r to heated playoff serie

The scene was all too familiar for the San Jose Sharks: a postgame handshake line on their home ice with the other team celebrating a series win while the Sharks wonder what might have been.

A team that seemed to have the ingredients necessary for a long playoff run went out instead in the second round with a 3-0 loss Sunday in Game 6 against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.

”For periods of this series I thought we were a better team Cheap P.J. Hall Jersey , I thought we played the game that we know we’re capable of, we showed we could beat them,” forward Logan Couture said. ”We just didn’t do it long enough.”

That’s what perhaps makes this the most bitter playoff loss in coach Peter DeBoer’s three seasons in San Jose, all of which ended with home playoff losses.

In 2016, the Sharks got over a major hump and made it to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history before losing in six games to a more talented Pittsburgh team.

Last year, San Jose sputtered toward the finish of the season and lost in six games to Edmonton in the first round in large part due to injuries that hampered top two centers Couture and Joe Thornton.

But the Sharks were healthier this year despite Thornton’s absence because of a knee injury. Midseason acquisitions Evander Kane and Eric Fehr had San Jose surging following a first-round sweep against Anaheim.

They came out flat in the opener against Vegas and lost 7-0 and then dropped a key overtime contest at home in Game 3, playing much of the series from behind. The biggest difference was the performance of the top lines with Vegas’ trio of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith combining for eight goals and 17 assists, while Kane, Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi had just three goals and two assists for the Sharks.

”We definitely would’ve liked to have been a little bit more productive,” Pavelski said. ”It’s hard to say. We’ll have to take a look at it Billy Price Youth Jersey , figure it out. We had some looks, we had some chances, we didn’t capitalize when we did. I wish I had an answer. We sure should’ve been a little better.”

Here are some other takeaways from the season and things to watch this summer:

JUMBO JOE

Thornton injured his right knee on Jan. 23 and never was able to make it back into the lineup. He practiced all postseason and even took part in all the pregame skates but never felt quite healthy enough to get back into the lineup. The 38-year-old Thornton is now eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, leaving his future in San Jose in doubt. He still can be productive as evidenced by his 13 goals and 23 assists in 47 games. But after significant knee injuries the past two seasons, there are questions about whether he will be able to keep up in the faster paced game.

KANE’S CALL

The move to acquire Kane from Buffalo at the trade deadline provided a major spark. He had nine goals and five assists in 17 games, providing needed speed and physicality on San Jose’s top line. That carried over to the first round when he had three goals and an assists in a sweep against Anaheim but Kane wasn’t nearly as effective against Vegas as he played through injuries. Now the Sharks have a decision to make whether to keep Kane or let him leave as a free agent. If he signs, they owe Buffalo a first-round pick in 2019. If he leaves, that pick becomes a second-rounder.

”Obviously I enjoy winning and coming here was a great opportunity for me to do that,” Kane said. ”I really, really, really enjoyed my time with this group of guys Vita Vea Jersey , and loved going to battle with these guys.”

STEPPING UP

The best development for the Sharks this season was the development of some younger players. Tomas Hertl looks like he could be a dominant power forward, Chris Tierney and Kevin Labanc are able playmakers, Timo Meier scored 21 goals at age 21, and Joakim Ryan is an ideal defensive partner for Brent Burns. Those players will be counted on to do even more in the future as the Sharks transition from players like Thornton, Pavelski and the departed Patrick Marleau to a new generation.

CAP ROOM

The Sharks head into the offseason with projected salary cap room of more than $15 million. While some of that could be used up by keeping Thornton or Kane, GM Doug Wilson also could use that money to target a top free agent like John Tavares of the New York Islanders. Wilson has been planning for that flexibility for years and now the question becomes how he will use it.

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Even as the Philadelphia 76ers exceeded expectations this season, those who have indeed trusted the process still could not have imagined the team’s quick ascension to the NBA’s elite.

Joel Embiid, for one, isn’t about to pump the brakes on what has been a whirlwind ride that has the 76ers heading into their Game 5 home matchup on Tuesday sporting a 3-1 lead over the visiting Miami Heat.

“A lot of people say we have a bright future,” said Embiid, whose 76ers host the Heat at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center. “But I think our time is now. We have a special team and I feel like now we have a pretty good chance to go forward.”

Speaking of the now: With their backs against the wall Cheap DJ Chark Jersey , the Heat are not flailing their arms wildly, looking for any target.

They are pointedly focused on the present: Game 5 and the 76ers.

“It’s not necessarily us against the world,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s us against the Philadelphia 76ers. We have to find a way to finish games. They’ve really nailed us in the fourth quarters of all four games, except the one we were able to pull away. We just have to do better. Through three quarters, we’ve been up. It’s going to require a full 48-minute game of our absolute best effort.”

Miami has been outscored by Philadelphia by an astounding 42 points in just the fourth quarters through four games. Even in the Heat’s 113-103 Game 2 win at Philadelphia, the 76ers still outscored Miami 28-27 in the fourth quarter.

In a roundabout way, that Game 2 loss — which snapped Philadelphia’s 17-game winning streak — actually gave 76ers coach Brett Brown some much-needed locker room material heading into the game.

“Everybody’s trying to break somebody’s spirit,” Brown said Monday. “It’s always the same thing. It happens on the other side of it. And I know (Spoelstra), who is a great coach, would be in his locker room saying, ‘All we got to do is win a game and come home.’

“They’re going to live in a really isolated M.J. Stewart Buccaneers Jersey , sort of roomed-in world of, ‘Let’s just win a game. We won a game last time we were here, and just come home and figure it out.’ You can see it.”

Knowing his team can close out a hungry opponent on Tuesday, Brown isn’t changing his message too much.

“My intention is not to speak anything into existence,” Brown said. “It’s all about trying help the team win. Like, we want to get better. We’re gonna. We’re going to go into Tuesday night and we’re going to get better. I believe that if we think like that, act like that, coach like that, then the habit becomes, I hope, we’re going to win.”

J.J. Redick Roquan Smith Bears Jersey , no stranger to heated playoff series, echoed his coach’s thoughts on Monday.

In Game 4, Redick led the 76ers with 24 points en route to a 106-102 win in a game that Philadelphia trailed by four after three quarters.

“You’re feeling each other out and then later on in the series you have to deliver a crushing blow,” Redick said. “You have to finish that. A team like Miami, their culture, their organization, their group of guys, they have fighters. They have warriors on their team. Every game in this series has been tough and there’s no indication that Game 5 will be different. It’s going to be a tough game.”

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