LA on Game 4: "San Jose Sharks are losing it"

The Sharks showed they have bites in Game 3 winning it in double overtime 4-3.  Nick Foligno is definitely their top scoring leader. He netted 2 goals including the winning one.  But the Kings are doing so far a pretty good job making sure he doesn’t cost any damage. But, Game 4 was mayhem!

It all started when Shark defenseman Andy Greene got angry at the end of the second period when the Kings were on power play.  The Kings decided to control the puck in the neutral zone instead of attacking and pushing it for another goal that would have brought the game up 6 to 2 for the Kings.  Starting the 3rd period, the Kings played it nicely, being gentleman by not wanting to upset the Sharks.  Then came the moment when, after winning another faceoff (58% on the night), King Patrice Bergeron tried to get his 3^rd goal to complete his hat trick but Shark Brendan Dubinsky slashed him violently on the wrist.  Playing the point for the Kings was Ben Lovejoy who saw the whole thing. He raced down the ice by the goal line to defend his star center and beat up Dubinsky alright. At the same time, Shark Carl Gunnarson was cross checking poor Bergeron while he was still on the ice.  Lovejoy’s partner Jonathan Ericsson was also involved in the play and got a 5 minutes for fighting with Troy Brouwer that was face washing little forward Brandon Pirri in the scrum. The general fight exploded at 1:14 into the 3^rd period all because of the Sharks losing it.

“Why ?  Why all that violence ?  If you are not able to compete, give up the race Hakstol !”. A normally calm but then frustrated Coach Boudreau said at the press conference after the game.  “They changed the GM but they didn’t change the coach” to add Boudreau. “Its unfortunate, the Sharks are a very good team but they are badly coached” to conclude the Kings general before leaving the table. I guess the rivalry is back on.

Then Brent Burns came to the mic.  “We will do everything to end it on Tuesday night at home” said the star defenseman before any reporters had the time to ask the first question. We are going to stick with our strategy of feeling that we are on the road all the time.  We will practice here and leave before Game 5 in LA so we will feel like it’s a road game. Its important for us. We did change our lines before Game 4 and it clearly worked well for us.  Im more than happy with adding more ice time and contributing to the team success. Obviously, I like my points total so far but its my +/- 6 that im mostly proud of. It shows my effort of playing well in my own zone too.  You have to excuse me now but I have to go feed my my baby dragon and my snake Jumbo.  Then Burns picked up his army backpack and left the stage. That was it! No questions came from the reporters because he summed it all right there.

Obviously there are some injuries here and there but nothing is more important than the next game. A win for the Kings on Tuesday would be welcomed so their older players like Markov and Jagr could get some much needed rest for the next rounds.  As noted in a previous post, Scott Gomez has been great in the face-offs circle winning them at a rate of 53.5%. The younger players could really learn from him.  An interesting fact is that maybe Game 4 was the highest scoring game so far in this post season, it wasn’t as opened as Game 1 between the Capitals and Senators where both teams shot 91 times. Rest assured, the Kings will be ready for Game 5 whatever the Sharks has in mind.