Inside the Cage: Ready to Respond

The Vegas Golden Knights are the only team this postseason to win five straight out of the gate. Never mind the whole shock and awe reaction to what this brash expansion franchise is doing in its inaugural season.
That storyline is getting pretty stale by now.
Vegas is making this whole hockey thing look far too easy. And it's not.
At some point anyone of sound mind who has been exposed to the rigors it takes for a team to climb the mountain has to surmise the Golden Knights will stumble at some point. Someone is going to beat this team and plant the seed of doubt in their collective minds.
That is the task for the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

"It's the first adversity we've faced in the playoffs," Sharks Peter DeBoer said after a 7-0 loss in Game 1 on Thursday following a sweep in Round 1. "It's on us to respond now."
To rehash what went wrong for the visitors inside raucous T-Mobile Arena - where the bass from the pre-game music vibrates through your body and the fans take over from there to make it a 60-minute party - is something that is best flushed.
And we're not talking about five playing cards of the same suit.
"We had a laundry list of issues," DeBoer said. "We weren't good, and they beat us. It's obviously not pretty and we know we have to be better across the board."
Those intentions springboard us into exactly what needs to improve so the Sharks can escape Sin City with a win Saturday and return to the friendlier confines of SAP Center with a chance to take the lead in the series.

SLOW 'EM DOWN:

Maybe easier said than done because not many teams have had success bottling up the Knights, especially in their building. But taking better care of the puck is first and foremost.
"We knew going in you can't turn the puck over," Sharks forward Logan Couture said. "They're a quick transition team and that's exactly what we did."

The score sheet appeared to let San Jose off easy suggesting it had two less giveaways than Vegas (10-8). But if that was the case virtually each and every turnover proved costly for the visitors.
"We have to be smart with the puck individually," Couture said. "We had a lot of turnovers. Those are usually individual mistakes and this team makes you pay. They turn the puck back and make great plays. So stop turning the puck over."
The Sharks would love to pin the Knights in their own zone with a consistent forecheck and an uptick in physical play. San Jose knows it has to catch Vegas before it can hit Vegas.
It's going to take more precise play through center, solid entries into the attacking zone and winning battles for possession behind the Golden Knights' goal line.
"They did a good job of taking away some of the things we do well," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said.

START ON TIME:

Vegas got the jump on San Jose big time. The Golden Knights ignited the home support with goals at 4:31, 4:57 and 6:02 of the first period - on three consecutive shots, no less.
"Sometimes you need a save to settle things down and I just didn't come up with it," said goalie Martin Jones, who was lifted in favor of Aaron Dell when the fifth of 13 shots faced found the back of the net.

"We understand the environment we're in," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. "They're a good home team, they come out fast. We understand as a player going on the road something like that can happen. We didn't do a good enough job of stopping it."

CASH IN ON CHANCES:

Clearly Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is feeling it. He has three shutouts in five starts this postseason. He's stopped all but three of 163 shots faced in the playoffs. He's not just making the routine stops, he's making the acrobatic and spectacular ones as well.
The Sharks were outshooting the Golden Knights for most of Game 1 and finished with 33 on goal. But nothing went it despite 8:40 of 5-on-4 skating and another 40 seconds of a two-man advantage.
"We've got to score if we want to have a chance to win," Couture said. "A lot of guys had a lot of looks in close and around him on the power play. Guys have to score."

MORE DISCIPLINE:

The Sharks took eight minor penalties before Evander Kane was assessed a major for a cross-check of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare that included a 10-minute misconduct. It's the kind of unfortunate hit that rode up high and will catch the attention of the league.
Kane said there was no intent, and remarked he was happy to see Bellemare continued to play. Just the same, the Sharks are going to need Kane to be a part of the solution Saturday, and not a part of the problem by having to serve any sort of supplemental discipline.
"Obviously they did some things well and we didn't do things well," Kane said of the game. "Whether it's 7-0 or we lost 2-1 in overtime it doesn't really matter. We're just looking forward to Game 2."

RESILIENCY IN THEIR DNA:

A loss in the postseason is an opportunity to make changes. And while the Sharks have a number of healthy scratched players from which to choose, the guess here is DeBoer turns to the exact same 18 skaters and two goalies and challenges them to earn a better result.
A common and familiar trait for most of the season is the Sharks' resiliency, their ability to muster and channel energy into positive results when adversity strikes. It's as much the mental hurdles a team must clear at this time of the year as anything an opponent will throw at them.
"I don't think this game changes anything in the belief in this team," Couture said. "Forget about this one and get ready for the next one."

"Momentum stops the minute the game is over," Kane added. "It starts over again when the puck drops."
The Game 1 video is viewed, dissected and shared. Friday is a practice day as the focus moves away from the opener and squarely on puck drop shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The task is clear.
"We have to be better," DeBoer said. "That's the message they sent, and we've got to respond to that."