"I think it's going to have to be a collective effort. Not having the last change too, we're just going to have to worry about playing hockey. We feel comfortable out there. We don't want to just shut them down, we want to be able to make them play defense, which will make it tough to create offense."
Dillon said defending MacKinnon, who has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) during a six-game point streak in the playoffs, requires a special awareness.
"I think it's been MacKinnon's coming-out party, the first series against Calgary," Dillon said of the Avalanche forward's play in the five games against the Flames in the first round. "He was dominant. And in this series again, he's been getting things done. I think he's their heartbeat, and we obviously have to key on him with how good a player he is, but at the same time worrying about what we bring to the table."
Complicating matters for the Sharks has been the absence of forwards Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi in the first two games of the series. Donskoi missed Game 7 of the first round against the Vegas Golden Knights because of an undisclosed injury, and Pavelski sustained an undisclosed injury during Game 7 against Vegas.
Donskoi has been skating with the Sharks, but Pavelski, their captain, has not.
DeBoer provided no update on either player Monday, but he did say Pavelski's value continues to be felt in the locker room.
"He's always around," DeBoer said. "He's a great resource for me on everything, line combinations, lineup. He has a great perspective and a different perspective than as a staff. He has conversations with guys in the room, but a lot of that is just conversations with me and some of the things I get from his perspective."
After two games of getting to know each other in the postseason, DeBoer said the Sharks are ready to start ramping up their intensity.
"I thought after two games we have a pretty good idea of how each other wants to play," he said. "Now it's just about who can consistently do it for more time over the next five games or whatever it takes.
"I think now we're ready to get this series dialed up."
Dillon said the change in style from the seven-game series against Vegas to the first two games against Colorado has required some adjustments, but that good teams know how to make them.
"Game 1 was a little of a feeling-out process," he said. "It seemed like we played Vegas for 20 or 30 games in a row … with the overtimes, and now getting to see how Colorado] is speed-wise, how they're an attack-off-the-rush team and Vegas was a team that got in and hit you and got the cycle on.
"It's just a different series. You're going to have to go through all types of different teams if you want to get to the Final."
---
**Listen: [New episode of NHL Fantasy on Ice podcast**
