Minuses: The Blues haven't been as structured defensively in this series as we know they should be, given their coaching staff and how good of a job they've done there. In the playoffs, they've allowed too many shots and had too many needless giveaways. The Blues have allowed three goals or more in each of the past four games.
Secondly, they take too many penalties. When you have a physical team that has guys that are willing to compete like St. Louis, you have to play smart but don't give San Jose life. The Blues should be trying to get the Sharks frustrated since they can score on the power play, too.
Lastly, which Blues team shows up? I think the fact that they have gotten to the Western Conference Final despite all the injuries they've had this season is incredible, But since they are here, two wins away from the Cup Final, they have to bring their A-game.
Sharks
Pluses: San Jose has tons of depth. This is the deepest Sharks team that I have seen in all my years. Because of that, the matchups aren't as critical to coach Peter DeBoer as they are to Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. The performances he is getting out of his third and fourth lines have been amazing. You look at Chris Tierney, Dainius Zubrus, Melker Karlsson and Tommy Wingels, and they've been incredible. The depth players are responsible, but they can play against anyone with the way they have been playing.
And this is on top of the play of the top six group, including Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Logan Couture, who have had great offensive production in the playoffs. Joel Ward is a playoff performer and Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi have emerged in the playoffs.
The Sharks' power play has been sizzling and they can attack in different ways. They've scored four goals on 15 opportunities in the past four games and have at least one power-play goal in 11 of 17 playoff games.