second period and get a point shot through, hits me, both posts They feel much, much stronger. and out, and then they score on their next shot,” Kane said. “Lots of “For sure we’ve been here before and had to go and win on the road in different twists and turns in that game and that type of stuff. It happens. Vegas in order to get to a Game 7,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. All about how we respond.” “You’re never comfortable when your backs against the wall like that, but San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019 we have been here before and found a way. I’m confident we can do that again.”

Count Erik Karlsson, Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski as being among the walking wounded for the Sharks. Their availability for Tuesday’s Game 6 has to be considered in question.

While Karlsson’s injury issues are nothing new, Hertl was injured in the first period after a high hit by Ivan Barbashev. He played only about five minutes after that. Pavelski caught an elbow to the head from Alex Pietrangelo early in the third period, and did not return.

“We’re still alive,” Sharks center Logan Couture said. “We’ve been in this spot before, going to Vegas down 3-2 in a very difficult building. St. Louis is similar, it’s a tough building against a good team. A structured team. We scored one goal in the last two games, that’s not going to cut it. We’re not doing enough around their net or creating enough opportunities on second chances.”

Some takeaways from Game 5.

1. Erik Karlsson’s injury Sunday a reminder of what happened in the regular season: Karlsson showed a lot of heart by saying he was ready to play Game 5 on Sunday, two days after he was obvious pain in the late stages of Game 4 in St. Louis. It was reminiscent of the Sharks’ game in Boston on Feb. 26, when Karlsson felt he was ready to play again three days after he re-aggravated a groin injury in a game against Columbus.

Karlsson was injured in that game against the Bruins, and didn’t play again until April 6 in the regular season finale.

If Karlsson is done for the rest of this series, however long it may last, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

Karlsson played just 10 minutes and 32 seconds Sunday, taking just four shifts in the second period and missing the entire third.

“Hindsight’s 20-20, you know? We make those decisions based on reports we get form the player and medical, and the report was he felt he could play and get through the game,” DeBoer said of playing Karlsson. “So, you know, it’s easy to sit here and say now, ‘Yeah, sure you have regrets.'”

Karlsson’s taken a ton of punishment in this series, as every hit the Blues have laid on him over the course of five games has been like an 1144937 San Jose Sharks “You don’t want to make excuses but some pretty key guys that are going down, some offensive guys that when you’re playing from behind, it’s tough to push the pace,” defenseman Brenden Dillon said.

Four key Sharks injured in 5-0 Game 5 loss to Blues After playing two seven-game series to get to this point, the Sharks will need to win a third straight Game 7 to get to Boston for the start of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday. Except this time they may have to do By HAROLD GUTMANN |PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 4:35 pm | without a full complement of players. UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 7:20 PM San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019

SAN JOSE – Top defenseman Erik Karlsson couldn’t finish the game because of a recurring lower body injury, while captain Joe Pavelski and second-leading scorer Tomas Hertl didn’t return after high hits, and winger Joonas Donskoi had his day cut short after taking a puck to the mouth.

As if the San Jose Sharks aren’t facing enough of a challenge after a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues Sunday at the SAP Center, which put them in a 3-2 hole in the Western Conference final, they now may face an elimination game Tuesday in St. Louis with a depleted group.

The Sharks seemed to get a boost when Karlsson, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, was in the lineup Sunday. Karlsson suffered leg and groin injuries during the season and sat throughout Game 4’s third period with an apparent re-aggravation.

But his first-period turnover led directly to St. Louis’s first goal 5:50 into the game, and he played just three minutes in the second period before being shut down.

“Hindsight’s 20/20,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “We made that decision based on the reports we get from the player and the medical, and the report was he could play and get through the game. It’s easier to sit here and say now (that) sure, you have regrets.”

San Jose suffered another significant loss in the first period when Hertl, whose 10 playoff goals were the second-most on the team, took a shoulder to the head from Ivan Barbashev at center ice. He stayed down after the hit and played through the second period before he, too, missed the entire third period.

Hertl gets hit high by Barbashev. No Call from the officals.#SJSharks #STLBlues #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/tIZRQegFhA

— Blades of Teal (@BladesofTeal) May 19, 2019

“Arguably a five-minute major on Tommy Hertl that if it’s called, that’s a momentum-changing play right there,” DeBoer said.

Sharks forward Logan Couture said it reminded him of a similar play in Game 3 when Sammy Blais’s shoulder made contact with the head of San Jose’s Justin Braun.

“Saw the Hertl hit, I just watched the replay. Yeah, that’s a tough one,” Couture said. “But they had one earlier in Game 3 on Braun and nothing happened, so they can do it again, right?”

The next player to leave the ice was Pavelski, who was hit against the boards by Alex Pietrangelo early in the third period. San Jose’s frustrations spilled over from there, as the Sharks took 30 more minutes of penalties.

Summary of today and the entire #StanleyCup playoffs for Joe Pavelski. pic.twitter.com/cxdrS4g9B3

— Brodie Brazil (@BrodieNBCS) May 19, 2019

“When Pav got hit high, we lost our composure there in the third,” DeBoer said. “Not our finest moment, but I understand where that emotion’s coming from, with what he’s been through.”

Adding insult to injury, Donskoi was hit in the face on a clearing attempt by Braun early in the third period and didn’t return.

Donskoi to the locker room after Braun's clear hit him in the face #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/htJ0qD4Bda

— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) May 19, 2019

The attrition left nine players on the Sharks bench for most of the third period after Michael Haley was given a game misconduct, ending any hope of a comeback. 1144938 San Jose Sharks Jones battled, made some impressive saves along the way, salvaged what he could when the Blues had one- and two-man advantages.

If Goal No. 2 wasn’t the ugliest — Jones’ stick save set up Schwartz — How can Sharks survive this time to reach Game 7? then Blues Goal No. 5 may have been uglier. That’s when Schwartz, already with two goals in hand, camped out unmarked to Jones’ left and notched his hat trick by blasting in Tarasenko’s cross with 3:58 to go. By CAM INMAN | PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 2:53 pm | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 8:18 PM Allowing multiple goals, committing penalties, not scoring goals and not defending home ice is no way to get to the Stanley Cup Final. Will they make it back to this home ice Thursday night?

SAN JOSE – Thursday night, home ice, a Stanley Cup Final berth at “There is not a doubt in my mind,” Gus Nyquist said. stake. San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019 That is the Sharks’ desperate, adjusted goal now.

And that over-optimistically assumes San Jose will rebound from Sunday’s 5-0 embarrassment, win Tuesday in St. Louis and summon more Game 7 magic.

The Sharks have made it this far this year by staving off elimination four times. Do we hear a fifth? A sixth?

“You’re never comfortable when your back’s against the wall like that, but we have been here before and we found a way, and we’re confident we can do that again,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said.

They beat Vegas in 7, Colorado in 7, and a lot must change for them to reach, much less win, a Game 7 against St. Louis.

They must stand up, without penalty, to the Blues’ physicality. They must move on if a call doesn’t go their way, no matter how many in the past did. They must hit the net instead of the post. They must rediscover their chemistry, even though some offensive heroes have taken an injury- induced sabbatical.

“We’re still alive,” Logan Couture said. “We’ve been in this spot before. Going to Vegas, down 3-2, in a very, very difficult building.

“St. Louis is similar. It’s a tough building against a good team. A structured team, Couture added. “We scored one goal in the last two games, that’s not going to cut it.”

Most vital, Martin Jones must stop more pucks. He hasn’t posted a shutout this postseason, and he’s allowed more than one goal in every game except two (Game 6 at Vegas, Game 5 vs. Colorado).

Jones, by the way, posted three shutout wins in the Sharks’ 2016 playoff run, before they lost the Final in six to the .

When those Sharks clinched this forever-frustrated franchise’s only Stanley Cup Final berth, they did so … on home ice … against the Blues.

“It’s do or die,” forward Evander Kane said. “Obviously, we’ve been in this situation before. We’ve just got to go win a game.”

Boston, after sweeping Carolina in the Eastern Confernce, awaits the Sharks-Blues winner.

Everyone wants to envision Joe Thornton playing for a Stanley Cup against the Bruins, his original team. No one wants to envision Sunday being perhaps Thornton’s final game in San Jose.

Thornton and the Sharks other offensive heroes of games gone by (Couture, Joe Pavelski, Timo Meier, Thomas Hertl) were silenced by the Blues’ rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington.

DeBoer suggested the Sharks need “more traffic” in front of Binnington, who faced only 21 shots and just two power plays. Jones, in contrast, got peppered with 40 shots and the Sharks tried to kill off eight power plays.

“We’re not doing enough around their net or creating enough opportunities on second chances,” Couture said.

Binnington had help: the posts flanking him and the power plays Sharks penalties kept delivering.

Kane hit the post in the game’s opening minute, and then, with the Sharks down only 1-0, a Marc-Edouard Vlasic shot clanked off Kane’s skate and off the post in the second period.

Kane’s response: “That type of stuff happens. It’s all how we respond.”

Sunday’s start came early (noon) and a loss was assured early. Once Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a penalty shot, the Blues led 3-0 and the Sharks were getting outshot 15-1 in the second period. 1144939 San Jose Sharks “It got away from us at the end. I would have really liked us to control our emotions and at least give ourselves a chance.”

The Sharks once again trailed after the first period on a goal by Oskar Game 5 disaster has Sharks once again on brink of elimination Sundqvist at the 5:50 mark after a Sharks giveaway.

Karlsson played the puck behind the Sharks net and tried find Brenden By CURTIS PASHELKA PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 2:51 pm | Dillon with a pass along the boards to his right. Instead, Dillon couldn’t UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 8:16 PM handle the pass that slid through his skated, and the puck slid right to Sundqvist, who buried a slap shot past Jones for his fourth goal of the playoffs and his second this series.

SAN JOSE — It’s hard to imagine how Game 5 of the Western “Just kind of an errant pass,” Dillon said of the play, “just bounced off the Conference Final could have gone any worse for the Sharks. wall and the guy was fortunate to tee one up like that.”

They were outworked and outclassed to start what was a decisive The Sharks had early chances in the first 20 minutes, as Evander Kane second period. They finished Sunday’s game with just 14 skaters, as Erik rang one off the cross bar on a Sharks’ rush just 10 seconds into the Karlsson, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi all had to leave game. Melker Karlsson also had a chance from in close but couldn’t beat early, due to various injuries. Donskoi eventually came back, but Evander Binnington, who had 11 saves in the first. The Sharks also had two shots Kane was both given the boot later in the third thanks to a litany of on goal while Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was serving a delay penalties. of game penalty.

And now, after their 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the Sharks once San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019 again find themselves on the brink of elimination.

The Sharks were outshot 20-6 in a one-sided second period that saw the Blues grow their lead to three on goals by Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko, who beat Martin Jones on a penalty shot at the 6:53 mark. The Blues added two more in the third period for good measure.

The Sharks had no response, as Blues goalie Jordan Binnington made 21 saves to help the Blues take a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 in St. Louis on Tuesday.

The Sharks are 4-0 in elimination games this postseason, as they trailed the Vegas Golden Knights three games to one in the first round and were tied 3-3 with the Colorado Avalanche in the second.

Bouncing back after a loss like the one Sunday, though, might prove to be the toughest task of them all.

“We’ve got enough guys in here that have played do-or-die games,” defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “I feel like this year we want to push it to a Game 7, we’ve had to do that in the past two rounds. We feel comfortable having to do that.

“We’re going to go into a tough building, but we feel confident going in there. We’re going to have to bring our best and ramp it up and I think we’ll be ready for that.”

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer didn’t have a health update on any of his injured players.

Hertl took a shoulder to the head by Ivan Barbashev at center ice and didn’t return for the third period.

“Arguably a five-minute major on Tommy Hertl that if it’s called, that’s a momentum-changing play right there,” DeBoer said.

Asked whether it was a mistake to play Karlsson, who had only a handful of shifts in the second period before he missed the entire third period, DeBoer said, “Hindsight is 20/20, you know? We make those decisions based on the reports we get from the player and the medical (staff).

“The report was that he felt he could play and get through the game. It’s easy to sit here and say now, ‘Yeah, sure you have regrets.’”

With Karlsson already out, Pavelski left the ice shortly after the third period after he took a hit from Alex Pietrangelo. Right after that, Barclay Goodrow and Haley were given penalties for roughing and interference, respectively.

The Sharks finished with 36 penalty minutes, as the Blues went 1-for-8 on the power play.

It all happened within a few minutes, but it helped to encapsulate what may have been the most disappointing game the Sharks have played so far in these playoffs, as they lost consecutive games for the first time since early in the first round.

“Control our emotions in the third,” Sharks center Logan Couture said when asked about the improvements needed for Game 6. “It’s a three- goal game, we obviously took way too many penalties. You can’t win or come back when you’re in the box all period. 1144940 San Jose Sharks

Sharks decimated by injuries in disastrous Game 5 loss

By MICHAEL NOWELS | PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 2:51 pm | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 8:25 PM

SAN JOSE — Nobody in the NHL is fully healthy this deep in the playoffs, as any coach or player will tell you.

But the San Jose Sharks are suffering to a degree rarely seen after a 5-0 Game 5 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

They lost four players to apparent injury during Game 5: defenseman Erik Karlsson, forwards Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi, and captain Joe Pavelski. In the third period, they were down to nine men on the bench, not including backup goalie Aaron Dell.

It was an odd sight.

#SJSharks bench is looking empty. Karlsson, Pavelski, Hertl and Donskoi missing. pic.twitter.com/wFogBWHDkm

— Bay Area Sports HQ (@BayAreaSportsHQ) May 19, 2019

Karlsson came in with an injury and looked uncomfortable throughout the first period, grimacing on the bench.

Pavelski left after taking a crunching hit along the boards from Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo.

Summary of today and the entire #StanleyCup playoffs for Joe Pavelski. pic.twitter.com/cxdrS4g9B3

— Brodie Brazil (@BrodieNBCS) May 19, 2019

Pietrangelo finished his check with a high elbow as Pavelski fell to the ice.

Donskoi went off after he was hit up high by a teammate’s clearing attempt.

Donskoi exits Game 5 after taking friendly fire in the 3rd frame. pic.twitter.com/z9CGJOkXxp

— Blades of Teal (@BladesofTeal) May 19, 2019

And Blues center Ivan Barbashev clipped Hertl with a shoulder to the head in the first period. Hertl continued playing but eventually went to the Sharks locker room.

The Barbashev hit on Hertl.#SJSharks #STLBlues pic.twitter.com/kAXPyjo3Ma

— Brodie Brazil (@BrodieNBCS) May 19, 2019

The Blues have played a bruising brand of hockey all series long, and that strategy is taking a significant toll on the Sharks.

It’s not clear how serious the Sharks’ injuries are, but with Game 6 coming Tuesday night in St. Louis, losing four key contributors is not ideal heading into a do-or-die game.

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Erik Karlsson to play Game 5, but Sharks are making one lineup change

By CURTIS PASHELKA | PUBLISHED: May 19, 2019 at 10:55 am | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 12:15 PM

SAN JOSE — Defenseman Erik Karlsson dressed for Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the St. Louis Blues but the Sharks did make one lineup change for Sunday’s matinee.

Forward Micheal Haley was reinserted into the lineup and Marcus Sorensen was a scratch. Sorensen, who played 9 minutes and 8 seconds in Game 4 of the series, a 2-1 Sharks loss, did not take part in pregame warmups Sunday morning.

Haley came in for Sorensen in Game 3 of the series, a Sharks 5-4 overtime win, but was scratched for Friday’s Game 4 as Sorensen came back into the lineup. Haley had played in nine playoff games this year before Sunday, averaging 6:13 of ice time per game.

Haley played on the Sharks’ fourth line with Barclay Goodrow and Joonas Donskoi on Sunday. Melker Karlsson started Game 5 on the Sharks’ third line with Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc.

Erik Karlsson was in obvious discomfort toward the end of Game 4 as he missed a handful of shifts. He returned to the game for the final two minutes as the Sharks tried to tie the game with goalie Martin Jones pulled for the extra attacker.

The Sharks did not provide a health update on Karlsson after Friday’s game or on Saturday morning, leading to some speculation as to whether the two-time Norris Trophy winner might be available to play Sunday.

Karlsson, who missed 27 of the Sharks’ final 33 regular season games, has played in all 18 playoff games so far. He had 16 points coming into Sunday and is averaging over 25 minutes per night.

San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144942 San Jose Sharks Instead, it was a Bieksa tip-in and the sudden death of the Sharks’ season.

And then there are the playoff heartbreaks that had nothing to do with the A Sharks’ fan perspective: Stop with the “lucky” stuff officiating. There was the four-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 2008 conference semis. And the overtime loss to Colorado in Game 7 of the 2002 conference semis — yes, the one in which Teemu Selanne By GARRETT WROBLEWSKI/GUEST COLUMNIST |PUBLISHED: May missed a wide-open net. 19, 2019 at 7:57 am | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 11:46 am There were overtime losses in Game 6 to end the season in both 1998 and 1999. And there was 1993, the Sharks’ first visit to the . After stunning the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings, the Sharks You’ll have to forgive the national media and recent bandwagon-jumpers held a 3-2 series lead over Toronto, one victory away from reaching the for considering the San Jose Sharks the NHL equivalent of a four-leaf Western Conference finals, five away from playing for the Cup in only clover or lucky rabbit’s foot. their third year of existence. Yes, the Sharks have been the beneficiaries of a hat trick of controversial They were thisclose to pulling it off, too. In overtime of Game 6, Johan calls, non-calls, and coaches challenges in these playoffs. The latest was Garpenlov’s shot hit the crossbar. The Sharks lost the game, and then Erik Karlsson’s OT winner in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, lost the series. initially set up by Timo Meier’s illegal handpass to Gustav Nyquist. One Associated Press writer went so far as to call it “sketchy,” as if he were So you can say the Sharks have been lucky of late. I’ll say it’s about time. discussing a backlot drug deal and not the zenith of a playoff hockey game. San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019

Those currently accusing the referees of being partial to the Sharks seem to have a short memory, if any memory at all. (More on that later.)

Also in Game 3, what Joe Thornton (and a continent of viewers) believed to be an over-the-glass delay-of-game penalty by the Blues’ David Perron was missed by officials. Minutes later, Perron scored to the game, then scored again to put St. Louis ahead 4-3.

The Sharks also lost Game 2 of their quarterfinals series against the Vegas Golden Knights. It seemed they had broken a 3-3 tie on a goal by Logan Couture, but an official immediately waved it off and instead gave Couture a two-minute penalty for goalie interference. The Sharks protested vociferously that Couture was outside the blue paint, but to no avail. The Knights converted on the ensuing power play to go up 4-3 and complete the two-goal swing. Postgame, coach Pete DeBoer insisted that Couture was “entitled to that ice.”

Consistency with the rules surrounding goalie interference have plagued the since the Coach’s Challenge was introduced for the 2015-16 season. They have been a mixed bag for the Sharks all season long. San Jose won three of its six goalie interference challenges during the regular season, according to scoutingtherefs.com.

Those with longer memories, particularly Sharks fans, know that the Sharks have been on the wrong end of some playoff calls. None of them has been of the historic variety, collected for permanent posterity in the vast annals of the interwebs. Certainly there had been nothing to compare with the infamy of Brett Hull’s “in-the-crease” goal against Dominik Hasek to win the 1999 Stanley Cup over the Buffalo Sabres in triple overtime.

But there are a few that haunt a franchise now in its 28th year without a Cup, and two top the list.

In the 2014 quarterfinals against L.A, the Sharks were certain the whistle had been blown before L.A.’s Justin Williams scored a goal that gave the Kings the lead late in the third period. This was Game 6 of the Sharks’ historic series miscarriage, the one where they blew a 3-1 lead in games. Video review upheld the goal, and the Sharks lost the game.

“We got cheated,” McLellan lamented.

In the 2011 Western Conference finals against Vancouver, the Sharks were runnning out the clock on a Game 5 victory that would send the series back to San Jose with a chance to force a Game 7.

Then came a controversial icing call against San Jose. The Sharks vehemently disputed the call, claiming that the puck was last touched by the Canucks’ Daniel Sedin. Ryan Kesler scored on a tip-in with 13.2 seconds left to tie the game.

Still hailed as a classic game in Vancouver, it reached double overtime and ended with possibly the worst bounce in Sharks history.

A shot by Vancouver’s Alex Edler hit a stanchion and disappeared entirely from the view of the referees and players — every player except Kevin Bieksa, upon whose stick the puck serendipitously landed as the Sharks stood dumbfounded.

It could be argued that the play should have been blown dead once the puck hit the stanchion, and maybe it would have if the refs had seen it. 1144943 San Jose Sharks

Sharks won’t have long to get ready for Game 5, it starts at noon Sunday

By CURTIS PASHELKA | PUBLISHED: May 18, 2019 at 4:58 pm | UPDATED: May 19, 2019 at 6:10 am

ST. LOUIS — Unlike Game 4, the Sharks say starting on time won’t be an issue Sunday — even if the opening drop of the puck will be coming a few hours earlier than normal.

Game 5 of the Western Conference finals between the Sharks and the St. Louis Blues will start at noon on NBC, a quick turnaround for both teams after Game 4 ended at 9:39 p.m. Central Time on Friday.

“We’ve started at every possible time so far this playoffs. It’s something we’re used to,” Barclay Goodrow said Saturday. “We’re used to late games, early games, something you adapt to.”

The Sharks, of course, do not need a reminder of the importance of a fast start. Ivan Barbashev’s goal Friday 35 seconds into the first period marked the third time San Jose has allowed the opposition to score in the first minute of play in these playoffs.

“We let in a goal, our line was on the ice for the first goal, 35 seconds in,” Gus Nyquist said. “We have to do a better job. But coming home, being at the Shark Tank, Game 5 of the conference final, we’ll be ready to go.”

The Sharks only had two early afternoon games at home this season, one against Los Angeles on Dec. 22, a 3-2 overtime win for the Kings, and a second against the Blues on March 9. The Sharks won that game, 3-2 in overtime.

In an effort to keep players on somewhat regular sleep cycles, the Sharks, between venue changes, have stayed overnight on the road before flying back to the Bay Area. It was a tactic they often employed during the regular season on road trips that ended on the Eastern or the Central Time Zone.

“We’ll be all right,” Marc-Edouard Vlasic said. “Both teams have to travel today, have to play at 12 tomorrow. For me, I’ll sleep the whole way on the way back, so I’ll be fine.”

A spark for Hertl?

Tomas Hertl’s power play goal at the 6:48 mark of the third period Friday was his 10th of the playoffs, but his first since Game 7 of the Sharks’ second round series against the Colorado Avalanche. He and linemates Evander Kane and Joe Pavelski have largely been held in check this series. Pavelski also has one goal, but it came on a 5-on-3 power play in Game 1.

“I’m not worried about him. He’s dangerous every night,” DeBoer said of Hertl. “Logan Couture’s dangerous every night. We’ve got to get some other guys a little more dangerous in that support, offensive role.”

To that end, DeBoer shuffled his lines for the third period Friday. Pavelski was on a line with Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc, and Hertl skated with Kane and Joonas Donskoi. Marcus Sorensen, who dressed Friday after he was a healthy scratch for Game 3, was with Goodrow and Melker Karlsson. Sorensen had one shot on goal in 9:08 of ice time.

“I thought he was OK. Still think he can play better,” DeBoer said of Sorensen. “It’s a big, heavy hard series, and he has to use his speed and quickness a little more.”

San Jose Mercury News: LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144944 San Jose Sharks "It was an off-year obviously for him in the regular season," coach Craig Berube said. "But the guy keeps working hard. He's not going to change his attitude. He keeps with it, he keeps working and it's paying off now."

Blues move to brink of Cup final with 5-0 win over Sharks The Blues kept up the pressure, leading to a breakaway by Tarasenko. He was pulled down by Brent Burns for a penalty shot and converted it with a shot high to Jones' glove side. Josh Dubow, Ap Sports Writer Updated 5:37 pm PDT, Sunday, May 19, 2019 The game got out of hand in the third as the Sharks took a parade to the penalty box, upset about a hit to the head of Tomas Hertl in the first period by Ivan Barbashev and a high hit to captain Joe Pavelski by Alex Pietrangelo early in the third. SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — From last in the league in early January all the way to the brink of their first Stanley Cup Final in nearly a half-century, it "I thought we obviously took way too many penalties," forward Logan has been quite a ride for the St. Louis Blues. Couture said. "You can't come back when you're in the box the whole period, got away from us at the end. Would have really liked us to control A remarkable turnaround continued Sunday with perhaps their most our emotions and given ourselves a chance." convincing win of a charmed playoff run. NOTES: Karlsson and Hertl didn't play in the third period and Pavelski Jaden Schwartz started a dominant second period with the first of his didn't return after his hit. DeBoer gave no update on their conditions. ... three goals, Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a penalty shot and the Blues Tarasenko's goal was the first converted penalty shot in the playoffs ever moved within one win of the Cup final with a 5-0 victory over the San for the Blues. They missed their only other chance by Jimmy Roberts in Jose Sharks in Game 5 of the Western Conference final. 1968. "It's probably tough to put into words," Schwartz said. "It's something that San Francisco Chronicle LOADED: 05.20.2019 everyone's worked for and dreamed about. You don't want to look too far ahead. We all know how important and how hard that last win's going to be. It would be a dream come true."

St. Louis used a relentless forecheck to take control of the game and series in the second period, scoring twice and outshooting the beleaguered Sharks 20-6 during the frame. It also got 21 saves from Jordan Binnington in his first playoff shutout and a first-period goal from Oskar Sundqvist to overwhelm the Sharks.

Schwartz added two goals in the third for his second hat trick this postseason, becoming the first player with two in one playoff run since Johan Franzen for Detroit in 2008.

The victory gave the Blues a 3-2 series lead, the closest they've been to making the final since getting there in their first three seasons as the winner of the all-expansion Western Conference. St. Louis can earn its first trip back to the final since 1970 with a win at home in Game 6 on Tuesday night, an improbable journey for a team that was last in the standings on Jan. 2.

"We're close. We're very close right now," forward Patrick Maroon said. "I think the guys know that. It's in the back of their heads, but we know that that's a good hockey team over there too and they're not going to give up."

Martin Jones made 35 saves for the Sharks but got little help from his teammates, who have been held to one goal in losing the past two games. San Jose now faces elimination for the third straight series, having overcome a 3-1 series deficit to Vegas in the first round and winning a Game 7 at home in the second round against Colorado.

"We've been here before," coach Peter DeBoer said. "Had to go on the road and win in Vegas in order to get to a Game 7. You're never comfortable when your back's against the wall like that, but we have been here before and found a way and I'm confident we can do that again."

San Jose got off to a spirited start in the rare afternoon contest that led to a more subdued crowd than usual at the Shark Tank. Evander Kane hit the post just 12 seconds into the game and the Sharks had the better of the play in the opening 20 minutes despite falling behind 1-0 when Sundqvist converted a turnover from a hobbled Erik Karlsson into a goal less than six minutes into the contest.

Karlsson has been hampered by a groin injury that sidelined him for 27 of the final 33 games in the regular season and has been extremely limited since the third period of Game 4. He tried to make a quick outlet under pressure but his pass went through teammate Brenden Dillon's skates, off the boards and right to Sundqvist, who beat Jones to give the Blues their fourth goal of the series from the fourth line.

The Blues then took over in the second period, putting 11 shots on goal in less than five minutes. They added to the lead when Tarasenko's shot was partially blocked. Jones then swept it away but it went right to Schwartz, who knocked it into the open net.

Schwartz added the two goals in the third, giving him 12 in the playoffs after scoring just 11 in 69 regular-season games. 1144945 San Jose Sharks

Sharks' health to key players major concern after Game 5 loss to Blues

By Chelena Goldman May 19, 2019 4:28 PM

SAN JOSE – Sure, many players at this point in the Stanley Cup playoffs are playing through their fair share of bumps and bruises. For the Sharks, those ailments appear to be piling up – and it creates some big questions for San Jose ahead of their next game.

The Sharks' bench looked pretty thin midway through the third period of their 5-0 loss to the Blues on Sunday with four injured players – Erik Karlsson, Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski, and Joonas Donskoi – absent from game action. Sharks coach Peter DeBoer didn’t have an immediate update on any of the four after the game, but there’s already concern about San Jose’s health as they are now on the brink of elimination.

The Sharks were already short a major weapon at the start of the third period of Game 5 when Karlsson wasn’t on the bench with his teammates, which was concerning since his health was already in question. Then it became apparent center Hertl was missing from the bench as well – a scary sight after he sustained a high hit from Ivan Barbashev halfway through the first frame that went unpenalized.

“I saw the Hertl hit, I just watched the replay,” Logan Couture said. “Yeah, that’s a tough one. But they had one earlier in Game 3, I believe on [Justin] Braun, and nothing happened. So they can do it again, right?”

DeBoer pointed to the hit on Hertl and the lack of call as a momentum- changer for San Jose, who was trailing 1-0 at that point in the first period, but still very much in the game.

“Arguably a five-minute major on Tommy Hertl, if you get that – that’s a momentum-changing play right there,” the coach said.

Whether the hit was the reason Hertl was missing from the Sharks’ bench in the third period is still unknown. Nevertheless, San Jose was down two skaters before both Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi left the ice after absorbing big hits from the rival Blues.

At that point in the game, the Sharks let their emotions take over and found themselves in a world of penalty trouble.

“When Pav got hit high, we lost our composure there in the third period,” DeBoer said. “Not our finest moment, but I understand where that emotion is coming from.”

Of course, the penalties made the Sharks’ job even harder. Sharks analyst Jamie Baker pointed out that being on extended penalty kills when the bench is already short is extra demanding on a team that’s chasing the game.

“They were short so many players in the third period, that’s taxing the rest of the guys, and then they were taking penalties,” Baker said. “So the fatigue factor almost doubles down.”

Donskoi returned to the bench toward the very end of the game, though the Sharks were already down 5-0 at that point with little chance of bouncing back.

As the focus shifts from one game to the next, the Sharks now have to face some serious questions when it comes to the health of their lineup.

“For Game 6, the health of the players who didn’t play in the third period is going to be topic No. 1,” Baker said. “And if they can’t play, who’s going to go in there and how are they going to go in and win in St. Louis?”

“We’ve just got to regroup,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got to go on and win a game.”

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Sharks takeaways: What we learned in 5-0 Game 5 home loss to Blues

By Chelena Goldman May 19, 2019 2:57 PM

SAN JOSE -- You might’ve had a feeling that Sunday’s game would be a doozy when Evander Kane rang the puck off the goal post just 10 seconds into it. But it’s unlikely anybody was prepared for how badly the Sharks would be outmuscled and out-chanced as they fell 5-0 to the Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference final.

The Sharks now trail three games to two in the best-of-seven series, with a potentially decisive Game 6 scheduled for Tuesday night in St. Louis.

Here are three takeaways from Game 5 at SAP Center.

Another second period to forget

One of the Sharks' biggest complaints about their own game has been that they don’t play a solid 60 minutes. Even when they won Game 3 in overtime, they criticized themselves for giving up the lead in the second period. But they couldn't have played much worse in the second period of Game 5.

In addition to being outshot 20-6, the Sharks continued to move sloppily through the neutral zone and turn pucks over, making their job even more difficult. They were pushed around by the Blues for the entire 20 minutes.

The Karlsson Effect

Erik Karlsson plays a huge role for the Sharks, both offensively and defensively. The Sharks defenseman's absence definitely was felt when he skated for just 3 minutes and 3 seconds in the second period, then didn’t come out at all for the third.

Simply put, a healthy Karlsson makes San Jose better. And with Karlsson off the ice, the Sharks couldn't stop the push from the Blues' offense.

San Jose has preached a “next man up” message since the start of the regular season, and coach Peter DeBoer has called for more players to step up. That effort wasn’t there Sunday, which is worrisome because …

The injuries are piling up

As if Karlsson not taking the ice in the third period was enough of a concern, the Sharks lost even more bodies. Tomas Hertl didn’t see any playing time in the third period, and Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi both exited the game after sustaining injuries.

Without knowing right away how healthy any of those players are, there’s immediate wonder if the Sharks will be short some key players for Game 6. Will Tim Heed pencil into the lineup for Karlsson? Will Lukas Radil or Dylan Gambrell be part of San Jose’s offense?

The Sharks have played through bumps and bruises for most of their lengthy playoff run. But how many more of those bumps and bruises can they take and still be successful?

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Sharks' Joe Pavelski, Erik Karlsson leave Game 5 vs. Blues with injuries

By Josh Schrock May 19, 2019 1:29 PM

Sunday's Game 5 against the Blues went from bad to worse for the Sharks in their eventual 5-0 loss.

After falling behind 3-0 through two periods in their Western Conference final tilt at SAP Center, Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson was not on the bench to begin the third period. The star blueliner missed the majority of the third period in Game 4, but he was in the lineup for Game 5 despite being noticeably affected by his injury.

Soon, there was more salt on the wound. Sharks captain Joe Pavelski took a hit from Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo along the boards. He left the ice and went straight to the dressing room.

Shortly after Pavelski left the ice, the Blues lit the lamp again to make it 4-0.

San Jose later lost forward Joonas Donskoi after he took a puck to the side of his mouth.

The Sharks will have to regroup for what will be a do-or-die Game 6 in St. Louis.

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Erik Karlsson in, Marcus Sorensen scratched for Sharks-Blues Game 5

By Chelena Goldman May 19, 2019 12:06 PM

SAN JOSE – Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer told the press on Sunday morning there would be some “game-time decisions” regarding San Jose’s lineup for Game 5 of the Western Conference final against the St. Louis Blues. But the lineup change probably wasn't what many viewers were anticipating.

Forward Marcus Sorensen was scratched from the lineup and did not participate in pregame warmups. Sorensen penciled into the lineup for Game 4 after being scratched for Micheal Haley in the previous contest.

Sorensen has five points (0 goals, five assists) through 17 games played during these playoffs.

There was initially speculation ahead of Game 5 that Sorensen’s fellow countryman Erik Karlsson was questionable to be in the lineup for Game 5. Karlsson stayed on the bench for the majority of the third period in Game 4, raising questions as to whether he would be healthy enough to play in Sunday’s game.

DeBoer penciled Karlsson in to start alongside usual blueline partner Brenden Dillon.

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Erik Karlsson will be in lineup for Sharks' crucial Game 5 vs. Blues

By Josh Schrock May 19, 2019 11:09 AM

Sharks fans can exhale a bit.

Heading into Sunday's Game 5 of The Western Conference final against the St. Louis Blues, the status of defenseman Erik Karlsson was up in the air.

The defenseman spent the majority of the third period of Game 4 on the bench. He was in noticeable discomfort when he did make it on to the ice.

But with the Sharks' season hanging in the balance, head coach Peter DeBoer told the media that Karlsson would be in the lineup for Sunday's Game 5 at SAP Center.

Sharks coach Pete DeBoer says Erik Karlsson will play today, there are a couple game-time decisions though. pic.twitter.com/dTVA9211cB

— The Athletic (@TheAthleticSF) May 19, 2019

The Sharks undoubtedly will need Karlsson to be effective Sunday if they plan to take a three-games-to-two series lead and inch closer to a Stanley Cup Final berth.

However, if Karlsson is unable to give the Sharks good minutes on the ice, DeBoer might be forced to make a change.

For now, exhale Sharks fans and prepare to hold your breath when the puck drops.

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Blues' fourth line has caused Sharks problems during West final

By Josh Schrock May 19, 2019 8:43 AM

The Sharks and Blues enter Sunday afternoon's critical Game 5 of the Western Conference final all tied at two.

San Jose has held up well against St. Louis' top three lines during the first four games of the series, but it's the Blues' fourth line that has given the Sharks issues.

That's why Blues head coach Craig Berube put Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist and Alexander Steen on the ice to open Friday night's Game 4 -- a 2-1 Blues win.

It paid off, as the line forced a turnover in the Sharks' zone 35 seconds into the game with an aggressive forecheck. After Brent Burns was crunched behind San Jose's net, the puck found its way to Barbashev. The winger ripped a shot on goal that glanced off Sharks center Gustav Nyquist and found the back of the net to give the Blues an early 1-0 lead.

In the series, St. Louis' fourth line has scored three goals, been good on the penalty kill and aggressive on the forecheck. In short, they haven't played like a fourth line.

“They have a lot of confidence,” Berube said, via The St. Louis Post- Dispatch. “Just getting that first shift in like that is big. It gets us to our game right away. They’ve been really good in all facets of the game, not only getting some secondary scoring from ‘em, but just put ‘em against any line out there they do the job. Penalty killing, checking, just all the little things.”

They've created scoring chances on rushes up ice and just been an overall pain in the Sharks' backside.

“I don’t call them our fourth line, but they do so much for us,” Blues center Brayden Schenn said. “They’re PKers, they’re scoring big goals right now. So, if you want, you can label them as that, but we don’t see that in the locker room. We feel like we’re a group of 12 forwards out there and anyone can do the job on any given night. Those guys stepped up as a line tonight and got us going.”

As the two teams get ready for an afternoon puck drop at SAP Center on Sunday, it's important that San Jose finds a way to neutralize the energy the Blues' fourth line brings.

The Sharks haven't lost two straight home games during these Stanley Cup playoffs, and taking out the energetic fourth line will go along ways to securing a Game 5 win and three-games-to-two series lead.

The Blues will need a burst of energy in order to combat what is sure to be a raucous SAP Center crown Sunday afternoon. That energy has come from the fourth line during this series.

If Barbashev, Steen, and Sundqvist go quiet Sunday, the Sharks have a good chance at inching closer to the Stanley Cup Final.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144951 San Jose Sharks

Sharks vs Blues Game 5 watch guide: Projected lines and defensive pairs

By Chelena Goldman May 19, 2019 8:00 AM

SAN JOSE -- After splitting the first four games of their best-of-seven series, the Sharks return home for a Sunday matinee against the Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference final.

After tallying a controversial overtime win in Game 3, Team Teal got into an early two-goal hole in Game 4 and was unable to bounce back, falling 2-1. Tomas Hertl tallied the Sharks' lone goal on the evening during a third-period power play, while Martin Jones made 20 saves.

The Sharks are 18-18 all-time in Game 5 situations and 12-6 at SAP Center.

Here are both teams’ projected lines and defensive pairings.

Sharks projected lines and pairs

Timo Meier -- Logan Couture -- Gustav Nyquist

Evander Kane -- Tomas Hertl -- Joe Pavelski

Melker Karlsson -- Joe Thornton -- Kevin Labanc

Marcus Sorensen -- Barclay Goodrow -- Joonas Donskoi

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon -- Erik Karlsson

Joakim Ryan -- Justin Braun

Martin Jones -- projected starter

Aaron Dell

Blues projected lines and pairs

Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Vladimir Tarasenko

Sammy Blais -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron

Patrick Maroon -- Tyler Bozak -- Robert Thomas

Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Alex Steen

Joel Edmundson -- Alex Pietrangelo

Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko

Carl Gunnarsson -- Robert Bortuzzo

Jordan Binnington -- projected starter

Jake Allen

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144952 San Jose Sharks

Sharks vs. Blues live stream: How to watch NHL playoffs Game 5 online

By NBC Sports Bay Area staff May 19, 2019 1:31 AM

The Sharks have yet to lose consecutive home games during their current playoff run. They'll attempt to keep that streak going when they host the Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference final in San Jose on Sunday.

The Sharks are coming off a 2-1 loss to St. Louis in Game 4 on Friday, and lost 4-2 the last time they faced the Blues at SAP Center back in Game 2. The series is now tied at two games apiece and has been played extremely evenly. The Sharks have scored 14 goals to St. Louis' 13.

The Sharks are 18-18 all-time in Game 5 situations and 12-6 at SAP Center.

The puck drops for Game 5 at noon PT/3 p.m. ET, so don't linger at brunch.

Here's how to watch Game 5 between the Sharks and Blues on TV and streaming live online, as well as pregame and postgame coverage on NBC Sports California Plus.

When: Noon PT on Sunday, May 19, on NBC (Sharks Playoff Live starts at 11 a.m. on NBC Sports California Plus)

Live Stream: NBC Sports app; fuboTV -- Try a free trial (MyTeams by NBC Sports app for pregame/postgame)

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144953 San Jose Sharks St. Louis’ forechecking was the best it’s been all series. The Sharks just couldn’t flip the game to their offensive zone.

“Whether it was plays to the middle or just not getting the puck out of our After a wretched second period, the Sharks are on the brink of zone, their (defensemen) are pretty active,’’ Dillon said. “We knew that elimination coming into it. I think it was just a matter of execution.”

By the time Tarasenko took his penalty shot, there was an air of By Daniel Brown May 19, 2019 inevitability to the proceedings. He started out by coasting to his right, cut back to his left and beat Jones with a shot to the high glove side.

In doing so, he became the fourth player in NHL history to score a Before the body count started adding up in the third period, before the penalty-shot goal in the conference finals or semifinals. The others: frustrated Sharks lost control of their emotions and before disgruntled Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky in 1984; Toronto’s Mats Sundin in 1999; and fans made an early dash for the exits, the Sharks felt good about where Colorado’s Joe Sakic in 2001. things appeared to be headed on Sunday. The Sharks’ second period featured a more deflating bit of history: Erik “I thought we had a good start,’’ center Logan Couture said. Karlsson, trying to play through a groin injury, departed the game for good with 7:04 to play. As if things hadn’t gone wrong enough in that “I thought we had a good push,’’ defenseman Brent Burns said. period, DeBoer’s biggest gamble conked out roughly halfway through the “I liked our first period,’’ coach Peter DeBoer said. game.

Whatever glimmer of hope the Sharks thought they saw in the early “I mean, hindsight’s 20/20, you know?’’ he said of the decision to play stages of Game 5 was snuffed out by the Blues’ firehose of shots in the Karlsson despite the injury. “We make those decisions based on reports second period. That’s when St. Louis turned this otherwise closely we get from the player and medical, and the report was he felt he could contested series into a 20-minute mismatch en route to a 5-0 victory and play and get through the game.” a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference final. A reporter asked Burns if the early stages of Game 5, before the horrid Had the second period been a heavyweight bout, the ref would have second period, gave the Sharks hope that they can save their season in stopped the fight. The Blues pummeled goalie Martin Jones with 11 shots St. Louis. within the first 4:06 alone while the Sharks struggled to merely clear the “Well, we don’t need hope,’’ Burns said. “We have hope. We like our defensive zone. Along the way, St. Louis took control of both the game team. We go in there, play a good game and we’ve got some experience and the series. in Game 7s.” By the time the onslaught was over in the second period, St. Louis had The Sharks understand they can’t afford to have another second period outshot the Sharks 20-6. The barrage included Vladimir Tarasenko’s like this one. On the brink of elimination, they know they wouldn’t get a easy-peasy goal on a penalty shot after being hauled down by Brent second chance. Burns on a breakaway. It was the Blues’ first penalty shot in the playoffs since Jimmy Roberts took one against Minnesota in 1968. The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 Tarasenko’s goal at 6:53 of the second made the score 3-0 – daunting, though hardly a blowout – but the low grumble of a disillusioned SAP Center crowd told the real story.

Burns was asked later what went wrong in the miserable second period. But the burly defenseman was in no mood to audition for a future TV analyst job.

“They scored some goals,’’ Burns explained, “and we didn’t.”

He did not elaborate. In all, Burns’ session with the media consisted of five questions and 52 seconds. Everything about his get-me-outta-here body language suggested he’d already moved on to Game 6 on Tuesday in St. Louis.

Couture, one of the Sharks’ few offensive threats still healthy enough to be standing by the end of Sunday, had a more detailed view of how things unraveled in the second. After showing some jump in the first period, he said, the Sharks made it too easy for St. Louis in the second.

“Turned too many pucks over, played in our end too much,’’ Couture said. “We had opportunities at the blue line when their defensemen were pinching and we didn’t get it out. The next thing you know, they’re extending shifts over each other and our guys are tired.”

The stat sheet dinged the Sharks for five giveaways in the second period, which doesn’t sound so bad. But they paid a costly price at a critical juncture in the game. With St. Louis up just 1-0, Tarasenko took a shot that was deflected by Couture.

Jones, who made 35 saves, stopped the shot and redirected it to his left, but he swept the puck toward the open stick of Jaden Schwartz, who hardly needs the help these days. Schwartz slammed it home for his 10th goal of the playoffs (and the second leg of his eventual hat trick).

As if to maximize the Sharks’ pain, the goal came just moments after a shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic hit the post. The Blues led 2-0 and the momentum was theirs to keep.

“I just think we got a bit away from our game,’’ Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “We were kind of turning some pucks over. And any time you do that this time of year, the other teams usually feed off of that.” 1144954 San Jose Sharks forwards in scoring in the regular season and has 10 goals and five assists for 15 points in the playoffs. Pavelski hasn’t done much in the series with the Blues either with just one empty net goal and no 5-on-5 Disastrous Game 5 defeat could leave the Sharks shorthanded as they points, but he led the Sharks with 38 goals in the regular season. once again stare at elimination The Hertl hit did not sit well with the Sharks, who also saw Justin Braun take a bad hit from the Blues’ Sammy Blais in Game 3 that went unpunished. By Kevin Kurz May 19, 2019 “I saw the Hertl hit. I just watched the replay,” Logan Couture said. “That’s a tough one. But they had one earlier in Game 3 I believe on Braun, and nothing happened, so they can do it again, right?” They couldn’t have drawn up a better first shift. DeBoer said: “I thought we played well enough to come out of the first Back at SAP Center for the crucial Game 5 of a series tied at two games maybe up. An arguably five-minute major on Tommy Hertl that, if it’s apiece, the Sharks started Tomas Hertl’s line with Evander Kane and Joe called, maybe that’s a momentum-changing play right there.” Pavelski against the Blues’ effective fourth line. Hertl won the center ice faceoff and moments later charged into the offensive zone with the puck Still, even with another refereeing disagreement, the Sharks didn’t lose before reversing it to Kane, who was wide open. Kane eyed goalie Game 5 because of the men in stripes. They were outplayed all over the Jordan Binnington and let fly with a speedy wrist shot that beat the Blues ice, particularly in the second period, when the Blues increased their lead goaltender to the far side, only to see it ding the far post and stay safely to 3-0 on goals from Schwartz and a penalty shot conversion by Vladimir out of the net just a dozen seconds into the game. Tarasenko, who was tripped on a breakaway by Brent Burns.

The Sharks kept up the pressure immediately after that, too, and Hertl The Sharks are also not making life on Binnington nearly difficult enough. had a good look himself when he redirected a shot-pass from Erik The Blues are doing a very good job of preventing the Sharks from Karlsson that whistled just wide. getting any second-chance opportunities, and their 21 shots on goal was a playoff low. The Sharks are averaging 26.8 shots per game in the But two and a half hours later, Hertl, Karlsson and Joe Pavelski were all Blues series after averaging 33.0 in the regular season. too injured to finish the game. Kane was part of a group of Sharks that lost their cool and took too many penalties in the third period. St. Louis’ Since Joe Thornton scored 1:36 into the second period of Game 3, the Jaden Schwartz secured a hat trick. The Blues’ fourth line posted its Sharks have just one even strength goal — Karlsson’s overtime winner fourth goal in the last four games. Binnington easily recorded his first later in that game after Timo Meier’s uncalled hand pass. career playoff shutout in what was his second straight game not allowing an even strength goal. In Game 5, the Sharks had just 12 shots come from forwards. On the other side, Schwartz (seven shots) and Brayden Schenn (five shots) The Blues’ 5-0 win in Game 5 was an utter calamity for the Sharks. combined for 12 by themselves, and the Blues finished with 40.

They’ll try to stave off elimination in Game 6 at St. Louis’ Enterprise “We scored one goal in the last two games. That’s not going to cut it. Center on Tuesday, and could be without several important players. Their goaltender is playing well but we’re not doing enough around their net and creating enough opportunities or second chances,” Couture said. Karlsson, who missed seven minutes of the third period in Game 4, could very well be done for the series. His last shift in Game 5 came with 7:04 In the third, the Sharks did themselves in with a pair of penalties by to go in the second period, but even before departing the game, he didn’t Barclay Goodrow (roughing) and Micheal Haley (roughing) at 1:55, look right. He was directly responsible for the Blues’ first goal when his shortly after Pavelski’s afternoon was ended by Pietrangelo. Schwartz “errant pass” to Brenden Dillon — using Dillon’s words — was gobbled scored on the ensuing two-man advantage to put the game away. up by Oscar Sundqvist, who immediately fired the puck on Martin Jones. The Sharks’ goalie likely couldn’t see the puck because Karlsson was By the time the third period was over, the Sharks racked up 32 minutes in standing right in front of him. penalties, including 10-minute misconducts to Haley and Kane.

By the end of the first period, Karlsson was seen wincing in pain on the “It’s a three-goal game, I thought we obviously took way too many bench, much like he was late in Game 4. penalties,” Couture said. “Can’t win or come back when you’re in the box the whole period. Got away from us in the end. Would have really liked to Coach Pete DeBoer, who opted to play Karlsson while curiously not control our emotions and at least give ourselves a chance.” dressing Tim Heed as a seventh defenseman just in case, was asked if he regretted starting the two-time Norris Trophy winner, who is still plainly DeBoer said: “When Pav got hit high, we lost our composure in the third. dealing with some sort of groin injury. Not our finest moment, but I understand where that emotion’s coming from with what he’s been through, and we just have to regroup. We have “Well, I mean, hindsight’s 20-20, you know? We make those decisions to go in (to St. Louis) and win a game.” based on reports we get from the player and medical (staff), and the report was he felt he could play and get through the game,” DeBoer said. The Sharks are already 4-0 in elimination games this postseason. They’ll “So, you know, it’s easy to sit here and say now, yeah, sure you have have to make it a perfect 6-0 to earn a trip to Boston for their second regrets.” Stanley Cup Final in four years. Odds are against them, as when the Conference finals or semifinals are tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 owns Even if Karlsson tells DeBoer he can play in Game 6, can the coach an all-time series record of 19-8 (70.3 percent). actually trust him at this point? While it’s admirable that Karlsson was attempting to play though pain, this is now the second time this sort of “We’ve got enough guys in here that have played do-or-die games,” situation has happened, including in the regular season on Feb. 26 when Dillon said. “We want to push it to a Game 7, we’ve had to do that in the Karlsson told DeBoer he was fine to return to a game in Boston but past two rounds. We feel comfortable having to do that. We’re going to clearly was not. go into a tough building, but we feel confident going in there. We’re going to have to bring our best and ramp it up, and I think we’ll be ready for There was no update from the coach on any of the injured Sharks, but that.” indications were both Hertl and Pavelski were dealing with hits to the head. Ivan Barbashev’s high hit on Hertl came midway through the first Gus Nyquist said: “We’ve been in this position before and we believe in period and it could very well earn him a call from the NHL’s Department this room. In Vegas, we were down 3-1 and we had to go into their of Player Safety. Meanwhile, Alex Pietrangelo, who finished his check on building, a tough game to win, and we did. There is not a doubt in my Pavelski on a play that looked more like an unfortunate set of minds that we can’t do that in St. Louis.” circumstances than anything dirty, might have taken out the captain, who The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 just got over a serious concussion from Game 7 of the first round against Vegas.

But even if Barbashev has to sit for a game, that’s little consolation. And if Karlsson, Hertl and Pavelski can’t play in Game 6 — or even two of those three — that would be especially dire for the Sharks. Despite not yet having a single even strength point yet this series, Hertl led all Sharks 1144955 St Louis Blues Jaden Schwartz extended the lead to 2-0 on a goal 3:05 into the period. Tarasenko took a shot from the left that deflected off San Jose's Logan Couture. The puck still went through to Jones, who swatted it away, but Blues are one win away after 5-0 win over Sharks in Game 5 right to Schwartz, who had an open corner of the net to shoot into for his 10th goal of the postseason.

The Blues had a four-minute power play later in the second when By Tom Timmermann St. Louis Post-Dispatch 7 hrs ago Alexander Steen took a high stick, but it was soon cut in half when Tyler Bozak was called for hooking. The Blues killed the four-on-four — San

Jose has been dominant on those in this series — and didn't manage SAN JOSE — The Blues are one win away from their first trip to the much in the remainder of the power play. Stanley Cup Final since 1970 after a dominating 5-0 win over the Sharks Oskar Sundqvist kept the fourth line's hot streak going with a goal to put in Game 5 of the Western Conference final on Sunday at SAP Center. the Blues up 1-0 after the first period. The fourth line — Sundqvist, Ivan The Blues will have a chance to seal the trip on Tuesday at Enterprise Barbashev and Alexander Steen — have goals in four consecutive Center. games.

"It's always hard against a real good team like San Jose," coach Craig The Sharks had most of the early chances — though each team had a Berube said. "It's going to be hard. We are going to be at our best for 60 shot hit the post in the first four minutes. Evander Kane of San Jose hit minutes for sure." the post just 12 seconds into the game, and Brayden Schenn hit one about four minutes in. "We’re in a good situation right now," forward Pat Maroon said. "We’ve got to stick with it, though. That team’s relentless over there. They’re a It was the Blues that got the first goal. The Blues could have had more good hockey team, and they’ve got some really good players over there chances, but a few scoring plays ended with an extra pass rather than a that want it just as bad as us. So we’ve got to find ways to battle hard shot. and do what we’re capable of doing, which is just dictating the play, Erik Karlsson, whose status for the game was up in the air, played a puck playing our style of hockey, staying the course, staying out of the stuff from behind his net up ice. Teammate Brenden Dillon spread his legs to and just finding ways to just play them down low, cycle them down low, let the puck go through and off the boards, but if the pass was intended wear them down and just get to our game, like I said. But exciting times for someone else, there was no one there. Sundqvist skated onto it and right now, and just got to find ways to get over this win and get ready for blasted a shot past Martin Jones for his fourth goal of the postseason Game 6." and second of this series. Jordan Binnington recorded his first postseason shutout, stopping all 21 The Sharks had a power play in the first after Jay Bouwmeester was shots he faced, more than half of which came in the first period. The called for delay of game. San Jose had four shots on goal in the two Blues outshot San Jose 40-21, with 36 of those shots coming in the minutes, but couldn't score. For the period, the Sharks outshot the Blues second and third periods. 11-4. The Blues broke the game open in the second period, when they outshot The teams come into the game even at two wins apiece. When the San Jose 20-6 and got a goal from Jaden Schwartz and then the first conference finals or semifinals are tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 owns successful postseason penalty shot in team history, by Vladimir an all-time series record of 19-8 (70.3%). Tarasenko. Oskar Sundqvist got the scoring started in the first period and Schwartz added his second goal of the game early in the fourth during a St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 five-on-three power play and completed his second hat trick of the postseason when he knocked in a pass from Tarasenko with 3:58 to go. It's the 12th goal of the postseason for Schwartz, the second most in team history, behind Brett Hull's 13 in 1991. It also means Schwartz has scored more goals in the postseason, 12 in 18 games, than he had in the regular season, 11.

There was one hat on the ice in celebration of Schwartz's feat.

"We've seen it before from (Schwartz)," Berube said. "He's been a pretty consistent performer over the years. It was an off year for him obviously in the regular season but the guy keeps working hard. Nothing changes with his attitude. He keeps with it and keeps working and it's paying off now. He's been a very good performer for us in the playoffs."

By the end of the game, the Sharks had four players in the dressing room with injuries and two more who had been kicked out of the game after Micheal Haley went on to the ice, apparently for the sole purpose of going after Alex Pietrangelo, and Evander Kane, who got a 10-minute misconduct with 2:47 to go.

"We stuck to our game," defenseman Joel Edmundson said. "We knew they were going to come out hard. They had a good first period, we weathered the storm. I thought our second period and third period were really good. We just played tonight, good defensively, didn't spend much time in our D zone. I thought we played a full 200-foot game."

Tarasenko was tripped from behind by Brent Burns with 13:07 to go in the second and on the ensuing shot, he started by going wide to his right, then came back and shot high to goalie Martin Jones' glove side — a spot the Blues have been taking aim at all series — to score.

It was only the second postseason penalty shot for the Blues, the other coming by Jimmy Roberts in 1968 against Minnesota and Cesare Maniago. It was unsuccessful. In the regular season, Tarasenko had four penalty shots in shootouts. He was 0 for 4.

The Blues outshot San Jose 20-6 in the period and had plenty more scoring chances as it looked like they would extend the lead further, but they couldn't. 1144956 St Louis Blues message. It doesn’t get too complicated. After Game 3 loss at home, I thought it was a good game, we let that slip away. That’s on us. But we just talked about being in a good spot and keep pushing and fighting and Hochman: Playoff road games hardly an obstacle for never-nervous being aggressive. That’s our message. Blues “You’re going to go through ups and downs and you have to move on. As much as we had to move on from that Game 3 loss, we have to move on from last night’s win. We have to focus on Game 5.” 20 hrs ago The Blues are not playing perfect hockey right now, far from it. Benjamin Hochman Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has been unreliable. A couple of the key names could be more of an offensive impact. The 4-on-4 play in Game 4

was despicable. And late in games, the Blues have been holding on for It’s been so long, the last time the Blues won the Campbell Bowl, former dear life, committing icings at inopportune times. But again, winning Blues player Jim “Soupy” Campbell hadn’t even been born. playoff hockey is seldom perfect or pretty. Like Berube said, there will be ups and downs. It’s so many shifts of hockey – and thus so many shifts in The old Blues from the old barn last won it in 1970 – ultimately losing in the hockey game. But the Blues are equipped to see this thing through. the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins and a scoring, soaring Bobby We’ll see if they can win the Campbell back in St. Louis – and thus play Orr. Boston once again for the Stanley Cup. And we’ll have a good gauge after Sunday’s first period. Well, the Campbell Bowl, given to the Western Conference champion, will be in St. Louis on Tuesday for Game 6. To play for the bowl in the St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 fishbowl of that closeout game, the Blues first must win Sunday in the “Shark Tank.” A daunting assignment, until you remember we’re talking about the St. Louis Blues, who reduce fan efforts in road rinks to something of adorableness – bless their hearts, they’re trying to rattle us. In the Blues’ ears, the deafening, loud crowds are just cute, little chirpings.

The Blues already won one in San Jose – Game 2 – and did so with the most unlikely likes scoring late goals.

The Blues are 6-2 this postseason in road games.

And, yes, if given the choice, the Blues would choose to play at home (familiarity, final line change, family and fans in stands). But it’s to the point where playing on the road doesn’t classify as an obstacle for the impervious, never-nervous Blues.

“We’re a confident group,” said Blues All-Star Ryan O’Reilly, after the Game 4 win that tied the series at 2-2. “We’re a good road team — it’s (about) getting to our game early. ... Establish our game right away.”

It’s a broken record at this point – but it’s led to the broken record of “Gloria” on repeat. St. Louis can win Sunday by doing what it often does – winning the first period. Since the final game of the first round against Winnipeg, the Blues have tied or won seven first periods – and won all seven of those games.

The five times they lost the first period, they lost the game.

“We’ve had a lot of success on the road in the playoffs,” said Blues center Tyler Bozak, who scored a huge road goal in the Winnipeg series, “and I think it’s just playing the way we’re most successful, getting pucks deep, not turning the puck over, playing in the offensive zone. Obviously it’s a tough building to play in, they’re a really good hockey team, so we’re going to have to have our best and obviously biggest game of the year. So we’ll be ready.”

Looking back, it was an amazing accomplishment for the Blues to play as strong – and smart – as they did in the first period of Game 4. After the officials handed the Game 3 win to the Sharks, it was an emotional turn- of-events reminiscent to Game 6 at Dallas. In that game, the Blues’ Colton Parayko literally knocked down the Stars’ star goalie like a boxer, leading to a goal – and the Blues scored again in the next minute. You can say all the right things, but that’s a tough emotional situation to bounce back from (as we saw with Dallas). Well, the Blues lost Game 3 of the conference finals on an overtime goal with a hand-pass assist. A crushing blow. But whether it was the motivation from coach Craig Berube or inspiration from 11-year-old fan Laila Anderson, who is battling a rare disease, the Blues responded emphatically in Game 4.

It says something about the makeup of this team. Something we’ve seen all spring. After their improbable comeback from early January, it’s as if they just know – we can get through anything. The hockey gods have taken them up on this challenge. In the Winnipeg series, they entered the third period of Game 5 in a rough spot. It looked like Winnipeg was going to go up 3-2 in the series. Then Jaden Schwartz happened. And in the Dallas series, the Blues trailed 3-2 in Game 6, before “the Parayko K.O.”

“There are times when we have to look back and think of the adversity we came through to get where we’re at – and rely on that,” Berube said Saturday. “Just (being) relentless, keep going. That’s just basically the 1144957 St Louis Blues

Micheletti out, Milbury in on Blues-Sharks telecast

By Dan Caesar St. Louis Post-Dispatch 21 hrs ago

NBC Sports Group, which is televising the Blues-Sharks NHL playoffs semifinal series, is shuffling its lines again.

Former Blues defenseman and broadcaster Joe Micheletti is out for Game 5 on Sunday afternoon. He provided analysis for Games 3 and 4.

Back in is Mike Milbury, who called the first two contests before moving to the Boston-Carolina series — which now is over. Milbury had replaced Eddie Olczyk, who went to Baltimore for NBC's Preakness Stakes horse racing coverage.

Game 5 of the Blues-Sharks matchup is set to begin at about 2:10 p.m. Sunday and be televised locally on KSDK (Channel 5). Kenny Albert remains on play-by-play, with Pierre McGuire again reporting from between the benches.

St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144958 St Louis Blues The Blues are hosting a Game 5 watch party at Enterprise Center on Sunday. Doors open at 1 p.m. for the 2 p.m. start, with the game airing on the arena’s videoboard. The Blues say they will treat the game like Blues notebook: Bouwmeester runs a Game 4 marathon on one shift another home game, with traditional goal celebrations, intermission entertainment, live music in the Biergarten with select concession stands open. Admission is $10, $5 for season ticket holders. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Blues for Kids Foundation. Tickets can be By Tom Timmermann St. Louis Post-Dispatch 21 hrs ago purchased only online through the team’s website, stlouisblues.com.

St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 Most hockey shifts last 45 seconds to a minute. After that, fatigue sets in and players start to sag noticeably. It’s a time when attacking teams, especially if they can get fresh forwards on the ice, can exploit weary players.

Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester had a shift late in the second period of Game 4 that lasted 3 minutes, 47 seconds. The Sharks kept the Blues hemmed in for most of that, and even when the Blues did get the puck out, Bouwmeester, who was on the left side, the side furthest from the bench, couldn’t get to the bench during the long change. His partner, Colton Parayko, was able to get to the bench on one clearance, but Bouwmeester had to stay put. There was one stoppage during that time, an icing call on the Blues, so Bouwmeester got a brief breather but had to stay on the ice. Finally, Tyler Bozak won a faceoff and flipped the puck out of the zone, the Blues were able to get a few players to the bench and Ryan O’Reilly got possession to allow Bouwmeester to get off.

During the time Bouwmeester was on the ice, he went up against all four Sharks lines and Logan Couture’s line twice.

“He’s in extremely good shape, for sure, obviously,” said Blues coach Craig Berube. “He’s been around a long time, smart player. His game’s been great for quite some time, we all know that, in the playoffs too, here. He was a good player for us last night.

“Being in that situation, caught out there for quite some time, we were hemmed in our zone, we couldn’t get the puck back and they’re moving it around well. Obviously trying to get a goal on us, being down 2-0, they were aggressive at that point. But Bouwmeester doesn’t panic, holds his ground. I’m not sure if he’s not out there, that maybe we don’t give up a goal. He’s that type of player and been that type of player for us for some time.”

NO DUNN

Blues defenseman Vince Dunn, who took a puck to the face in Game 3, did not travel with the team to San Jose for Game 5 and won’t play.

Dunn did attend Game 4.

“It’s great,” Berube said. “Dunner’s back here and he’s around his teammates. ... It’s awesome to see him. It’s a day-to-day thing right now. I’m not sure exactly when he’s gonna be available to play. So we’ll have to see how that goes, but it’s good to see him around for sure.”

Forward Sammy Blais left the ice with 11:52 to go in the third period of Game 4 after blocking a shot with his leg. The shot initially left him on the ice in the corner of the rink, and he finally was able to get off the ice. While he didn’t leave the bench, he also didn’t return to the game. Berube said he would be a player in Game 5.

“He got looked at and should be fine,” Berube said. “He’ll be a player tomorrow.”

THE LAW LOST

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer has a law degree from a joint program at the University of Windsor in Canada and the University of Detroit in America while he was coaching in the OHL in the mid-80s.

DeBoer was asked if he had to turn down any good law jobs to pursue his coaching career.

“I can tell you the worst legal job I had,” he said. “Compuware owned our junior team, Pete Karmanos, and he let me work in the in-house legal department one summer at Compuware. I’m going to date myself, but I was basically writing disclaimers on the back of floppy disc boxes for a summer. That scared me off law pretty quickly. At least that area of law. I worked in a criminal law firm one summer for a reputable criminal lawyer in Windsor, Ontario, Pat Ducharme, who was also Bob Probert’s agent. That was really interesting. That was some interesting stuff there.”

WATCH PARTY 1144959 St Louis Blues by icing the puck. The Blues’ Icing Capades simply brought the puck back to their zone for a faceoff and more pressure from the Sharks.

“They move the puck around pretty good,” Berube said. “When you got To finish off Sharks, Blues must finish out games more aggressively (Erik) Karlsson and (Brent) Burns out there shooting pucks, they’re really two of the best in the league at getting their shots through. ... They do a good job 6-on-5 and make you work for the win, I’ll tell you that. By Jim Thomas St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 18, 2019 “Our guys, I thought battled hard, blocked shots — getting some saves from Binner, that’s key. That’s what you gotta do. It’s just about second and third effort.” SAN JOSE — The end game is here for the Blues and the Sharks — it’s down to a best-of-three competition to determine who goes to the Stanley Compounding matters is the fact that the Blues can’t score an empty-net Cup finals to face the Boston Bruins. And who goes home. goal to save their lives. Eight of their 10 postseason victories have been by one goal — an empty-netter certainly would’ve made things easier in Both teams were down this road just three years ago in the Western most of those contests. But the Blues haven’t scored one since March 21 Conference finals with that series tied 2-2 through four games. The of the regular season against Detroit. Sharks won the next two — 6-3 in St. Louis in Game 5 and 5-2 in San Jose in Game 6 to advance. “Listen, when you’re out there 6-on-5 and they’re coming at you with a lot of pressure, it’s not an easy play a lot of times just to get the puck out So here we go again. Tied 2-2, the Blues must win at least one game on and not ice it,” Berube said. “We want to make a hard play and get it out. the road to advance, and Sunday’s 2 p.m. (Central time) start in the SAP Center is the next opportunity. “We’d rather not ice it. We’d rather put it to an area and then get out and try and shoot it, but it goes down the ice sometimes. You gotta come Playing on the road was no problem for the Blues during the regular back, and guys did a good job. You battle and battle and battle, and season, and the same has been true in the postseason. They are 6-2 on that’s what we did (Friday). Just battled and we won the game.” the road in these playoffs. (And only 4-5 at home.) St Louis Post Dispatch LOADED: 05.20.2019 “Getting off to a good start in that building is important,” coach Craig Berube said Saturday. “That team starts extremely fast there. It’s a loud building, but we went through that already in Winnipeg, had good success. So our team’s accustomed to that.”

Undoubtedly, the Blues would like to repeat their start from Friday in St. Louis. It was 2-0 Blues after one period and easily could have been 3-0 or 4-0 were it not for the work of San Jose goalie Martin Jones.

Starting was one thing. The finish quite another, with the Blues almost stumbling to the final buzzer. San Jose controlled the play in the final 40 minutes, dominating large chunks of play. The Blues managed to keep the lid on one of the league’s most prolific offenses, but just barely.

That’s not the best way to survive and advance against the Sharks. San Jose sent 73 attempts at the Blues on Friday — a total which encompasses shots on goal, blocked shots and missed shots. The Blues, meanwhile managed only 35 attempts — a season-low total for 99 regular-season and postseason contests.

“It wasn’t a great third (period),” Ryan O’Reilly said. “We got caught on our heels a little too much. When they come with that amount of pressure, you’ve got to get by by winning the next battle. Win a battle, and put ourselves in good position. We’re lucky Binner (Jordan Binnington) is back there, made some good saves. It’s something to improve upon, for sure.”

But it wasn’t just the third period; again, it was much of the final two periods. The aggressive push by the Sharks finally produced a goal in the third period by Tomas Hertl. But unlike Game 3 — the controversial 5-4 overtime win by the Sharks — San Jose couldn’t get a game-tying goal in regulation this time.

“They tend to find each other by rimming the puck,” Colton Parayko said of the Sharks. “And they did a good job when their forwards are down low, they find their ‘D-men’ up high, rimming it. If we’re able to cut that off, it’s great.

“They’re good at protecting the puck, and just getting the puck toward the net. So their ‘D-men’ are good at getting pucks through and the forwards are good at getting rebounds. That’s the flow of their game. You notice they shoot the puck a lot; if it gets blocked, their forwards go to the corners and grab it.”

Make no mistake, after allowing 13 goals in the first three games of the series, the Blues tightened things up considerably in Friday’s 2-1 Game 4 victory. After allowing five goals in Wednesday’s contest, Alex Pietrangelo said cleaning things up defensively was more a topic of conversation Thursday than anything related to the “Hand Pass” game.

“We didn’t give up much (Friday),” Pietrangelo said. “We were trying to keep them on the outside.”

But the final 2 minutes 2 seconds, when San Jose pulled goalie Jones in favor of a sixth attacker, was chaos. As was the case in Game 3 Wednesday, the Blues couldn’t get the puck out of their zone other than 1144960 St Louis Blues OH BABY!!!!! #STLBLUES #WEALLBLEEDBLUE PIC.TWITTER.COM/DQJPMZDFKS

— ST. LOUIS BLUES (@STLOUISBLUES) MAY 19, 2019 ‘Can I see your credentials?’: Blues on the cusp of their first Stanley Cup final in 49 years “It was huge,” Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “He’s the one guy we probably want out there doing that.”

Would you want anybody else? By Jeremy Rutherford May 19, 2019 “Not too many,” Berube said. “He’s obviously a shooter, and fortunately we got a goal out of it, and it was a great shot by him.”

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The security at SAP Center is evidently tighter than The penalty-shot goal was one of three points in Game 5 for Tarasenko, San Jose’s defense. who has really come alive in this series after an inauspicious start in As Blues coach Craig Berube made his way to the podium after Game 5 Game 1. His goal and two assists Sunday gave him seven points vs. the on Sunday, he was stopped by a security guard: “Can I see your Sharks, including at least one in every game. credentials?” TARASENKO HAS A POINT IN EVERY GAME IN THIS SERIES:

It wasn’t the first time Berube had been stopped by security. G1: 1A

“Every time,” a Blues official said. G2: 1A

Well, suffice to say, the Blues and Berube now have their credentials G3: 1G after dominating San Jose in a 5-0 victory, taking a three games to two lead in the best-of-seven series. And better yet, the coach might not even G4: 1A need clearance at SAP Center anymore because the Blues could clinch the franchise’s first trip to the Stanley Cup final since 1970 in Game 6 G5: 1G, 2A Tuesday at Enterprise Center. — JEREMY RUTHERFORD (@JPRUTHERFORD) MAY 19, 2019

The Blues, longtime fans will remember, went to the final their first three “He’s produced every game point-wise, but it’s the work ethic for me and years of existence, when the NHL playoffs pitted the ‘Original Six’ against the physicality that he’s playing with right now,” Berube said. “He’s a the expansion division. But in 1970, the Blues advanced to the Cup final physical player out there, he’s a strong guy, and when he wants to get in with a win in Pittsburgh; in 1969, it was with a win in Los Angeles. This there and be physical and skate like he can, he’s a pretty explosive will mark the first time since ’68, when the Blues beat Minnesota, 2-1, on player and hard to stop.” Ron Schock’s double-overtime goal at the St. Louis Arena in which they could celebrate a trip on home ice. Tarasenko had two more hits in Game 5 and has 11 hits in the last four games. If Sunday was a precursor to what it may be like as the Blues look to end “The Curse,” it should be quite the atmosphere at Enterprise Center. The “For a guy to score as many goals as he does, to do all the little things Blues hosted a watch party back in St. Louis, where a crowd estimated at goes a long way,” Schwartz said. “Watching from the bench, watching 10,000 had plenty to cheer about, from Oskar Sundqvist’s game-opening other players sacrifice and work, it kind of builds momentum for goal to Vladimir Tarasenko’s penalty-shot goal to Jaden Schwartz’s hat everyone, builds energy. When your leading goal-scorer’s getting to the trick. net, being physical and bringing energy, it wears off on everyone else, and this time of year, it’s huge.” THE CROWD AT @ENTERPRISE_CNTR IS LOVING THIS START!!  #WEALLBLEEDBLUE #STLBLUES PIC.TWITTER.COM/PH9CWRTD4U That line, with Tarasenko, Schwartz and Brayden Schenn, had four goals and seven points Sunday. That included Schwartz’s second hat trick of — ST. LOUIS BLUES (@STLOUISBLUES) MAY 19, 2019 the playoffs — he also posted one in Game 6 against Winnipeg — making him the first player in Blues playoff history to have two in one “Well, obviously our fans have been great throughout the year, sticking postseason. with us at times where it wasn’t very good,” Berube said. “They’ve been great in the playoffs, great building to play in for us. It’s going to be a lot Schwartz’s third goal of the game gave him 12 goals in 18 playoffs, of energy in the building, a lot of emotion, and it’s important that we do second behind San Jose’s Logan Couture, after netting just 11 in 69 keep it in check. Our players have done a pretty good job of letting things regular-season games. go, like the win (Sunday) and focusing on Game 6. “That doesn’t really surprise me,” Edmundson said. “He’s a gamer. He “I don’t expect anything different, but it’s important that at the start of the always steps up to the plate.” game, you’re simple and direct and keep your emotions in check and not let them get out of control.” The hat trick silenced the crowd at the SAP Center, but among the crowd of 17,562, there were at least two Blues fans, who collaborated in The Blues have certainly kept their emotions in check. Remember the throwing one hat onto the ice. A man wearing a Brian Sutter sweater hand pass loss? That’s now well in the past. tossed the lid to a man wearing a Chris Pronger sweater, who flipped it over the boards. Since Timo Meier’s gloved assist that helped set up Erik Karlsson’s overtime winner in Game 3, the Blues have won back-to-back games and TEAM WORK TO GET THAT @STLOUISBLUES HAT ON THE ICE. outscored San Jose 7-1. They’ve remained physical, with 63 hits in the #STANLEYCUP PIC.TWITTER.COM/AOPSERGRUA past two games, and after surviving the second and third periods in their Game 4 win Friday in St. Louis, they were flat-out dominant in Game 5 — NHL GIFS (@NHLGIFS) MAY 19, 2019 Sunday in San Jose. In stark contrast was the scene back at Enterprise Center, where several “I don’t know if it was motivation,” Berube said. “We knew we played a more hats littered the ice. real good hockey game that game, but we let it slip away. Yeah, we were MEANWHILE BACK IN ST. LOUIS… #STLBLUES upset about the call, but we let it go. We moved on from the call and #WEALLBLEEDBLUE PIC.TWITTER.COM/PXWGX64CRA focused on Game 4 and fortunately we got a win. I think we’re a confident team right now with that win. That really motivated us. I thought — ST. LOUIS BLUES (@STLOUISBLUES) MAY 19, 2019 we were a motivated hockey team today.” Schwartz was unaware of what happened back home until a reporter This one brought back memories of the series-clinching Game 6 against relayed the story to him in San Jose. Winnipeg in the first round, when the Blues outshot the Jets, 16-1, in the second period. After taking a 1-0 lead on Sundqvist’s goal in the first “That’s awesome,” he said. “Obviously everyone’s excited this time of the period Sunday, the Blues outshot San Jose 20-6 in the second period year. Our fans are pumped.” and led the Sharks 3-0 when Tarasenko converted the Blues’ first successful penalty shot in the playoffs in club history. And fans will be even more pumped in the next 48 hours, as the Blues get set to host what could be the game that advances them to their first Stanley Cup finals in 49 years.

“We’re close. We’re very close right now,” said forward Pat Maroon, a St. Louis native. “I think guys know that, and it’s in the back of their heads. But we know that that’s a good hockey team over there, too, and they’re not going to give up. They’re a good road team and a good hockey team, and they’ve got a lot of firepower over there. They’re skilled, veteran players that know how to handle these kind of situations, too.

“So we’ve got to find a way to go back home, play a solid hockey game and just try to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Ticket prices have already started jumping.

A MASSIVE JUMP TO #STLBLUES GAME 6 TICKET PRICES FOLLOWING THE SHUTOUT IN SAN JOSE. CHEAPEST TICKETS HAVE INCREASED $97 FROM 24 HOURS AGO, WITH AVERAGE ASKING PRICE NOW $454.

USE PROMO CODE NHL50 FOR $50 OFF ORDERS $450+ NOW >> HTTPS://T.CO/2AITRDMLB7#STLVSSJS #GLORIA #WCF PIC.TWITTER.COM/R9SJOA32CR

— TICKETIQ (@TICKET_IQ) MAY 19, 2019

But like Maroon, the rest of the Blues don’t want to jump the gun.

“It’s probably tough to put into words,” Schwartz said. “Obviously it’s something that everyone’s worked for and dreamed about. You don’t want to look too far ahead. We all know how important and how hard that last win’s going to be. It would be a dream come true. That’s really all I can say.”

“I think every player dreams of playing in the Stanley Cup final,” Tarasenko said. “We’re not there yet, we know next game will be a really big game. If you check what kind of support we have when we play on the road, and even in Enterprise Center, it says what expectations are. It’ll be our best game next game.”

“Just be simple and do your job, and see what the score is at the end of the game,” said goalie Jordan Binnington, who made 21 saves to record his first playoff shutout. “We know they’re going to come hard, and it’s going to be a tough game next game at home. Just keep cool and let it happen — and do your job.”

“We just stay focused on what we want to do, whether it’s in-game or between games, we do a good job of being relentless and making sure we stick to the plan,” forward Alexander Steen said. “We’ve got to move forward and get to the next one. That’s been our mentality since January. We will do the same now.”

The Blues may meet some resistance from the Sharks at Enterprise Center on Tuesday. But at least they won’t be stopped by security.

The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144961 St Louis Blues players against top Russian players, with games played in both Russia and Canada.

The sense was Perron wasn’t likely to make the Blues, given he’d only What brought David Perron to St. Louis three times? The Blues forward’s played one year of major junior hockey. But Perron’s agent, Allan Walsh, journey home — again convinced the Blues to at least give Perron 48 hours at training camp.

The two days turned into an exhibition game, where he played on a line By Scott Burnside May 19, 2019 with Keith Tkachuk.

There was an AHL exhibition game and more practices, and when camp broke, it turned out Perron wasn’t going anywhere. When David Perron put pen to paper on a new four-year contract with the St. Louis Blues last summer, it was like an old married couple settling You know the idea of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court? back into a favored porch swing. Perron laughs heartily at the vast amount he did not know.

It was rediscovering a beloved pair of slippers, forgotten in the back of a It was about a month into the season when someone in accounting with closet. the Blues reached out to coach Andy Murray to see if there was a It was the feeling of a well-worn baseball glove pulled from a long- problem with Perron, who was not cashing his checks. discarded sports bag in the garage. The Sherbrooke, Quebec, native, whose command of the English “As soon as I got in the taxi at the airport, it was so easy. It felt like home language was rudimentary at that point, told Murray he was still living off right away,” Perron said. his cash per diem from training camp and that the checks were sitting on a counter in his hotel room. “Basically, I grew up here a lot. I think that’s why it feels so special with this city. I got to know the city — the good and the bad.” So Murray helped Perron set up a bank account and credit card.

Perron is almost 31. He’s at that stage of his career where he thinks of “I had to learn a lot of English. I had to learn a lot of things,” Perron said. things like getting to 1,000 games played and, of course, a Stanley Cup. “I didn’t have a credit card. I had nothing.”

He has played for five different teams and yet signed contracts with only Teammates and staffers also made sure Perron wasn’t going hungry. one, the Blues, including the latest for a tidy $16 million. “They gave me money, and I paid them back later. Guys would take me When he signed that deal in the summer, it marked the third separate on the road and buy me dinner and things like that,” Perron said. “The time he became a Blue, but the truth of the matter is that Perron has, for first thing I did when I got my credit card, I went right to the mall and got all intents and purposes, always been a Blue; he merely took extended some suits, got some winter coats to get ready. It was definitely a cool leaves of absences with other NHL teams. moment.”

“It’s actually quite amazing; it’s a unique story. I don’t think you’re ever On the ice, though, Perron was anything but out of place. Well, at least going to see anything like it again. I really don’t,” said longtime analyst skill-wise. Darren Pang, who was new to the St. Louis broadcast team when Perron As a teenager, he’d followed closely the top Russian players, like Alexei made his first, flamboyant appearance on the Missouri hockey stage Kovalev and Sergei Fedorov. back in the fall of 2007. Perron showed up at camp with distinctive white skates favored by those Perron failed to crack a major junior lineup as a 17-year-old, so his first stars. year of draft eligibility was spent playing AAA hockey in Quebec. They weren’t just a little white, but totally white, all white, Murray recalled. The following year, he jumped to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and his Lewiston team went to the Memorial Cup. The next year, The skates soon got a makeover. he was on various draft boards as high as a top-10 and as low as a third- or fourth-round pick. Murray can’t recall how it came to pass, exactly. Certainly one of the equipment managers suggested that the white skates could be dealt with It looked like Vancouver might take him with the 25th pick, but it chose quite easily. Maybe some of the veterans, a group that included Patrick White, who never appeared in an NHL game. luminaries like Doug Weight, Tkachuk and Paul Kariya, were part of the decision. Murray concedes he likely gave the OK for the makeover. “I still hear about it every time I come to Vancouver,” Perron said. But when Perron showed up for the first practice of camp, those He was elated, of course, when the Blues called his name with the 26th remarkable white skates had been turned black, thanks to some well- pick in the 2007 NHL Draft. But he was also surprised. applied paint or magic marker.

The Blues, one of 26 teams to interview Perron, grilled him during pre- It was the kind of moment that can go a couple of ways. draft interviews. But Perron said nothing. He put on his newly blackened skates and “St. Louis was just trying to see my character, I think. Asking hard continued to prove he was an NHL hockey player. questions and pushing you and kind of catching you off guard,” Perron recalled. “Making you uncomfortable a little bit to see how you react — “I get to the locker room and my skates are black. All black,” Perron that’s kind of what I got from it.” recalled. “I actually didn’t say a word. I think they appreciated that. Because obviously, you don’t want a young guy to come in and, He attended development camp, where Hall of Fame Blues defenseman whatever, be standing out for things like that. And I think back then, old- Al MacInnis, who is still with the team as a senior advisor to GM Doug school coaches like Andy and guys like that are more towards traditional Armstrong, offered some words of encouragement to the 19-year-old things, and I got it. I got some of it, and I had to learn a lot of it, too. With forward. mistakes that I made along the way. But that part, I’m glad … I didn’t say “It was like a brief conversation, but it meant a lot to me. I don’t even anything and I got on the ice. If anything, it triggered me, it pushed me to know if he knows that himself,” Perron said. “He talked to me by the want to make a difference, and maybe that helped me, to be honest.” boards and just kind of mentioned a couple of things I could work on and And the fact is the kid could play and loved to be at the rink. also just to be ready and you never know what happens. Come to camp prepared.” “We had trouble getting him to come off the ice,” said Murray, who is now the head coach at Western Michigan University. “His stick skills and the As it turned out, the Blues weren’t even counting on Perron coming to things he could do with the puck are elite. They liked him a lot there. He training camp that fall. fit in right away.”

Perron was selected to take part in something called the 2007 Super Lee Stempniak, another of the many young Blues players at the time, Series, an eight-game exhibition series pitting top Canadian junior recalls Perron simply stickhandling every time he was on the ice. Always a puck on the stick. “And he was really good at it,” Stempniak said. But Perron was never a fit.

You know the kid who’s always shooting pucks at the boards while the Perron played 86 games for the Penguins, totaling just 16 goals. He coach is trying to talk? That was Perron. played in five playoff games and had one assist. Exactly a year and two weeks after becoming a Penguin, he was traded again, this time shipped “At the end of it, I just felt like he was just such a talented player that was to Anaheim for Carl Hagelin. strong on his stick, that was hungry to score goals. You can’t teach that. He’s always had that,” Pang said. For the exuberant first-round pick, things all of a sudden looked pretty bleak. Armstrong, who joined the Blues in Perron’s first season, recalled that Perron was one of the first guys to install a home gym and was fanatical “When I got traded to Anaheim, it was kind of rock bottom for my career about his fitness and conditioning. at the time because it was not going well at all,” Perron acknowledged. “I was, in a way, almost out of the league at that point, in my opinion.” “I love his passion for the game. He just eats, breathes hockey,” Armstrong said. But after getting some time playing with Ryan Getzlaf, Perron saw his confidence return just in time to get a call from — wait for it — Armstrong And if there were rookie missteps or things that got lost in translation, and the Blues in the summer of 2016. none of it happened out of malice or ego. “At the end of the day, I think it opens your eyes to different things, and ”There was never anything that was done with intent on his part. He was you see what’s good that you were doing with the team or what was not just innocent and didn’t know certain things,” Murray said. good,” Perron said. “Obviously, I wish I didn’t move around as much as I Like during his rookie season when a reporter was chatting with Perron did, played on different teams, but every single experience helped me get during a rough stretch for the team. Asked about what it would take to get to this day.” things on track, Perron suggested that once veteran Doug Weight started Perron signed a two-year deal with St. Louis, but there were still major playing better, the Blues would be OK. twists to come.

Another veteran player, made aware of Perron’s analysis, approached In June 2017, Perron was left exposed by the Blues for the expansion the reporter and appealed to his sense of humanity. If a story appeared draft and was snapped up by the Vegas Golden Knights. in the paper with Perron guilelessly chiding a respected veteran like Weight, well, it would not go over well for the kid in the dressing room. Again, said Armstrong, this wasn’t about dissatisfaction with Perron, rather a function of a changing NHL. Unlike other GMs who offered up The young Perron was spared. prospects and draft picks to shelter specific players, the Blues accepted Weight had never heard the story but has no doubt about its veracity, they were going to lose a good player. And they did. and it makes him laugh all these years later. It was a bittersweet moment for Perron.

“That story says a lot about David,” said Weight, who is considered a big He didn’t want to leave St. Louis, but in Vegas he became an important part of one of the greatest generations of American-born players in the part of the team’s shocking success, playing top minutes and taking on NHL. “He was such a confident kid. responsibilities he had rarely been given in the past.

“He had unbelievable hands. He’s putting pucks between Al MacInnis’ In spite of injuries, Perron had 16 goals and 66 points in 70 regular- legs, doing all kinds of stuff.” season games. And while he was supplanted in the lineup as the playoffs After six seasons with the Blues, including two 20-goal campaigns, rolled along, appearing in 15 postseason games, it was a positive Perron was at home in the Montreal area in the summer of 2013 when he experience and set the stage for what one might rightfully expect will be got a phone call. the final chapter of Perron’s St. Louis Blues odyssey.

Perron could see via the caller ID that it was Armstrong. “I will say that coming back from his experience in Vegas, I have found maybe a different everyday attitude and spirit (in Perron),” Pang said. “I tell everyone, ‘Guys, I don’t have a good feeling for some reason,’” Perron recalled. The Golden Knights never let anything upset their rhythm, from beginning to end. “I really believe he brought that here,” Pang said. And so Perron, one year into a four-year deal, was off to Edmonton, swapped for Magnus Paajarvi and a second-round draft pick, which And so Perron is here for Round 3 and on the cusp of a trip to the yielded current Blue Ivan Barbashev. Stanley Cup final.

“Sometimes you just know. And it was pretty brief, because Army’s all With his wife, son Mason, who will be 4 this summer, and daughter business. That’s really what I appreciate of him — he doesn’t tiptoe Victoria, who just turned 2, Perron is home once again. around that stuff,” Perron said. Perron began Game 3 of the Western Conference final against San Jose At the time, the Blues had a lot of players who were in the same age with a medium-force crosscheck to the back of Sharks defenseman Brent range and needed to shake things up, including extending the contract of Burns after a whistle. That was followed by a low-level whack to the back rising star Alex Pietrangelo. of Evander Kane’s legs.

“It was about trying to rearrange some of the chairs,” Armstrong said. “It Perron took the first penalty of the game, an offensive-zone trip, following certainly was not a reflection on David.” a trend that has been a bugaboo of Perron’s over the years. And he should have been assessed another penalty for flipping the puck over the The trade would begin a period of upheaval in Perron’s hockey life. glass later in the game.

“It hurt. It hurt a ton,” Perron said of the trade. “Basically, everyone’s kind But he also scored two wonderful goals and had several glorious of dreaming of playing with one organization your whole career. And chances at a hat trick as the Blues dropped a heartbreaker 5-4 in because you invest so much and because you believe so much in the overtime on the now-infamous hand-pass goal. process and what the team is trying to accomplish, it was definitely tough.” It was a vintage-Perron night. A little bit of everything. But there was a moment at the end of regulation that caught Pang’s eye. Pietrangelo iced Perron lit it up for a perpetually rebuilding Edmonton team, scoring a the puck several times before San Jose tied the game to force overtime. career-best 28 times in his first season there. The next season, Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford sent a first-round pick and Rob “And now the game’s tied, and now they’ve got to go into the locker room Klinkhammer to Edmonton for the talented, edgy winger, and Perron was after what certainly looked like a sure win, and I saw David Perron off to play with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in what should have beeline right over to Alex Pietrangelo and pat him on the back and tap been a terrific fit. him on the shin pads,” Pang said. “That’s a sign of maturity in being a team guy and saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get it back.’” “I thought it probably was going to be the best opportunity of my career, and it just didn’t work out for me there,” Perron said. “Individually, the They didn’t, as it turns out, get it back, but two nights later, the Blues team was great, the guys were great, our organization — everything was evened the conference final with a 2-1 win at home. great.” Murray, too, has been watching the Blues’ playoff run closely. Murray not only coached current Blues Alex Steen, Pietrangelo and Perron, but he also coached St. Louis coach Craig Berube when Murray was an assistant in Philadelphia in the late 1980s.

Murray is impressed by the insightfulness and maturity shown by Perron, especially after the controversial loss in Game 3.

Weight is especially impressed by how Perron incorporated an element of edge to his game to remain not just relevant but also an important cog for the Blues.

The talent is self-evident. “But it’s also his work ethic and his bite,” Weight said. “I see that edge, and it’s not necessarily fighting, but it’s a competitive edge. He’s a tough player to play against. He’s physical. He’s recognized that it’s part of his game that he’s recognized he needs to be effective.

“He’s turned into a top playoff player.”

When you get to this point of the playoffs — three teams left, with Boston having already punched a ticket to the final — it’s a worthwhile endeavor to peel back the layers that go into the construct of a team.

There are 28 other teams doing this very same thing. What is it that separates them from us? What are the components?

What is the value, for instance, of returning a player like Perron to the fold for the third time?

“It’s like he doesn’t miss a beat,” said veteran defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.

“I think our team this year was a prime example where we had a bunch of new guys and it just took a while for everybody to figure things out. It speaks well for him. He deserves it. He’s had a long career. He should feel comfortable, and I’m glad he’s back in a place where he wants to be.”

Through Perron’s comings and goings, Pietrangelo and Perron have become good friends, as have their wives.

“It’s kind of fun to grow up together,” Pietrangelo said with a grin.

“There’s always a little bit of a feeling-out process when you bring a new guy in, but he was the new guy three times. He hasn’t changed since day one, which is a good thing. But he fits well in our locker room. That’s why we keep bringing him back.”

Of course, there is one drawback: Each time Perron returned to the familiar No. 57, there was no boost to hockey-related revenue since fans didn’t need to buy new jerseys.

But isn’t that kind of a legacy?

“You know what? It actually is,” Pang said. “When you think of No. 57 here in St. Louis, you think of David Perron.”

The Athletic LOADED: 05.20.2019 1144962 Tampa Bay Lightning Tampa Bay Times LOADED: 05.20.2019

Lightning forward J.T. Miller has proven to be an added treat

By Mari Faiello

Published Yesterday

TAMPA — Like sprinkles on top of an ice cream sundae, the Lightning acquired J.T. Miller as an added treat in the trade for defenseman Ryan McDonagh in 2018.

Tampa Bay made acquiring a veteran defenseman a necessity in 2017- 18, so it dealt Vladislav Namestnikov for McDonagh, but not even McDonagh or Miller initially knew that Miller also would be included. The addition of a physical forward came as a bonus last season and this season.

Miller brought a level of experience the team needed on the ice and in the locker room. His presence helped Tampa Bay record one of the best regular seasons in NHL history.

The 26-year-old forward doesn’t rank as one of the Lightning’s top stars, but he played a huge role. Miller could play on any line and brought a heavier style of play to a team in need of grit.

In 75 games, he netted 13 goals and logged 34 assists for a combined 47 points, tying fellow forward Tyler Johnson for the sixth-highest total on the Lightning’s roster this season. Miller also notched a career-high of 20 power play points this year.

Not too shabby for his first full season with the team, right?

Others might disagree.

Miller’s current contract calls for him to be paid $5.25 million in 2019-20, which just so happens to be around the same price as Johnson, Yanni Gourde, and Ondřej Palát. He won’t hit unrestricted free agency until 2023-24.

But is that the best place for Miller to be, smack dab in the middle of all of this talent on a Lightning roster that may not be super noticeable in every game, but goes toward the success of every season?

The impending signing of center Brayden Point may impact Miller’s status as executives try to find room in this year’s salary cap.

His talents, however, outside of his basic skills, lie in the fact he’s an asset to any line. It doesn’t take much for him to take on a leading role with any group. That alone certainly gives executives something to think about.

In the most basic terms, he’s the utility player the Lightning needs, the forward coaches and teammates know can play anywhere on the ice. His versatility can’t be overlooked when it gets down to the decision-making. Miller’s ability to complement, like those sprinkles, could prompt management to serve him up for another season.

Miller’s season

High: Miller’s goal and two assists in the Lightning’s 8-2 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 13. Miller capped off the night with the last goal in the game on a Tampa Bay power play, slapping the puck into the back of the net on a tight rebound with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

Low: Miller went on two separate stints toward the middle and end of the season where he went five and six games, respectively, without logging a single point.

By the numbers:

47 points, the second-highest total of his career (best of 56 in 2016-17)

20 power play points, a career-high for the forward who beat his record of 12 in 2017-18

34 assists, matching a previous career-high from 2016-17

4 game-winning goals, tying Johnson and Hedman for the fifth-highest mark on the roster 1144963 Washington Capitals Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning a year earlier. But for all the growth Burakovsky showed at times this season, he finished with the same number of goals and assists as in the 2017-18 campaign, when he To qualify or not qualify restricted free agent Andre Burakovsky, that is appeared in 20 fewer games. the Caps’ question “It has been up and down for sure,” Burakovsky said. “I’ve been moving around a lot, up and down the lineup, sitting out a couple games. It was tough. My fifth year [in the NHL] obviously, I want to be more consistent, By Isabelle Khurshudyan and I think I learned a lot. I worked a lot with my mental coach, and I think I am on the right path for sure. I think overall, my game has been May 19 at 2:07 PM pretty good and taking steps without the puck that maybe I didn’t do last year. I think I played way better without the puck, and I am pretty happy with my season even if the points hasn’t been as much as I wanted.” What to do with forward Andre Burakovsky was something the Washington Capitals’ front office deliberated throughout the season. He Washington Post LOADED: 05.20.2019 is still young, skilled and speedy with the pedigree of a first-round pick just six years ago, but his production has stalled. His points per game average declined each of the past three seasons until he finished with 12 goals and 13 assists in 76 games this season.

Washington had to decide whether it should deal him by the trade deadline, and when the team opted to hold on to him for the time being, it set up its current conundrum: whether to tender him a pricey qualifying offer by next month’s deadline with the intent of re-signing him as a restricted free agent. When asked about the Capitals’ plans on that front last month, General Manager Brian MacLellan didn’t exactly give Burakovsky a vote of confidence. Washington is expected to run into salary cap constraints this summer with winger Jakub Vrana due a considerable raise and four unrestricted free agents on the roster to consider.

“We’ll talk it through,” MacLellan said. “I mean, a frustrating year for him. At the end, he kind of found it. We’re going to have to talk about how we want to allocate that money and what role he would play on our team going forward.”

In the midst of a career season with the Florida Panthers, 25-year-old Frank Vatrano signed a three-year, $7.6 million extension in February for an annual cap hit of $2.53 million. Vatrano finished with 24 goals and 15 assists in his first full NHL season. Though Burakovsky is a year younger than Vatrano, he has more experience with 328 career games to Vatrano’s 205. With New Jersey winger Miles Wood, 23, coming off a strong 2017-18 campaign with 19 goals and 13 assists in 76 games, the Devils rewarded him with a four-year extension worth $2.75 million annually. Similarly, Anaheim’s Ondrej Kase had 20 goals and 18 assists as a 22-year-old to get a three-year deal carrying a $2.6 million cap hit this season. Wood and Kase had played just two NHL seasons at the time of those contracts. Burakovsky has accrued five seasons.

With those as comparables, extending a $3.25 million qualifying offer to Burakovsky could be considered an overpay, though not a prohibitive one. Another issue is that Burakovsky is arbitration eligible, so if Washington retains his negotiating rights by tendering him a qualifying offer and he opts to reject it, as most restricted free agents do, then he or the team can later elect to have a third-party mediator rule on either a one-year or two-year salary.

In recent offseasons, the Capitals have shown an appetite to avoid arbitration because it could lock the team into a binding cap hit it’s not comfortable with. Two years ago, Washington non-tendered forward Brett Connolly, which would have made him an unrestricted free agent on July 1, but the Capitals continued negotiating with him and re-signed him to a two-year deal. They did the same with forward Devante Smith-Pelly last June, and that’s the most likely course of action they will take with Burakovsky. The risk is losing the 2013 first-round pick for nothing if he chooses to sign elsewhere July 1.

“I love Washington. I love my teammates. I love everyone around — everything, the organization,” Burakovsky said. “My goal is to stay, and hopefully I will be able to.”

That echoes what Burakovsky said throughout the season, when he was the subject of trade speculation because of his contract status and his slumping production. Burakovsky scored just five goals and four assists in his first 41 games of the season, but he heated up in January, roughly a month before the trade deadline. In his final 35 games, Burakovsky had seven goals and nine assists, his confidence perhaps buoyed by the Capitals’ decision not to deal him. He tallied just one goal and one assist during Washington’s first-round series with the Carolina Hurricanes, but he was one of the team’s best players in Game 7, and he showed a similar knack for rising to the occasion with two goals in the Capitals’ 1144964 Websites But individually, nothing looks bleaker for San Jose than Karlsson’s deteriorating health. He barely played after labouring back to the defensive zone early in the second period when defence partner Brent Sportsnet.ca / Decades of Blues frustration coming to an end as Sharks' Burns made a desperate lunge at Tarasenko and tripped the Blue as he seem to deepen was heading in on a breakaway.

Tarasenko buried his penalty shot to make it 3-0. Oskar Sundqvist’s opening goal came after Karlsson passed the puck behind Brendan Iain MacIntyre | May 19, 2019, 6:09 PM Dillon and then screened Jones on the Blue’s one-timer.

Oddly, Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said he relied on medical news from his staff and Karlsson when choosing his lineup for Sunday. DeBoer SAN JOSE, Calif. — By the end of Sunday’s game, which felt a lot like used Haley, pointless in 10 playoff games after the forward’s two-goal the end of their season, the San Jose Sharks’ bench was depleted. So regular season, rather than dress an extra . were their spirits. Karlsson played only one shift in the final 10 minutes of Game 4, which The St. Louis Blues, who joined the National Hockey League in 1967 but St. Louis won 2-1 on Friday. have never won a championship, clubbed the Sharks 5-0 to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference Final. The best road team of the playoffs The Blues might have won this series in five games had officials not is one win away from extending their extraordinary journey all the way to missed Timo Meier’s hand pass that set up Karlsson’s overtime winner in the Stanley Cup Final. Game 3.

It’s a trophy the Sharks have never won, either, despite San Jose “For sure, we’ve been here before,” DeBoer said of facing elimination. compiling over the last 15 seasons far more wins than any other NHL “We had to go in and win on the road in Vegas in order to get to a Game team. 7. You’re never comfortable when your backs are against the wall like that, but we have been here before and found a way. I’m confident we But with a chance to play for a Cup this spring, the Sharks were can do that again.” dominated on home ice by the Blues, who are 7-2 on the road in the playoffs and can make the franchise’s first final since 1970 by winning The Blues have been the best team in the Western Conference since Game 6 Tuesday in St. Louis. dramatically turning around their season at the mid-point. Their trajectory has been angling towards this moment for a long time. Fifty years of frustration may be coming to an end for the Blues, as the Sharks’ disappointment over the last two decades seems about to “We’re just trying to live in the present and stay in the moment and keep deepen. working and see what happens,” Binnington said. “It’s been a good job so far. Just keep cool and let it happen.” “It’s probably tough for me to put into words,” forward Jaden Schwartz, a career Blue, said after his second hat trick of the playoffs helped his team “I’ve felt something special, honestly, since we turned it around in the inch within a game of the Stanley Cup Final. “Obviously, it’s something middle of the season,” defenceman Joel Edmundson said. “Our group is that everyone has worked for and dreamed about. We all know how so tight in here. We like to play for each other, stick up for each other. It’s important and how hard that last win is going to be (against San Jose) been really fun and it’s pretty special.” but it would be a dream come true.” The Blues were mightily challenged to manage their emotions after the St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko said: “I think every player dreams to blown call cost them Game 3. Their focus for Tuesday’s game will also play in the Stanley Cup Final, but we’re not there yet.” be severely tested. If they dare look up, they’ll see a Stanley Cup Final awaiting them. They look far closer to getting there than the score in this series indicates. Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 05.20.2019 The Sharks weren’t close to the Blues on Sunday.

After San Jose winger Evander Kane hit the post seconds into Game 5, St. Louis went ahead 1-0 on an errant pass by Sharks defenceman Erik Karlsson before the Blues absolutely dominated the middle period.

Shots finished 40-21 for St. Louis, who outshot San Jose 36-10 over the final 40 minutes.

Karlsson, who has been trying to play on one leg after missing 27 games late in the season due to a groin-related injury, did not play in the third period. Key centre Tomas Hertl also did not appear for the final period after absorbing a check to the head earlier in the game from Blue Ivan Barbashev, who was not penalized for his late, high hit.

Veteran Shark Joe Pavelski, who missed most of the second round due to a concussion, was injured on his first shift of the third period when hit hard along the boards by Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo.

San Jose also finished the game without Micheal Haley and Kane, who were assessed 10-minute misconducts for late altercations.

Literally and figuratively, the Sharks looked like a beaten team.

“We’re still alive,” San Jose centre Logan Couture said. “We’ve been in this spot before going to Vegas down 3-2 (in the first round) in a very, very difficult building. St. Louis is similar.”

The Sharks will try to rally themselves with the knowledge they are 4-0 when facing elimination in these playoffs. But only one of the season- extending wins was on the road, and it required goalie Martin Jones to make 58 saves when his team was outshot 59-29 by the Vegas Golden Knights.

A performance like that now looks beyond Jones, who has been badly outperformed the last two games by St. Louis rookie Jordan Binnington and handed the puck to Schwartz on his first goal Sunday. 1144965 Websites Blues as a seller — in fact, St. Louis might have been the first team labelled as such. Twitter was aflutter with the rumour Armstrong had advised teams that everyone on the roster was available for the right Sportsnet.ca / How the Blues pulled off one of the NHL's greatest price. The punditocracy was openly speculating about which players turnarounds – Sportsnet would best help perceived Cup contenders — Tarasenko to Vegas or the Bruins was one delicious rumour; in Toronto, Leafs fans were just waiting for confirmation of the acquisition of defenceman Colton Parayko. by Iain MacIntyre It is, of course, a cliché that’s regularly dropped: The best trades are the ones you don’t make. There’s no knowing how many deals Armstrong

didn’t make this year, so there’s no rating which of them was the best. On January 2, the St. Louis Blues had the worst record in the NHL and And, that all seems awfully far in the rear-view mirror now, with hockey in there were calls to blow the team up. Now they’ve got a shot at their first St. Louis in May. Stanley Cup Final in five decades. This is the story of one of the greatest As Armstrong tells it today, trades were never as imminent as the turnarounds in hockey history. rumours suggested. “You make your decisions based on the NHL In early January, the St. Louis Blues had seemingly reached their calendar,” the GM says. “February 1 is where you start to strategize and breaking point, which coincided with the exact mid-point of the 2018–19 make decisions about what you’re going to do ahead of the trading season. Their record stood at 17–20–4, on pace for 76 points, which deadline, whether you’re going to be a buyer or seller or stay pat. Until would be the team’s worst 82-game record since 2005–06. When then you are still figuring out what your team is about — so is everyone management fired one coach, Mike Yeo, and brought in Craig Berube to else. And it takes two to make a trade. Even if you want to do something serve on an interim basis in November, it did nothing to improve the before [February], it’s irrelevant unless someone else wants to do team’s prospects. By January, with 25 of the team’s 41 remaining games something.” on the road, analytics websites gave St. Louis less than a 10-per cent It’s not that Armstrong is by nature reluctant to pull the trigger on a trade- chance of making the playoffs. The local reviews were unforgiving. The deadline deal. He moved a massive piece to Winnipeg back in February St. Louis Post-Dispatch summed up the half-season in six words: “Too of 2018 when he traded centre Paul Stastny, who was coming up to much frustration, too little success.” unrestricted free agency, for a package that included a first-round draft This wasn’t tanking either, though for the stretches when St. Louis had pick. (Armstrong had already traded the team’s own 2018 first-rounder to the worst record in the NHL it sure looked like a push for the first-overall Philadelphia for Brayden Schenn.) “We were still in the playoff hunt [in pick — the Blues Lose for Jack Hughes. Nor was it a rebuild. St. Louis February 2018] with Stastny, but I thought we weren’t really playing well,” had pieces, established NHL stars in what should be their prime: Right Armstrong says. Without Statsny, the Blues wound up with 95 points, winger Vladimir Tarasenko has been one of the decade’s most dynamic missing out on the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot by a talents; Alex Pietrangelo has regularly been high up on Norris Trophy single point. ballots; and, via a July trade with Buffalo, the team had acquired Ryan As the rumour mill and Twitter feeds suggest, many assumed that O’Reilly, a centre who might have routinely been a Selke Trophy finalist if Armstrong had soured on this year’s team in general and certain players he had played for contenders in big markets. in particular. “If you went by the standings it looked really bad, but if you Ahead of the season, the Blues had looked poised for a breakthrough. watched our games pretty closely you saw that we did some good things The team had come within a couple games of making the Final in 2016 and played some good hockey,” Armstrong says. “This was a case of a — losing to San Jose in a six-game Western Conference Final — and team coming together that was figuring it out and finding ways to lose over the years it often had run into teams on a roll or hot goaltenders in games that they should have won. We weren’t finding ways to win the post-season. The Blues had reason to think that it was going to be games. In December we started to play winning hockey but we didn’t get their turn. the results [and] had a few bad beats. We went on a road trip out to Western Canada and won two out of three playing really good.” The players were restless. “We can’t be doing this throughout the rest of the year,” defenceman Joel Edmundson told the Post-Dispatch in “We never really had that mindset where we were completely out of it.” January. “We’ve got to figure something out. It’s tough mentally winning And really, when the numbers crunchers were putting the Blues’ chances one, losing one.” of making the playoffs down in the 10-per cent range, the most important And at that point, did one of the toughest things a GM number wasn’t actually all that daunting in retrospect: At the halfway sometimes has to do: nothing at all. With fans and media wanting point of the season, St. Louis was seven points out of the wild card, but Armstrong to take action — demanding it even — he stood pat and with games in hand on everyone ahead of them. And with Berube’s waited for a turnaround that to many seemed wishful. Soon enough — promotion from an assistant’s role, some of the underlying numbers — barely — the Blues, the team with the worst record in the NHL at the differentials in possession and chances, and shooting percentage among beginning of the calendar year, did in fact get on a run and, almost others — had started to trend in the right direction, even though the team unforeseeably, became a buyer at the trade deadline, acquiring had the worst record in the league on January 2. defenceman Michael del Zotto from Anaheim for a sixth-rounder. The interim coach could easily have been accused of searching too hard And now, four months later, with a 2-1 win over San Jose in Game 4 of for silver linings when he offered this assessment of his stars’ play. the Western Conference Final, the Blues are now two wins away from “They’ve been pressing for a while,” Berube told the Post-Dispatch after their first Stanley Cup Final since 1970. And, really, they have to think losing Game 41 to Dallas. “If those guys get clicking and putting the puck themselves criminally unlucky not to be up three games to one against in the net, that’s gonna make a world of difference for not only them but the Sharks. the team. To me, lately, they’ve been working. And they’re competing. They’re getting good opportunities. They just gotta finish. But I like their This St. Louis team might not provide a teachable lesson for executives work ethic and I like their competitiveness.” As it turned out, Berube was and players who find themselves off the NHL’s playoff grid in mid-winter. prescient. There’s no how-to in the Blues’ in-season transformation from doormat to Conference finalist, they’re just a very rare exception to the rule about a Given that, as mentioned, the Blues had 25 of their last 41 on the road, team not in contention at American Thanksgiving. But it’s telling that the team’s second half was truly remarkable. Again, Berube was right on serial disappointments didn’t beget panic in the GM or dissension in the the mark in January when he was asked about the prospect of playing so ranks. often away from home. “It’s just a mindset,” he said. “We get on the road, the team’s together all the time. There’s no distractions. It can be a good PAUSE AND REFRESH thing. So I’m actually looking forward to it.”

To Berube's and Armstrong's eyes, the Blues' last-place record wasn't It played out exactly as the coach laid out. Within about six weeks, the reflective of the team's ability. "They just gotta finish," the coach said. Blues became a greater-than-90-per cent lock to make the post-season. “We did a good job of sticking together and coming together,” winger By mid-winter each year, NHL teams fairly divide into two camps: buyers Jaden Schwartz says. “We just couldn’t seem [in the first half of the and sellers; those who think they have a chance to make a run in the season] to put three or four wins together. We’d beat a really good team, spring, and those doing everything short of putting veterans with expiring we’d lose. We’d win, we’d lose. We just couldn’t put together a streak. contracts on Kijiji. By January, hockey’s chattering class had slotted the Then finally we pulled it together. We never really had that mindset where we were completely out of it, but we knew that we were running After getting by Dallas in seven games and rallying to even the out of time and we kind of just got our mojo as a team.” Conference Final through four, the Blues have again proven it's dangerous to count them out Tyler Bozak, the former Maple Leafs centre who signed with the Blues as a free agent last summer, says that losses didn’t translate into defeatism If you went through the rest of the lineup, though, practically everyone and, at some level, they started to play to keep the team together. “It else was going sideways in the first half. And no one slumped as hard as never really felt like we were where we were [in the standings], to be the most valuable player in the Blues’ playoff run so far. honest with you,” Bozak says. “Nobody was too down or anything. We knew the talent we had and we kind of just realized how much we liked In his first six seasons, Jaden Schwartz had established himself as a each other, I guess. We knew at that point of the year, if things kept reliable 20-plus goal-scorer with a career high of 28 in 2013–14. He going bad there were probably going to be trades and guys would be seemed, at 26, to just be entering his prime, maybe poised to score 30 gone. I’ve been on really close teams before, but there’s something goals for the first time. Instead, in the first 41 games of the season he about this team. Guys spend a lot of time together outside the rink. Even registered only three. “He has been an important player for us, coming up at home, we all live kind of in the same area, spend a lot of time together. in our organization and being a part of the leadership group,” Armstrong We love being around each other. I think that really brought us together says. “He has always been a better player for us than the numbers this throughout the year. Obviously, there were a lot of new faces at the start season would show. He’s not a one-dimensional player. He’s not a player of the year and that takes time to build that chemistry and that trust.” who has to score to help you win games. He can do a lot of other things that can help your team. He was just snakebitten.” RIGHT TIME, LAST PLACE Schwartz’s woes didn’t quite cease when the Blues went on their roll in Binnington's arrival coincided with the larger turnaround. The rookie went the second half — his 11 goals were a career-worst for a full season, 13-1-1 with four shutouts through his first 15 starts. eight shy of his previous low. That’s all forgotten now, though. Across a few, critical weeks, he’s gone from snakebitten to charmed. It’s as if his A lot of credit for the turnaround has been given to a player who wasn’t correction waited until the games mattered the most. His goal to open exactly a new face in the organization: 25-year-old rookie goaltender scoring in the Blues’ 4–2 win in San Jose in Game 2 was his ninth in 15 Jordan Binnington, who made his first NHL start in Game No. 40, playoff games. Schwartz practically closed out the first-round series stopping 25 shots in a 3–0 win over Philadelphia. No doubt, Binnington against the Winnipeg Jets on his own. “You’re happy for the player, first made for a great story — he’s a Calder Trophy finalist and if narratives — the organization and his teammates are,” Armstrong says. “As bad as factored in, he’d probably run away with the voting. things ever were, he never wavered as far as his effort and commitment Veteran Jake Allen had been slotted as the No. 1 starter and though he went, and that’s been the story with this team across 82 games and has been sometimes unfairly scapegoated over the years for these playoffs.” disappointments in St. Louis, there was no excusing his play in the first There’s no knowing how the Blues’ season will go down in history — as a half — in the game before Binnington’s debut start and the game the next champion, as a near-miss, as a historical anomaly — but in some ways, night, Allen gave up seven goals on 31 shots. Which is to say, the the most memorable game in it so far captured the season in a nominal No. 1 with a save percentage on the wrong side of .900 was all microcosm: the 2–1 double-overtime victory over Dallas in Game 7 of the but asking to be bumped. Western Conference semis.

“I’ve been on really close teams before, but there’s something about this In regulation, the Blues dominated play, outshooting Dallas 41-16, but team. We love being around each other.” didn’t have the result to show for it. Binnington’s challenge was to stay Binnington’s story has become an instant legend. Unforgettably, he focused when he saw only one shot on goal in the second period. Dallas backstopped the Owen Sound Attack, a last-place team the year before, surged a bit in overtime but the Blues didn’t lose their composure. Pat to an OHL title as 17-year-old in 2011… well, maybe not so unforgettably Maroon, like Schwartz another top-nine forward who was sitting on three because it seemed that the Blues management team had forgotten about goals at the halfway mark of the season, jammed a loose puck past the him in their system. He was for stretches an occasionally used back-up in Stars’ Ben Bishop for the winner in the 86th minute of an instant classic. the AHL and seemed to reach a breaking point with the organization Which is to say, the Blues kept it together, just as Doug Armstrong kept when he refused assignment to East Coast Hockey League before the them together. 2017–18 season and was loaned out of the organization to the Bruins’ AHL affiliate in Providence. Feeling slighted by St Louis’ management, Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 05.20.2019 Binnington had his best professional season. This post-season could be a great last chapter to a Horatio Alger story. But the underlying truth is less inspirational. “His arrival coincided with us playing well,” Armstrong says. “That’s the way it really timed out. He had a fabulous run, no doubt, but timing had a lot to do with it.”

With a 13–1–1 record, a .937 save percentage and four shutouts through his first 15 starts, Binnington fully usurped Allen. But, as Armstrong notes, he came along during that stretch when the Blues headed out on the road, took Berube’s messaging to heart and tightened up play without the puck in their own end. Despite their disastrous first three months, they wound up allowing 28.6 shots per game, the fourth lowest in the league for 2018–19. In all, Binnington faced 25 shots or fewer in 17 of 30 starts, which no doubt helped him toward his 24–5–1 record and 1.91 goals-against average.

Not to suggest that Binnington was simply lucky and along for the ride, he wasn’t and isn’t — he might have played his best 60 minutes in the playoffs in Game 4 against San Jose, stopping 29 of 30 shots in a 2-1 in St Louis win. Still, the notion he saved the Blues’ season overstates and oversimplifies. What is much harder to exaggerate is how desperately St. Louis slumped in the first half of the season. O’Reilly might have been alone among the core talents in not being a disappointment, matching his career high with 28 goals for the season, finishing the year with a plus-22 in a lineup with no other forward better than plus-8. “Centre was an obvious area where we needed an upgrade and he was the player that he was advertised to be, no doubt,” Armstrong says. “He’s a 200-foot player that a coach can fall in love with and put him out there in any situation.”

BAH GAWD, THAT'S ST. LOUIS'S MUSIC! 1144966 Websites One win away is a milestone, not the prize the Blues want.

"We're close," Blues forward Patrick Maroon said. "The guys know that. It's in the back of their heads. But we know that's a good hockey team USA TODAY / Blues rout Sharks, one win away from first Stanley Cup over there." Final appearance in 49 years USA TODAY LOADED: 05.20.2019

Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Published 6:02 p.m. ET May 19, 2019 | Updated 7:16 p.m. ET May 19, 2019

The last time the St. Louis Blues were in the Stanley Cup Final, Glenn Hall was one of their goalies. He’s 87 today.

It was 1970. Richard Nixon was president. The Beatles broke up. Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin produced top albums. Gas was 36 cents a gallon. The median house price in the USA was $23,600.

The Blues moved within one win of ending their 49-year Stanley Cup Final drought by defeating the San Jose Sharks 5-0 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference final.

The Blues’ 11 wins this postseason is the most they have ever had in a single playoff year. When they advanced to the Final in 1970, they only needed eight wins to get there.

If they win Tuesday at home, the Blues earn a trip to the Stanley Cup Final to play the Boston Bruins. Coincidentally, the Bruins were their opponent the last time they were in the Finals. The Bruins took them down in four straight and scored the clinching goal, immortalized by the famous photo of him flying Superman-style across the goalmouth.

Jaden Schwartz scored three times Sunday for his second hat trick of the postseason to lead the Blues. He is the first NHL player with multiple hat tricks in a postseason since Detroit’s Johan Franzen accomplished the feat in 2008.

12 goals in the postseason and three today.

Jaden Schwartz is untouchable right now. #StanleyCuppic.twitter.com/XZRaUuwQ3U

— NHL (@NHL) May 19, 2019

Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a penalty shot for St. Louis and added two assists.

Penalty shot. Upstairs. #BudLightBeauty. pic.twitter.com/vtg0vLKdwD

— NHL (@NHL) May 19, 2019

The Blues dominated the final two periods, posting 36 shots on goal, compared to 10 for the Sharks in that time.

Goalie Jordan Binnington made 21 saves to become the first Blues’ rookie goalie to record a playoff shutout.

“He’s a calm guy,” teammate Brayden Schenn said of Binnington. “He just goes about his business.”

The Blues have made a remarkable about-face this season, and Binnington’s play was a key factor.

Sitting last in the NHL on Jan. 2, the Blues looked like they may be headed for a rebuild. Trade rumors swirled around the team. No one seemed safe.

But the team switched coaches from Mike Yeo to Craig Berube in November, and once the team became accustomed to Berube’s ways in January, wins started to come. The Blues were among the NHL’s top teams in the second half of the season.

Binnington was 24-5-1 after he replaced Jake Allen as the team’s starter. He owned a 1.89 goals-against average.

With Berube behind the bench and Binnington in net, the Blues’ confidence grew in the regular season and carried into the playoffs. Schwartz scored 11 goals in 69 regular-season games but now has 12 in 18 playoff games.

This Blues team has developed an overflowing supply of mental toughness. They are 7-2 on the road in this postseason. But you will not see over-confidence in this group. They are fully aware the Sharks came back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Vegas Golden Knights.