McDavid, Kassian score short-handed, Oilers beat Sharks 2-0

“This is playoff hockey”. But, after that, it was all San Jose Sharks.

DeBoer said manipulating desperation and urgency is not usually possible, that it’s an organic quality to any series. In this series, it will be the best shutdown defenseman in the world, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, plus whichever of San Jose’s big, strong two-way centers coach Pete DeBoer decides to give the job to. “Guys just played comfortable (this time), played more of our style of game”, he said. There’s no coaxing anything out or coaching anything out. In his last seven playoff games going back to last season, Hertl has three goals and three assists for six points and a plus-three rating.

“You’re going to get games where you lose that battle and you’re going to get games where you win it. I think it’s just a matter of controlled emotion in the away arena”.

The Sharks head into the playoffs having lost nine of their final 13 regular season games, fading from the top of the Pacific Division to a third-place finish. “You lose momentum by doing that”, he said.

The Sharks will need to have a defensive presence of mind to have any chance of slowing the lightning-quick Connor McDavid and getting past the Oilers and into second round.

“We are going to keep it and rules of the contest are you have to keep it at least a year and it had to be 75 percent teal”, said Robert Beech of Los Gatos. “We just have to get that power play, make it a little bit more risky”. The Sharks have a decent penalty kill and may have to pull up some the slack left by the powerless play.

OTTAWA, Ontario – Brad Marchand broke a tie with 2:33 left and Boston held on to beat Ottawain Game 1 of their first-round series.

“We got so close”, said Elaine Nacht of Campbell.

Thornton has been day-to-day with a knee injury he suffered April 2. It was a dominant performance by the Oilers and particularly by Kassian, a fourth-line winger who drove the net effectively and delivered bone-jarring hits on the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture.

The availability of Thornton and Couture is crucial to San Jose’s success. He has 15 points and 19 penalty minutes in 19 career games against the Sharks. Their core of McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom have never appeared in a playoff game. But he took a regular shift in each game and played a total of 39:52. Edmonton slowed San Jose’s offense, allowing just 16 shots on goal while peppering Jones with 36 shots on goal.

The NHL is absolutely thrilled that the Oilers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2006 because it’s finally a national stage for McDavid, already arguably the best player in the league in his second season. “You’re not nervous, just a little bit, but you want to take as fuel for energy”.

Couture had been ramping things up over the course of the last week, and went through a more physical practice Tuesday to get ready for the playoff opener. For a lot of the key Oilers players, this will be their first playoff experience. “We know we’ve got better games”. Both are questionable in Game 1.

MONTREAL – Tanner Glass’ first-period goal helped NY beat Montreal at Bell Centre in the opener of an Eastern Conference playoff series.

“We’ve got to let this one go”, he said.