The San Jose Sharks played much better than a 6-seed in the first round of the NHL playoffs but that play seemed to elude them early on in their series against Los Angeles. The Kings simply outplayed the Sharks in the first two games of the series but things changed when Games three and four were played in San Jose.
And that’s really been the story of series as neither team has surrendered home ice and it’s naturally forced a deadlock that’s led to this Game 7 showdown between Los Angeles and San Jose. It’s really hard to say who has the upper hand beyond the home ice advantage as these teams have traded blows pretty evenly throughout.
But if it comes down to it, the combination of home ice advantage and netminder Jonathan Quick may be too much for San Jose to overcome as they’d have to be the first team in this series to muster up a road win if they want to advance to yet another Conference Finals appearance.
