Why Stanley Cup pressure should be on the Pittsburgh Penguins, not Sharks
SAN JOSE – At no point will coach Pete DeBoer address his San Jose Sharks players about Sunday’s Game 6 (8 p.m., ET, NBC) and pretend he’s Knute Rockne trying to inspire them to win one for the Gipper.
DeBoer says inspirational speeches are “for movies and Sunday football when you’re playing 11 or 12 games a year.”
“These guys don’t need to be inspired to play,” DeBoer said. “They’re in the Stanley Cup Final. Some of them have waited 18 years. There’s no speech I’m going to give Patty Marleau to make him play harder.”
The Sharks, down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, are trying to become the first team in 78 years to come back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the Stanley Cup. But that’s not what they are thinking about. They are just trying to win one game at home.
Going into Game 5, the series seemed over. Pittsburgh needed one win to hoist the Cup and had been the better team in the series. The Sharks’ 4-2 win in Game 5 now has everyone wondering if this might be a toss-up series again.
It’s not hard to project the Sharks winning Game 6 with the help of a loud, boisterous San Jose crowd. If it's possible the Sharks could win Game 6, then it's possible they can come back and win the series.
“Before Game 5, (we) kept saying try to win this game and get back to San Jose,” Sharks center Logan Couture said. “Now it’s going to be don’t lose at home, win a game and go back to Pittsburgh.”
One of the NHL’s time-honored beliefs in that Game 7 is always a coin flip.
Given that tradition, the Penguins might now be the team feeling the pressure. They did all they could before Game 5 to say the series was far from over, but that didn't prevent high expectations.
The Sharks have added confidence because they believe they are winning the goaltending battle. San Jose goalie Martin Jones owns a .933 save percentage in the series, while Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray is at .916.
But the Penguins don’t feel that way because Murray is 5-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average and .933 save percentage in games following a Penguins’ loss in the playoffs.
“The confidence he has in himself, and the confidence we have in him, is unbelievable for such a young guy,” Penguins forward Chris Kunitz said.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan says Murray boasts a mental toughness that is usually only seen in veteran players.
"If one goes in that he thinks he should have had, he has the ability to stay in the moment," Sullivan said. "He's a real competitor. We love that about him. We love his makeup."
Much like the Penguins, Murray started slowly in Game 5. He also gave up a long-range goal to Joel Ward in Game 3 that put the Sharks on the path to a win.
But the reason that he’s starting at age 22 is that he seems to have unshakable confidence. He has a swagger about him, a cool confidence like a gunfighter in a 1950s cowboy movie.
“Sometimes he’s screened, guys in front of him, but he never complains,” Kunitz said. “He just tries to make the big save.”
Both Murray and Jones are learning on the job because neither has NHL playoff history before this season.
“Every day is a new experience,” Murray said. “Every day there is something I try to learn from.”
Murray was asked whether he was motivated by the fact that Jones played brilliantly in Game 5 to keep the Sharks alive.
“I don’t think I need any outside factors," he said, "to get ready for a game."